8 Months Old & Semi-Freak OUT by ME.

My sweet girl is 8 months old! I just can't believe it. I have a little tendon issue in my wrist, so I won't be typing much (so sorry, faithful readers). A quick little update on her my beautiful daughter and very best friend:

Says "mama" occasionally!! YIPPYYYY!!! Mostly it's "ma" or "mm" or "boogwoohdblah", but I know what she means.
Crawls ... it began with a backward worm thing and now she will get into the plank position and creep forward. We're working on this one. She improves every day.
Has 2 cute little teeth.
Sucks at night lately (sleeping has been an issues lately).
Loves finger foods and enjoys feeding herself.
Laughs like CRAZY at her silly daddy.
Still loves baths and splashing and playing with (in the form of chomping on) her animals and letters.
Has stranger anxiety and is terrified of certain people ... like my dad. Poor guy barely gets a stare down before she starts bawling.


Now for the semi freak out part. If you are a true blog-stalker, you will have noticed that I blocked all readers for about 3 hours yesterday. This is because I all of a sudden got 7 emails about comments on posts from years back. I FREAKED OUT and thought I was being crazy-stalked, like almost murdered. You are now pleased to see that I have re opened my blog for your viewing pleasure. This is because I could not sleep because I was thinking about being murdered, and I came down to inspect a little further of my murderers, who turned out to be fellow graduate students. I see now that I am probably safe, and again trust the world. AMEN! If you haven't noticed my fan base under the "Graduate School Barbie" post from 2010, please explore it. I'm expecting an email from Matt Lauer inviting me to be a guest any day now. It's been fun reading all the posts from grad students and brings back fond memories of my grad school days. I mean, I've been officially done with all things studying for 14 days now, so I can barely remember what it was like.

I have been listening to The Help on my iPod - yes, months after the movie has been out, we do not move fast here, people - and I am in love. It's so wonderful. It has been a life saver as little Hazel becomes the HAZELMONSTER in the night. Mostly she wakes up and wants to be rocked, so I rock her for 30 min to 2 hours, whenever she falls asleep deep enough to stay asleep for more than 10 minutes. Not sure if it's teeth or Satan - but it's been going on for a bit. However, now that I have my beloved book to listen to, I bolt up with a smile when that little whine comes across the baby monitor and I can get back to snuggling my peanut and listening to my book. It's almost finished, but have no fears - I have reserved a Jodi Picoult book on CD (Sing You Home) to be picked up tomorrow.

Fall zipped by, but we sure enjoyed it! Haze loves anything that crunches, so the leaves were a hit. Now we have a layer of snow. I never minded the snow or winter, but trying to hold a round girl in a puffy coat while wearing gloves and a puffy coat is nearly impossible. Also, it is too cold to run or walk with the little one outside, and we haven't done so since the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with elementary cooking. I'm pretty much over this cold already and rip roaring ready for spring. Thank goodness we have the mall to power walk in.

Hazel loves the Children's Museum here in town. Here we are playing away:

We also have a Christmas tree! I wanted to begin a tradition of cutting down a tree with our little family, but C.J. talked me out of it. After all, walking out in the cold snow holding a slippery bundled baby, not to mention (observing) the whole chopping/dragging thing sounds more like torture than tradition. Maybe next year. Probably not.

Our Christmases began with a 3 day adventure in St. Peter with C.J. extended family. Tons of fun seeing everyone! Here is Hazel meeting Santa for the first time. She didn't even cry - I was so proud!


I'll conclude this excessively long post with some BIG NEWS - I have passed the NBCOT ... ANNNNDDDD (PAUSE FOR EFFECT) I HAVE A JOB!! Woohoo!!