8 Months

Yesterday I was watching old (but not really that old) videos of Lizah and it brought a combination of sadness and deep joy to my heart. It's sad when you realize how permanent the passing of time is. It's cliche, but for a reason: savory every moment. I can't imagine what feelings those videos will bring in six years when my baby is going off to kindergarten. Hopefully I can remind myself of the beauty in each day often enough that I can live without great regret of how I viewed these days. I love this stage of life, I love being Lizah's mom for sure. But there are days when it takes more effort to focus on the positives and I find myself wishing for a simpler schedule that doesn't revolve around naps and bottle feedings. While those things do have a big impact on what we do, there are lots of ways that my/our independence is growing as Lizah gets older.

For example, grocery shopping is much easier now that she's sitting up by herself. I'm a very slow grocery shopper because I love to find great deals which means I hang out on my calculator in the cereal aisle to see which boxes of cereal will give me the best deal for dollars per ounce. By the way, you can totally get it for under 9 cents an ounce, easy, if you hit the right week! But not everybody is as dedicated to snipping Kellogg's coupons as I am, and for good reason. It's a stage of life thing, ha. I think she was bored by the time we got out to the car and I love how she kinda kicked back. 

I love how much she loves to play the piano. She bangs and I applaud and she bangs some more. Maybe if I teach her the c-scale she'll be composing in a few years?

Now that school is out we don't have our regular Friday mornings with Jane, but instead we do swim/park dates with kiddos from church and Lizah loves being with other littles.

We got a package in the mail from our favorite seamstress who sews for Cotton and Corduroy (and this is not a paid advertisement, but I dare you to click the link!). Even though Lizah was not being overly cooperative for the photo shoot, it's not hard to look cute in such a darling watermelon dress! Thanks, Hannah, it's going to be well worn this summer!

Time with cousins is the best! We spent Memorial Day working at Dad and Mom W's new place. Then a few weeks later the Lehman girls and some friends were together celebrating Kim's 30th on Lake Shafer.

Not sure how much of the blueberry muffin she actually ate but it sure was fun watching her dive in! Hoping this means she'll be a good cake smasher in a few months.

The weather has been interesting this year with how long it's stayed cool, but it's been perfect for her because I don't feel like she gets roasted every time we go outside. 

Baby development is fascinating and it's been so fun to watch her learn new skills. Before crawling she would rock on her hands and knees, then she had a few days of short planks and then pretty soon she was scooting around.

To continue the sleeping saga...now that I switched to formula we're on a pretty consistent schedule of bottles before naps and bedtime which I'm sure some would say is not a good habit but it works for us and so we're going with it. She typically naps between 3 and 4 hours between her morning and afternoon naps and usually gets up once in the night around 3 or 4 for a bottle. I feel rested and besides the limitations to having our days broken up with two long naps, it's a pretty comfortable groove we've found. Who knows how long it will last but nothing lasts long in the first year.

Back to looking at old pics, I was reminded how much her hemangioma has grown since birth. I don't think it appeared until several days after she was born and at first it was kind of like a birth mark. (Really it's basically a glob of blood vessels that will reabsorb over time.) Over the months the red part seems to stay fairly consistent in size but the bump underneath has certainly grown. As her hair has thinned out on the sides I hear more comments when we're out and about. Often people mistake it for a bruise, but I like to inform them that it was something she was born with. To me there is nothing less beautiful about Lizah because of her hemangioma. It's a part of her and although it will someday disappear, it's not a mistake, and I'd love her the same if it was on her nose.

I leave you with this picture. What a silly goober. We love seeing her personality continue to develop, she certainly has a sense of humor and has already started ignoring us. She gets a smirk when she's listening but not responding...here we go already.