This little lady is now eight months old:
And, goodness, we have sure lucked out to have her. She is such a SWEET baby (which I must tell her often because several times every day Reed is in her face, his little voice an octave higher than usual as he says "Hi, sweet go-whoa (girl).") She is nearly always content and so quick to smile: sometimes I get her out of bed at 10 or 11 PM to feed her and even as she blinks away sleep and squints from the light she smiles.
Speaking of light, Holland sneezes anytime the sun is in her eyes: whether in her car seat or outside, it's always consistent.
She has not yet met a food she doesn't like. I remember Reed at this age making the most humorous faces with new foods but we don't get that with Holland at all: instead we get screams and sobs when we stop putting food in her mouth. :) Smoothies, applesauce, yogurt, eggs, potatoes, carrots, bananas, cheese, apples, blueberries - anything goes. She is simply delighted with whatever she eats. In fact, Reed is trying more things now because he sees her so happily eating them, which is a win for us all! I am still nursing Holland but the frequency and duration have dropped quite a bit.
In fact, nursing Holland deserves its own point. Ha! She is such a funny girl when she nurses: she's easily distracted, which means I have to feed her somewhere quiet or she simply can't focus enough to eat (eating on the go, in the van, at someone's house, etc. simply don't work). While nursing she does some pretty funny things with her arms: sometimes she flails them wildly, sometimes she pinches and scratches my arm, often she just reaches for and holds whatever she finds, etc. I most frequently feed her in the glider in her room and after she's done she always leans her head back until it gets stuck between my leg and the edge of the chair, at which point she rolls over so her belly is on my leg while her head is still stuck. It's such an odd, but consistent, routine and I worry one of these days she's going to roll right off my lap.
Holland's first tooth poked through on October 12 and the second came through on October 23, so she now has her two little bottom teeth. Nothing else has come through yet!
If I had to choose one word to describe Holland right now it would probably be curious. She wants to grab, hold, and eat everything she can get her hands on. It's hard to read to her because she cries if she can't grab and hold the book. She tips over while sitting because she's reaching for something that's caught her eye. She looks up for noises, reaches for whatever she sees, and is not really content to just sit - she has to be doing something.
Probably driven by her curiosity, she is getting pretty close to crawling. She hasn't yet gotten up on all fours, but she will lay on her belly and wriggle her body forward until she can reach what she's going for. She makes her way across a room pretty efficiently now (by rolling) and I'm sometimes surprised to leave a room and come back after just a minute to find her 8 feet away. She fell off the couch last night for the first time (our fault for leaving her there.... we felt awful) but hasn't yet fallen down the stairs.
Her routine of going to sleep is so funny. We have largely abandoned swaddling her arms. Instead, I typically swaddle her from her chest down with a swaddle blanket. Then I hand her her saranoni blanket (a gift from my sister), which she grabs with both hands, and pulls up to the top of her head. She then puts her feet straight up in the air, rolls onto her side, and puts her feet between the slats in her crib. She does that exact thing probably 95% of the time when she goes to sleep.
This girl still loves her big brother. More than once I have been telling him to give her some space when I hear her giggling at whatever he's doing. He pushes her over, lifts her head to sit her back up, rolls her like a log, lays on her, sits in her lap, kicks with her (which often results in actually kicking her), takes her toys, gives her toys, kisses her, licks her, and just overwhelmingly loves her. Some of our tenderest moments are listening to him talk with her: "What's happened, Han?" "Han, look - covered dump truck right here." "Mommy, Han dropped it. Get it." "Deep bref, Han (when she's crying)." Every morning when she wakes up and starts talking Reed shouts, "Han awake!!" and zooms to her room, where he climbs up to talk with her in her crib. I also just melt when he, in his baby voice, says "Hi, sweet sistow" or "Hi, sweet go-whoa." Be still my heart.
Reed still typically calls her Han (rhymes with "on") or Hanuh, but he can clearly say Holland and sometimes calls her by her actual name too. Actually, we taught him that her full name is Holland Eileen Morris and he calls her that with some frequency. :) TJ and I most often call her Han, Holland, or Sister. I also call her Sweet Girl, Sweet Sister, Lady Lover (no clue why), Little Lady, and Munch.
A few other things that come to mind.
Holland:
- Loves kicking her feet on her mattress. Well, she loves kicking her feet anywhere/anytime. I often hear pounding in the house, caused by her feet hitting whichever surface she's laying on.
- Kicks like crazy when someone walks into her room while she's in her bed.
- Has the cutest blonde hair that - after several haircuts - has really filled in and is now starting to grow out.
- Talks like a grandpa all the time.
- Sucks on her teeth and sticks her cute tongue out in such a darling way.
- Pulls her headbands down to suck on the bow (sometimes until she gags herself and then spits up on them).
- Changes outfits 3-4 times a day due to making a mess while eating or spitting up.
- Is pretty darn ticklish and especially laughs when I bite her sides.
- Is a mediocre sleeper. She usually does a 6-ish hour stretch, but I am almost waking up at some point when I'd rather be sleeping to feed her (usually around 4 AM). We tried waiting her out but after two nights of her just talking and talking and talking for more than an hour I decided it's faster to feed her for ten minutes and go back to sleep. Ha!
- Is a little trooper as we are almost always on-the-go during her morning nap. She isn't one to fall asleep just anywhere (unless she is completely exhausted) so usually gets a very abbreviated morning nap in her car seat during an uninterrupted stretch driving.
- Has some stinkin' adorable, chubby cheeks. Oh, I love them. I kiss them so much.
- Still really adores her daddy. She lights up when she sees him or is with him.
- Loves bathing! When I put her in the bath she kicks until I am covered with water. :) On vacation last week we had a huge jetted tub and I put her in with Reed (he LOVES when she joins him) and she laid right down in the water, no hesitation at all. She seems to love being in the water.
- Sure likes her binky. It is most often clipped to her when she'll need it (at night, during naps, in her car seat), and she knows just how to grab it and plop it into her mouth.
- Isn't much of a cuddler. In fact, after I nurse her when I go to bubble her she pushes herself away from me by putting her hands on my shoulders and just pushing back. Given this tendency, I try to just hold her whenever she'll let me - if she falls asleep right after or while nursing I sit and just rock her and hold her close.
- Does love hugs and - I've recently discovered - tight hugs, where I have both my arms around her and pull her tight.
- Wears size 3 diapers (for several months now), 12 month pajamas, 18 month dresses, and needs to bump up on pants from 12 months to 18 months (I've had some 12 month pants that will no longer fit over her cute, chubby thighs. :)
- Was a darling little ladybug for Halloween.
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| She can't actually stand yet - we propped her against the wall with her knees locked while I stood just barely outside the frame to catch her if she fell. :) |
Gosh, we just love and adore this sweet girl. I often look at her and wonder how we got so lucky to get her in our family. She is such a happy baby, busy but content, and fills all our lives and hearts with so much joy. Reed, TJ, and I are all over the moon that she's ours.
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