Eight Months Old!

Miss Jane is eight months old today!

She is growing and getting more active all the time. She is getting to be an expert at the army crawl, for example, which is really fun to watch. The crawling plus the advanced pincer grasp means that I have to vacuum all the time now, or else Janey Beth finds all kinds of little treasures in the carpet.

She's pretty ticklish, too, so all of us--including her brother--love to tickle her. And the child loves to be tickled. Her laugh is so great.

One funny little idiosyncrasy of Jane's is that she wiggles her feet when she's excited, especially when she is eating. What's interesting is that Noah always held his arms up in the air: when he was being held, when he was eating, even often when he was sleeping. Those arms were in the air, and his wrists would rotate so that his hands were always moving. Well, Jane has her own corresponding little thing, too, with those rotating ankles and wiggling feet. Funny girl.

One of the things that entertains Jane is clapping. For a while, she's liked to grab Nathan's thumbs and press his hands together so that he claps, and just the other day, she started clapping her own hands. It just makes your day brighter when someone you love is so exhilarated by something simple like learning to clap.

Until about a week ago, we fed her all of her meals in the Bumbo, which is so darn handy. But we had to move her to the high chair, because she has gotten so long and limber that she was nearly tipping herself over--she'd see something she was interested in behind her, dig her heels in, twist around, and reach an insanely long distance for such a little person.

Over the past few weeks, Jane has started eating a few finger foods. Her favorites are Gerber puffs, which are great for beginners because they melt in your mouth. The other night, we tried peas, too, and she took to those wonderfully. Basically, she just thinks it's great fun to feed herself, and she gets really excited every time she gets the chance to do it.

Here we go!
Those little peas are hard to pick up, even when you have little fingers.

Mmm, tasty!

Success is sweet!

We all sure do love that Jane Elisabeth.