Happy 8 months!

I can not believe that our little Allie is eight months old today! It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but at the same time she seems so much older than her eight months. I blame her sisters. She adores them and wants to be wherever they are, and do whatever they do, so she's found ways to keep up. She crawls at an incredibly fast pace and can be tricky to catch sometimes. She can stand and cruise along furniture, and her newest feat...she climbs! So far I've caught her climbing the dishwasher door when it was open, the stool in the bathroom, and the kids toy kitchen. She didn't actually get very far with the kitchen, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I feel like I put my sweet snugly baby to bed one night and she woke up this little girl with opinions and the desire to express them!

Allison now has six teeth. Finally. It seemed like a very long two weeks waiting for the top front ones to break through. Fingers crossed we get a break because teething is proving to be tough for her. She's also discovered how to use those teeth. Go figure. After she got the bottom ones she thought it was funny stuff to bite me while we were nursing. I could always tell when she was about to do it because she would get this mischievous look on her face right before she'd do it. Needless to say she was pretty hungry for a few days. That's all it took for her to figure it out. It's amazing how quickly we can learn how not to do something when our food source gets cut off :)

She has recently discovered the joy that comes from knocking down her sisters block towers and the chaos that comes after she does this. The girls have always been very patient with her, but apparently that patience has its limits. I have never actually seen them get mad at Allie before. I have to admit, though, it is pretty funny to watch. Allie will be playing on one side of the playroom and the girls will be on the other building towers. Once Allie sees that a tower has been completed she'll hurry across the room and knock it down. However, she can't just knock it down, she has to make sure all sign of a tower are gone! After knocking over the tower she then scatters the blocks all over the place by sweeping her arms back and forth. I think that's what really makes them so mad, she doesn't just knock over the towers, she has to destroy them!

She also has discovered the joy of eating! A girl after my own heart :) She will eat anything! I had been limiting it to just fruits and veggies, but then we started just giving her whatever we were eating at that meal. The other night we had salmon, brussel sprouts and zucchini. Melody and Katie barely managed one bite of everything while Allie inhaled it! She has yet to make the funny baby faces that come when they taste something they don't like because she's liked everything so far. I even gave her a lemon wedge. She tried to suck it dry, but Jared ruined her fun and took it away. Something about it being mean. Whatever. I hope she keeps this up. It's nice to not have to coax a child to eat the food I've made :)

She loves to look at books, but she almost never tries to rip or eat them! She just looks at them. It really is the oddest thing I've ever seen. I'm wondering if it's because so often she sees everyone else looking at books so she gets how it's supposed to go. We have the kids books on a bookshelf behind the couch and she just loves to go back there, empty off a shelf and then sit and look at all the  books. I just love watching her do this. Don't even mind cleaning up the giant mess.

She eats apples and carrots and a whole variety of foods that I'm sure would make her doctor cringe. I gave her this apple slice at Wendy's one day because it seemed like a better choice than a french fry. I about died when she started taking tiny bites out of it and ate almost the entire thing. I guess having six teeth makes it slightly easier, but I honestly didn't think she would eat like that. I guess I figured she would suck on it like a normal baby. It's becoming quite clear to me that I need to throw the term normal out the window, because Allie is redefining it.

I'm just giddy to get up to Utah this summer so everyone can meet our sweet girl! We'll be there the first two weeks in July, no firm dates yet, but we're getting closer. Jared and I are having a hard time agreeing on my proposed time line. Someday he'll learn it's easier to just go with it! :)