Laina 8 months

My sweet, sweet baby on her 8 month birthday...

They don't come any cuter or sweeter than this baby!

The most fun development from Alaina at 8 months old is that she is starting to babble.  Just after she turned 8 months, she started saying "Dadadada" and now she also throws in "baba" and other little squeaks and squeals.  It's so fun to talk with her.

I'm not sure what the deal is with this little turkey but she still doesn't roll over.  She has the physical ability to but doesn't do it at all.  She has probably rolled less than 20 times in her whole life....which is weird for me because the older girls rolled 20 times a day at this age.

When she is on her tummy, she likes to creep around in a circle, she has recently started creeping backwards and moving around a little bit.  She doesn't cover a lot of ground but the other day she creeped about 5 feet away.

She is finally starting to eat her solid foods better.  She generally eats better in the morning, not sure if it is the time of day or the fact that she gets the sweet stuff at that time.  She typically only eats solids twice a day (trying to work up to 3) and about 2 ounces in the morning of fruit and 1 ounce in the afternoon of veggies.

She likes to move and shake more while she is sitting up now.  She likes to nod her head up and down like she is saying a big yes.  She will lean alllll the way forward and reach for something that she just can't quite grab.  Although she is showing these little signs of moving more, she is totally content to stay in whatever little spot I put her in.
Sleep is the same.  She sometimes gets up twice around 10 and 4 to eat and other times she will skip one of those two feedings.
Takes solid naps.  Still 3 naps a day....a typical nap schedule is something like 9:30-11, 1-2:30, 5-6.  Then goes to bed around 8.
Love her and she will be 9 months in the blink of an eye!

Wisconsin Dells

Highlights of the Wisconsin Dells trip...

- Our little family had a great time on the Wisconsin Dells trip.  Hopefully the others can say the same.  I really enjoyed that we were able to come and go from our room, to the pool area, with ease.  It made it easy to stick to schedules for the kids while also having a good time.

-Elsie loved the water park from the start.  I thought we were going to be able to go down water slides with the kids but we weren't able to for the most part.  We went to one water slide first where I went down and then waited for the girls to come down one by one.  Elsie had a great time.  Cora went down on her back and didn't love it.  She'd arrive at the bottom of the slide and go straight under water since she wasn't sitting up....this trend continued for each and every slide she went on.

-There were two bigger slides outside that you could sit in double tubes on and go down.  Elsie and I had a great time doing these together.  We probably did it at least 20-30 times.  We had little oooo and ahhh sounds that we made as we went down over a curve or through a tunnel.  Cora technically wasn't able to go on that one because her little bod couldn't fit on a tube by herself.  She did go down once with me on my lap though and liked it.

-The thrill ride water slide was hilarious.  You rode a tube straight down into a funnel....it felt like a water slide meets a roller-coaster.  I went down it first with Matthew and he was so scared.  I went again with my mom and sister....my mom squeezed her eyes shut and just screamed.  Then we went the sis-in-laws and sisters.  My final time was an illegal ride.  We were over the weight limit.  It was Matt, Paul, Sarah, and I...as we were getting funneled out, our tube started rocking side to side again....it freaked me out because it hadn't happened on any of the other times.

- I took the girls into the wave pool and sang songs about being out at sea, the loved this.

-Overall it was a fun and relaxing time.  We even stayed up late on two occasions, as adults, to play cards and enjoy each others company.  The earliest riser, Cora, stayed in a room with my parents so Matthew and I even got to sleep in a bit.  That was a treat.

Since we were enjoying the water park and each other's company, I didn't take too many pics....but here is what I got...

I took the girls to the Frykman room one morning so that the adults in our suite could sleep in a bit.  Paul decided to let all three big girls ride around on his back.

My parents took us out on a Duck boat ride.  It's a WWII vehicle that can move from water to land.  It was a fun little whole family moment.

The mini water slides for little tykes that Bella and Elsie loved...

Laina got to go swimming with me for the first time on this trip.  She enjoyed it!

This was Cora's zone.  They had a baby wading pool and little sprinklers here.  It's where Cora felt the most safe and comfortable and had the most fun.

Hanging out with Grandpa...

Cousins all together after Vani's birthday celebration!