A Growing Family: EIGHT MONTHS

EIGHT MONTHS

What a difference one month can make. Morgan learned how to crawl and pull herself into standing and is no longer a lap baby. She switched from a scooting backwards type of crawl that was very effective for her to an up on all fours, belly off the ground, all out crawl in a matter of hours! She is so happy now that she can crawl and get her toys, look out the windows, and most importantly get herself right next to me. We are hoping the spit-up subsides quickly because now that she is on the move I am finding spit-up throughout the house (including my purse!). She is doing better with the spitting up, however any amount can be frustration. We are still transitioning to the sippy cups. She will drink about 3 oz, go play, drink 2 oz, go play, and maybe if we are lucky she will drink the last oz. We usually have to mix the last oz or so with some rice, oatmeal or whole wheat so the formula is not wasted. She will not take the sippy cup when she is in the nursery at church or when there is any type of excitement around her. We attempt to feed her 6 oz of formula every 4 hours with baby food in between if she is still hungry. We are still giving her about 2-3 oz of formula with rice cereal and a 5-6 oz bottle before bed. She continues to have difficulty with sleeping during her naps and at night. We made great progress between Thanksgiving and when we left for our trip; however, I know we will be back to square one when we return. She did actually sleep though the night from 7 PM to 6ish and had a few days of 1to 1 1/2 hour naps. We will see what happens on the trip. She loves to talk although we only understand Ba-Ba and Da-Da. She is finally starting to grow taller and her 6 month clothes are getting small. Morgan continues to have teething symptoms; however, no teeth have emerged.

The Thanksgiving holiday was one of the best for our family and certainly the best for Morgan. Carl's parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece came to Panama City. Morgan was a little shocked when she woke up from her nap and there were new people in her house however she warmed up to everyone quickly. We had a feast and thanks to my total lack of knowledge on how much turkey I would need to feed 7 people-Morgan will be eating turkey for lunch and dinner for a while. To put the error in perspective I bought a 19 pound turkey AND a 12 pound turkey! If you remember the picture of my freezer when it was full of breast milk-well its almost that full of frozen turkey. It is wonderful when family can get together for the holiday.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and the start of our trip were spent shopping, attending Christmas parties, and relaxing. I started the month by running the inaugural Run for the Red Fish Half Marathon at Pier Park on December 5th. It was very cold (45 degrees) but sunny. I started out slow because I hadn't run even one day in the month of November so I was afraid I wasn't going to finish. I was very pleased with my pace at the turn around so I started running a little faster and ended with a decent time considering the lack of training (1:56-8:53 min/mile pace). We hosted the Christmas party for our Sunday school class and were very excited that almost everyone in the class was able to attend. We had a total of 19 people. I also hosted a girl's night out for the other Sunday school class we still do social events with. That night we had dinner at Fridays and then we went to our house to watch Four Christmases. The guys got together during the day and had lunch and watched football. I also had a Christmas party for my MOPS group and a scrapbook get together at a friend's house to finish a scrapbook for the Sunday school leaders at St. Andrews. I did Christmas shopping during every errand I ran and am very proud of the unique ideas I have for gifts this year. I took my Mom and Mother-In-Law to see the Nutcracker Ballet in Clearwater for their Christmas gift. We all enjoyed the ballet and it was nice to spend a day together. We started the holiday trip in Ocala on December 17th.