Alice (8.5 months)

A month or so ago, Alice started pulling herself up to things.  Boy was that a game changer.  We finally got her into a good sleeping pattern and then everything changed.  Now, if she wakes up in the night, she crawls over to the corner closest to the door, pulls herself up in her crib and just cries.  I know she can get down now, but to date, she hasn't laid back down after crying there ever.  I'll go in now and then and lay her back down and rub her back for a bit, but that has gone on for hours without her being able to put herself back to sleep.  She went for three hours like that once.  She'll figure it out again eventually... right?

The poor girl is also teething.  Her fourth is just barely about to break through.  Maybe that's why she doesn't like anyone else right now.  Our smiley girl, has developed a little stranger danger.
Also, while we're ragging on Ali, she bites... ALL. THE. TIME.  And she slaps me when she nurses.   It's only when she nurses on the right side, but she does it almost every time.  She slaps my chest hard over and over the whole time she's drinking.  If I want her to nurse to sleep, I usually nurse her on the left side, so she doesn't keep herself awake with all the slapping.

She's good at feeding herself cheerios or bananas, and that is a HUGE help.  She eats everything we give her and I often wonder how much she would eat if we just kept handing it to her.

She's a handful at church now and a busy little baby at home.  I frequently catch her grabbing handfuls of dirt from the plant, climbing the stairs, throwing things in the toilet or unraveling the toilet paper.  She might be a little stinker these days, but we're so crazy about her.  She's absolutely adorable, ultra-smiley, and gives me the best hugs when I rescue her from whatever she's gotten herself into.  We just adore her.