Stella Baylee- 8 months old: April 24th 2011
My Stella Baylee turned 8 months old on Easter Sunday! I know I say this every month, but I just cannot believe how fast my baby girl is growing up. It seriously brings tears to my eyes just thinking that she is going to be a year old in 4 months. Stella’s first Easter was a lot of fun. Unfortunately Troy had to work, but Stella and I went to church and she wore her beautiful purple Easter dress. She only made it through half of Sacrament before she needed to be changed and then she peed on her dress :) luckily I brought a back up dress, still just as cute! After church we headed up to grandma and grandpa’s house for Easter lunch. We had pork roast, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, broccoli with cheese sauce, deviled eggs, rolls and cottage cheese with pineapple. It was delicious. Stella even had some: she tried rolls and mashed potatoes…YUM! Auntie Ashley and Uncle Cody came over as well and we had a wonderful dinner with visiting. Ashley just found out she’s pregnant…so Stella will have two cousins this year! Auntie Brooke is pregnant with a baby boy and due Sept 21st and Auntie Ashley is due on Dec 14th.
Stella's first Easter basket
Stella's first Easter Sunday dress
Stella's back up Easter dress ;)
Stella has grown so much in the last month, oh where to begin! First, I was trying to think of what nicknames we have been calling Stella and the only one that has really stuck is “Chunky Monkey” or just “Monkey”. Stella has chubby cheeks and chubby legs and is overall a little “chunky” baby and one day I started calling her “My Chunky Monkey” and it just stuck. We really haven’t used any other nicknames.
I have no idea how much she weighs right now, but if I could guess I’d say around 17 lbs…maybe 18?? She weighed 15 lbs 15 oz at her 6mo appt. She can still fit in some of her 3-6mo clothes, but just barely. She can also fit in most of her 6mo clothes from Carters. She does fit perfectly in her 6-9mo clothes and some of her 9mo clothes from Carters are almost too small. I have a big girl but I love her to death!
"Just Do It!"
Stella is eating a whole jar of stage one food and has now branched out to other types. She has tried chicken & veggies, apples & blueberries, apples & prunes, prunes and turkey & veggies. She is still a great eater. She has a fruit mixed with oatmeal in the morning and a vegetable mixed with rice cereal in the evening. Stella has even starting feeding herself. One day she just grabbed the spoon and shoved it in her mouth. She will feed herself about 3-4 bites and then she just wants to play with the spoon. Stella also made her very first sour face and it was with real bananas that were mashed up. I got it on video and it was so funny. She is also still drinking 6 oz of formula about every 3-4 hours. Stella has also tried some other non-baby foods such as: mashed potatoes, rolls, tuna and noodles. I wrote down a list from babycenter.com of the 10 best foods for babies and one of them is mandarin oranges. I bought a couple cans but I haven’t had her try them yet. Stella still loves her puffs and has now mastered picking them up individually with her thumb and index finger and getting them into her mouth. I am so proud! I cheer her on each time :)
Stella is also talking a lot; I would say more than she was last month. She is now saying “BaBaBaBa” it’s so cute! We also started this game where I’ll make a “roaring” sound and then randomly switch to blowing raspberries and she mimics right with me. She loves to make roaring sounds and really gets into it. Overall, she is a big talker and will talk all the time. Stella still loves her binky. We try not to give it to her too much.
Daddy and Stella
Stella and Mommy
She still loves her toys. I would say her favorite toy is her rattle. She loves the sound it makes and she’ll bang it as hard as she can on anything. She loves to play with our cell phones and I just so happened to find a pink play cell phone. She doesn’t like this one as much. I’m thinking because it doesn’t light up. Stella’s favorite thing to play with on Troy is his ear. I have no idea why, but if his ear is anywhere within reach, she’ll just start playing with it! It’s so funny. Stella is waiving her arms about quite a bit now. It almost looks like she’s waiving, but I know she’s not. She is also quite the grinner. She smiles a lot and LOVES to laugh. She will laugh at pretty much anything. Stella loves to be tickled and she just has the cutest laugh. I love to hear it. My favorite thing to do to make her laugh is when I’m changing her diaper I’ll take the wet wipe and wipe it under her chin and under her armpits and she just goes nuts! She is also very ticklish on her inner thighs. She has now learned how to put her foot in her mouth! When she’s lying down she’ll lift up her legs and grab a hold of her foot and try and stuff it in her mouth. It’s so funny!
Stella is still teething, but no teeth yet. I bought her a new teething ring that has ridges on it which she seems to like. She’s not drooling as much but I can tell she’s in pain on some days. The week before she turned 8mo she was really cranky from her teething, but has seemed to settle down now. I wouldn’t be surprised if a tooth popped up in the next month. Stella still loves bath time. She had her first bath in the real bathtub. She didn’t react like I thought she would by splashing. She just kind of sat in there and played with her toys. I’ve only given her a bath in there once, her tub in the sink is just easier right now.
Stella's first time at the park: 5/6/2011
I also gave Stella her first Mohawk! It was just darling, she has a little bit of curl and when you put a headband with a bow on her it just looks even cuter. Stella is starting to stay on her tummy a little bit more than before. We just have to distract her with a toy. She is getting closer and closer to rolling from her back to her tummy, but not yet. We’ve been working with her getting her in crawling position and are hoping that she’ll be crawling in the next month. She loves to stand and we’ll stand her up against stuff that she can hold on to and she has a ball with it. Stella is getting better at lifting herself up when she’s lying down. If she’s somewhat propped up, she can lift herself all the way up into sitting position.
Stella absolutely loves Bentley still. Every time he is around she just lights up and gets the biggest grin on her face. Auntie Ashley has a dog now named Millie and Stella goes nuts around her. Millie is really hyper right now because she is a puppy and when she runs around Stella will just laugh and laugh. Stella is sleeping better, she will still wake up at least once in the middle of the night usually around 4, sometimes it’s around 2 and sometimes if we’re lucking she won’t wake up at all.
Stella has also mastered drinking out of her sippy cup! She can also hold her bottle when she’s lying down. She doesn’t like to most of the time, but when she’s in the mood she will. She is still learning how to hold her sippy cup, she can’t quite do it because she drinks it sitting up and she doesn’t quite know how to lift her arms up in that position. However, she is a strong little girl! She can pick up her thick block pale that’s pretty heavy and she also picks up her wipes box. Anything she can get her hands on, she’ll try and pick it up and sometimes succeeds. Stella is very good at entertaining herself. She can just sit and play with her blocks by herself for maybe 10-15 min and then she’ll notice that no one is there and she’ll want company. She is getting more attached to Troy and I. When we are around groups of people that she doesn’t know and someone else is holding her she’ll start to cry and reach out of us. It’s really cute! Speaking of which, she has started reaching up to get out of her car seat and her jumperoo.
Grandma still watches Stella 2-3 times a week and she just loves it. Stella is definitely attached to my mom, they both have a lot of fun together and my mom just adores Stella. I set two goals to do with Stella every night: read at least one book and to pray. So far I’ve done well. I feel it’s very important to read early in life and I want to make sure I’m doing that. I also want to practice praying with Stella so she’ll learn how to do it early on.
Some of the things Stella doesn’t like are: touching her head a lot. I don’t know why, but if you try and massage her head too much she gets angry. Once Stella has started feeding herself, if you take away the spoon from her she gets mad. She doesn’t like to be in a room alone for too long; she loves to be around people. Those are really the only things I can think of. Stella is just a very happy baby and very easy going. She will still only cry if she’s hungry, tired or needs a diaper change. Along with those, she will also cry if her gums are really bothering her now that she’s teething more.
Troy and I are so very blessed to have Stella in our lives and we feel even more blessed that she is such a good baby. We honestly rarely have any problems with her. She is so happy and loveable and just so fun to be around. I can’t imagine my life without her and I just want to be around her every minute of the day. We love you Stella Baylee!!!
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