Annika is 8 months old

Annika is now 8 months old! It is unreal how fast my baby has grown into an actual person with her own thoughts, opinions, and voice. She learned quickly that the most important word in her vocabulary would be da de. I am already wrapped tightly around her and she doesn't even have to say my name. Dad's are a little harder and so saying his name has won her the prize of having Daddy's full attention. (Talking runs in our family and you must be adept at it to belong.) She says da de all the time to get Cameron's attention.

Annika also loves music. Anytime Cameron whistles (not me because my whistles are not musical,) she dances to it. I would love to get video and will have to sometime but I am not able to put that on my blog... yes I blame the computer once again.

She is also on the move. Her army crawl is perfected and she can crawl where ever she wants. She is also capable of a couple of "steps" of regular crawling before she gives in and goes down to what is still faster. I put up the baby gate to celebrate her 8 month birthday.

She loves her sisters and watches them wishing she could get up and run and dance too. Ali danced with her the other day and she was laughing the whole time. She also has become interested in Sierra and crawls over to her and then pulls her ears or fur. Sierra isn't too intersted in Annika but knows better than to complain. We have taught Sierra to move out of the way because Annika is in charge.

Annika graduated from the infant car seat to the convertible car seat that is still facing backwards. She also had to graduate to sitting up in the shopping carts when shopping. At costco Annika got very tired and was falling asleep while sitting up. She kept laying over on Ashling. I laid her all the way down on Ashling and Ashling held her while she slept. (I know I should have took a picture but I didn't.)

The last thing that Annika has decided is that she loves to be home. She isn't too sure of the rest of the world and for sure wants to be in her own bed when sleeping. She does not sleep well anymore unless she is in her own crib. This month has been quite fussy and I think I have gotten less sleep than anytime since she was 3 weeks old. I hope that trend ends soon!

We love Annika and can't imagine life without her.

Post-edit: Last night she slept all night... and I loved it. I exercised today and everyone is much happier. Thanks Annika!