8 months

8 months old and growing so fast!  Miss Raya has officially reached the age of learning something new every day!  She is talking non-stop these days... and loves to say "bugh."  In just he past day she has started to go from the sitting position to the crawling position and vice-versa.  I think it'll be any day now that she starts crawling.  She love, love, loves to stand against furniture and loves to ride on her new puppy she got for Christmas.  She is starting to get very attached to Mommy.  Often if I leave the room or her sight it results in tears.  :(

Sleep is starting to get a little better (knock on wood).  We had a very, very rough week or 2... I can't even remember because we were/are so sleep deprived.  We're talking a couple of nights of only sleeping being held or waking up every hour.  Easton also wanted to join in on the fun and was getting out of bed at least 1x a night and coming in our room.  Safe to say Jake and I were going on like 3 hours of sleep at most.  We decided to slowly start introducing formula in hopes that it would fill her up more at night.  So, we have started 1 formula bottle during the night.  It does seem to be helping a little and I've cut down to only pumping 3x/day.  I feel like I've gained hours of my life back...oh wait... that's because I have!  My goal has always been to make it to 9 months before completely switching over to formula.  Looks like I may reach that goal!  Amazing, seeing as though I made it only 2 months with Easton.  It's crazy how much guilt I feel with giving formula.  Even one small bottle a day.  How did I ever manage to switch Easton fully so young?  I do remember feeling sooo guilty back then though too.

Raya has amazing fine motor skills.  We've recently started calling her, "swiper."  If you've ever seen Dora you know why.  Swiper always takes things from others... as does  Raya!  :)  She will swipe things out from right under you in no time.  Always taking Easton's cars he's playing with or pretty much anything that anyone is using or playing with.  She's a quick one!

She has also weaned herself from 3 naps a day to 2.  She's pretty consistant at having a 9am nap and 1pm nap.  Which is PERFECT... because then both kids take afternoon naps at the same time.  This gives me just enough time to shower and pump.  Some day I'll have a clean house again and won't need toothpicks to hold open my eyes but for now my priorities are to hang with my babes :)

Love this one 

They look thrilled....

Some random pictures I forgot to post from the past couple of months

Grumpy pants.  So funny because she's usually all smiles

Tired from jumping

Drawing

Sibling love

Selfie

Auntie Mary

Santa at Easton's school

Trucks are fun

Watching big brother play outside.... trying to get out of her play pen to get to him

She loves riding on her new puppy.  Look at those eyes ... she's sweet as pie. 

Trying so hard to pull herself up on everything

Standing against furniture now

Have you ever met a child afraid of this?  Well, now you have. The very sight of it brings her to tears!  So strange!

Trying to crawl to big brother (we have to call him that... not Easton...."I'm the big brother")

Holy cuteness!

Putting on my make-up for the day! 

1st Christmas

Raya was a huge fan of Christmas.  Her absolute favorite thing in the whole world is paper.  So of course there was nothing better than tons and tons of wrapping paper and tissue paper to rip, crinkle and take a quick bite of when nobody was looking.  She did great opening up the presents --- but then was not at all interested in what was inside.  She could have spent all day playing with the paper.  Christmas at my parents was so mild that the kids had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and played football outside!

Her first tooth finally poked through!  For real this time!!!  The lower front left tooth popped through on Saturday.  The kids were at Jakes parents for the night and I felt her mouth on Saturday for teeth and then again Sunday when we picked them up and sure-enough... it FINALLY made it's way through!  woohoo!

She's starting to change so quickly now.  She's always trying to pull herself up and really wants to crawl... just can't quite get the hang of it. This stage is so bittersweet.  It's so fun to watch them learn so fast but at the same time makes me sad thinking about how fast she's growing up.  Gives me baby fever!  Yes, I realize how crazy that sounds because she's still a baby.... but the itty bitty baby part goes by so so fast!  And nobody get your hopes up.... there's not another baby!

Typical baby with bow on head picture

Glimpse into 2 minutes of Raya's life

Gma and Gpa Hemmah
Oscar (3 weeks), Raya (7 months), Easton (3 years)

Raya (7 months), Gretta (5 years), Easton (3 years) Stella (6 years)

quick photo update

Practicing crawling

Loves playing with her new doll house - Thanks Auntie Mary and Uncle Eddie

So scared of the ducky bath tub.  We had to put it away.  Just looking at it would make her cry.

Funny glasses from Mary and Eddie's wedding

7 Months

I'm pretty late with Raya's 7 month post.  We've been so busy lately that I just haven't had a moment to update.  She had her 2nd flu shot at 7 months and she weighed 17 pds 4 ounces... she gained a whopping pound in a month!   It's funny that 1 pound in a month seems like a lot; when I can gain 3 pounds in a day!

Raya still is not a good night sleeper.  Jake and I are walking zombies.  I imagine one of these days we'll say it's time to try to cry-it-out but as of now we just can't get ourselves to do that.  Maybe when she starts eating real food better so we know she's not hungry at night.  Which brings me to the next 7 month topic... food.  She still doesn't like baby food either.  I bought a little thing that resembles a pacifier that you fill with food and she will eat it a little better out of that.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks she'll take to eating better.  She's also starting to roll and scoot around the floor if she wants something out of reach.  Today she held herself up on all fours for a second and occasionally she'll stand next to furniture helping her a little.  But other than that she's pretty content with sitting in one spot and playing.  It's a pretty nice change of pace from always-on-the-go Easton.  Looking back at Easton when he was this age and they are completely different!

When Raya get's excited, it's the funniest thing ever.  I really need to get it on video.  She makes a crazy face with her mouth wide open and growls all while her legs go stick straight and she twirls her feet in circles.  It's hilarious!

I'm almost certain she can say, "hi" and has been for a month. Otherwise, no other 'real' words yet.

She continues to LOVE Charlie and Easton makes her laugh daily.  All he needs to do is talk and she bursts out laughing.

Auntie Mary and Uncle Eddie got married last weekend - so we had a wonderful time celebrating their love.  I was the maid of honor, Easton was the ring bearer (pulled the aisle runner down) and Jake was the usher (filled in for Mason who was sick and helped Easton pull the aisle runner).  We were all so honored to be a part of their special day.

First time seeing each other.  Such a special moment. 

My brother is soooo loud! 

This is her when she's excited!  It's even better in a video.  

Always going after the puppy

Mrs. Mullin

Love this - so much! 

Raya is not quite sure about this