Hibou: 8 Months

Hibou turned 8 months old on Monday. 

Monday also marked 2 full weeks with her little helmet.  I have lots of cute pictures of her in her helmet, and I intend to do a dedicated helmet-post at some point. But, like most of my intended posts these days, it will be much delayed.   For now, I shall just say, that I don't hate the helmet as much as I thought I would. I thought I would take her helmet off for her monthly pictures cause I wouldn't want to document it more than neccesary.  But, I think its kind of cute, so helmet-pictures it is!

Hibou at 8 months - voila!

For comparison, here is Hibou at 7 months.  And Papillon at 8 months.

At 8 months, Hibou....

....doesn't sleep.  Blarg. Something happened. Maybe it's teething. Maybe its the helmet. Maybe its the fact that we have been traveling too much (she hates sleeping in the pack n play). Maybe its rice cereal induced constipation. Maybe its a growth spurt. Maybe its just a silly baby.  But Hibou goes to bed around 8pm, gets up around 6:30am and can easily wake up 4-6 times between that.  Needless to say, my body has shifted back into newborn sleep mode. Aka, when I get more than 2 hours of sleep at a stretch, my body rejoices at the extended rest. It's been a rough couple weeks.  We are going to work on some gentle "sleep training" soon, but for the month of November, we will not be home for a consistent bedtime routine for more than 2 or 3 days at a time, so there is really no point.  So, for now, I am back to napping when the babies nap (when possible) and hoping maybe it magically fix itself as randomly as it magically went haywire. 

....naps once or twice during the day depending on our schedule. If its a two-nap day, usually one is 45 minutes and the other is 1.5 hours. 

...nurses 5-6 times throughout the day. The helmet has made nursing a little less snuggly. But it seems to bother me more than it bothers Hibou. So I guess that is good. 

...is warming up to solid foods. She still only really eats them sporadically. I offer them at every meal, but half the time she is not interested.  She prefers feeding herself. Mashed bananas on a spoon are no-good, but a big chunk of banana to gnaw on, that she loves.  Cheerios she also loves.  Rice cereal may be constipating her, so we dropped that and went back to oatmeal.  Beans are still a favorite. Gnawing on a slice of apple is also a favorite, though you have to watch her, cause she has managed to bite of a big chunk, then she doesnt know what to do with it. 

...has a TOOTH! I found it last night. A little bottom tooth that you can't see quite yet, but its definitely pointy. 

....still has the goofiest grin in the world. 

....loves her sister so so so so much.  They giggle together pretty much all day.

....loves to have her tummy tickled. Nothing gets a guaranteed laugh out of her as much as tickling her tummy or giving her "raspberries" or the like.  Papillon has also figured this out, but unfortunately, sometimes her tickles actually knock Hibou over which results in less laughter. 

...rolls over both ways. But generally gets frustrated when she does cause she realizes that she liked it better the other way anyway.

....still hates being on her tummy, and so has not showed any interest in crawling. (not even close). But she sits like a champ so I guess I shouldn't worry about her core strength too much, right?

So yeah, that's Hibou at 8 months.  Her helmet is working on rounding out her little head...

....what do you think, is it working? Compared to last month. 

But, round or flat headed, sleeping or not, we love our beautiful little Hibou. 

(I still call her Blondie, or My Little Blonde One).