The Friedli Family: 8 months!

Our life is SO insane busy right now I sometimes feel like I don’t even have time to breathe!! Zach is CONSTANTLY on the computer working on getting his latest invention ready to launch on Kickstarter…hopefully in February (I need to write more about that…when I magically get more time!) so blogging has gotten even harder for me! So obviously I missed Navy’s 7 month post although it came and went so fast! Hopefully she will forgive me when she is older and reading this! ;)

So here is an update on Navy from 6-8 months!!

I feel like from 6-7 months Navy transformed from my “little” baby into a “big” baby…full of life, personality, enthusiasm, movement, love, and craziness! From 7-8 months she has just continued to evolve and change at lightening speed!! She is SOOOO fun but it makes me sad that she is blowing by these milestones all too fast!! I remember when Dakota was a baby I always looked forward to the NEXT stage so much that I didn’t fully enjoy the stage we were in. His accident taught me REALLY quick to live IN the moment and soak every second of it up…cuz you never know what can happen. With Navy I feel like she is growing and changing SO fast that there is not even enough time to fully enjoy the moment. I need MORE time with each stage because I have loved it all SOOOO much!! But there is nothing I can do! This girl is growing up and already becoming miss Independent so I guess I better keep up with her!

She started “Navy” crawling right before she turned 7 months.

She started off slow and now she is EVERYWHERE! She is so fast! She still army crawls but often gets on her hands and knees like she is going to regular crawl but never does.

She loves climbing on things!!

This allows her even more to grab EVERYTHING in her sight to put in her mouth! I can’t believe the tiniest things she always seems to find on the floor! I feel like I can never take my eyes off her.

Even her cousin’s shoe!!! ;)

I think she was secretly trying to steal Lola’s cute shoes!!!

She LOVES to be a helper and empty out all of Dakota’s basket of stuff while I get him ready morning and night. I just roll with it…I pick my battles with this wild woman!

By 7 months she was sitting up on her own.

As you can see…we LOVE big bows! ;) Although miss Navy is VERY good at pulling them off now! :/

She is already pulling herself up!! Her first time was on her little walker!! Zach stood her up on her walker and she stood on her own for quite some time.

It totally made her look WAY to big!!! Not sure if I’m quite ready for a walker!! Slow down baby girl!!!

She is already pulling herself up in the crib so we had to lower that real fast!!
Is this normal?!

Once she realized she could pull herself up in her crib…she thought she was a big girl and didn’t have to go to sleep! ;)

When she quits partying and does go to sleep. She MUST sleep in the corner of the crib with her bum in the air! Sometimes she even fold the bumper in half and sleeps on it like a pillow!

Cutest little ruffle bum!!

She loves ALL binkies now...no matter the kind. If it's suckable, she will find it and love it!

She is such a mover and ALWAYS wants to be doing something. She LOVES her jumper because she gets to move it move it!!!

She is such a happy and silly girl. ALWAYS smiling at anyone and everyone. She is already into that silly teasing phase. She especially loves to tease me! Zach lets her go behind me and grab my hair. She thinks it is so funny and makes the sweetest little teasing sounds about it!

Whenever she has her blanket she is playing peek-a-boo. She pulls it up over her face and breaths super fast and then yanks it down and freezes and just looks at you and then grins. It is quite comical to watch!

She totally already knows what you mean when you tell her “no” although at times she chooses NOT to listen and just gives you this sweetest grin and keeps on doing it. She is SUPER hard to get mad at…especially for her dad! He is already claiming he is going to let her have whatever she wants (like my dad did for his daughters ;)). Not so sure how I feel about that although my dad really was a sucker and I loved it! ;)

Boy does he love this girl!!!

She loves to babble and babble. The funniest is when I turn the blender on to make Dakota’s food (it is super loud) she starts yelling instead of talking every time just to make sure I can still here her!
I even think a couple of times she has said Mama. Even Dakota’s nurse heard it one morning and said, I think she just said mama. I’m gonna count that as her first word because I can! ;) Her sounds she repeats to you really are sounding more like words you say to her.

Those dark brown eyes of hers are still SO wise and curious. Sometimes I swear she is just telling me how much smarter she is then me in life just with her eyes!! She totally soaks in EVERYTHING around her. When you talk to her it’s like she REALLY listens to every word you say. I call her my “old soul.”

Just observing Dakota and I writing on the wall! (Don’t worry it comes off) I hope se doesn’t remember that when we move into our new house! ;

Her little giggles fills my soul with delight and our home with happiness!!! If we could sit and listen to her and watch her ALL day long we TOTALLY would!!! Unfortunately crap still has to get done around her so we can’t…but we sure try and soak up every second that I can!!

I LOVE my one on one time with her though!! I soak it ALL up!!! (Don’t mind my greasy mess of a hair do! Time for showers and getting ready is gone! ;))

Her little hair is getting so long and still so curly. I gave her her first ponytail the other day and it was so cute but also made her look so old!! A ponytail is about all I can do so this poor girl is out of luck in the hair department. Luckily she has A LOT of headbands and bows to cover it up! ;)

We started baby food a little after 6 months although I was dreading it. One more thing to do…who has time for that?! I held off as long as I physically could before introducing it.

Very first time! Of course she would be independent and want to hold the spoon herself!

For the longest time she just wasn’t that into it. She didn’t seem to hate the tastes but she never would just open her mouth and let me in. She had to lick it off the spoon or would let the very tip of the spoon in and then clamp down. It was starting to get a little frustrating. I had sat in hours and hours of swallow therapy with Dakota where they worked on these basic skills of putting a spoon in the mouth and closing lips on it and I felt like I was starting all over with Navy and I still couldn’t get her to do it right! I was worried I would be sitting in swallow therapy with her pretty soon.

I finally gave up and just gave her the whole bowl to play with…hoping she would maybe lick more of her hands then she was with the spoon! ;)

Thanks to lots of suggestions and tips from lovely people off Facebook and Instagram we finally got it figured out. We tried the more rubbery spoons and I gave in and let her participate and have a spoon too. She is my little miss Independent so almost with every bite she has to grab the spoon too. So I just use 2 spoons and keep trading off with her to get more and more. FINALLY this last week she is finally getting pretty good at eating and things are going a lot faster! Whew!!!

She even got good enough that Zach would take a turn and feed her!! ;)

She absolutely LOVES the puffs that she can grab herself. She goes crazy when I put them on the tray like she has never eaten before. Surprisingly she gets most of them in her mouth too! ;)

She learned to give those open mouth slobbery kisses that are THE BEST!!! Zach and I for a week straight would ask her for kisses pretty much every second. After each kiss she would cheer and yell for herself since that is what Zach and I would do. She was so happy and proud. Then…we did the unfortunate thing…and burnt her out of kisses and she started totally denying us on purpose. Every time we would ask for a kiss she would turn her head and look the other way like she had something REALLY important to look at. Broke my little heart.
Now her kisses our very sporadic. Sometimes she will, sometimes she won’t. Sometimes she will just give you one out of nowhere and you just take what you can get!!

She and Dakota have started to “get along.” Her EXTREME curiosity with his trach has worn off and she rarely if ever tries to grab it now. She still LOVES his g-tube though because of the feel of it. She is always trying to naw at his feed line.

I think she just loves the feeling of the material in her mouth. So if Dakota has his extension in his g-tube she is still all about grabbing that so I have to watch her.

Dakota smiles at her more and more just randomly although she is never in one spot long enough for him to really watch her. The funniest part is though is that sometimes when she starts to cry he will get a huge smile on his face…just like a big brother would! ;) Little stinker!!

When she was 6.5 months old I had left her and Dakota on the floor for just a second to go in the kitchen. I heard Navy start crying so I rushed in and Dakota was pushing her head with his leg. I thought maybe he was trying to roll over and she was in the way. I hurry and grabbed her and he started CRACKING up!! For reals!!! I asked him, “Dakota were you trying tell her to get off of you?” His smile got even bigger! I said, “were you trying to protect yourself?!” He laughed even more!! He is such a big brother and I LOVE seeing him in that roll! I learned right then Navy better watch out because he will do what he can to protect himself!!

She seriously fills our home with love, light, and laughter at all times!!! She brings normalcy to our crazy life. Just like this little shirt says…she was meant to be here…in our home…in our family and we feel SOOOO blessed EVERY day to have her!!!

I know I’m always on picture overload but these are from a shoot grammy did at 6 months old!!