Eight Months

THAT FACE. What a goof. Eight months! Goodness time flies when you're having fun. Every month gets better and better and this age is so so fun.

Little homie had strawberries for lunch and I thought I'd got them all off her face, but it looks like maybe I didn't. Whoops! Also holy hell these photos are getting hard to take. She does not want to stay still! And all she wants to do is eat those letters, which she did. The "M" is now rather misshapen. Lucky she's cute.

Big development this month: we have teeth! The first appeared a week ago, a little bottom toothy! So for aaall the folks who told me, "Oh she's definitely teething. I bet she'll have a tooth in a couple weeks!" since Indy was probably TWO months old... that tooth is for you. ;) The matching tooth started peeking through yesterday. They're just little stumps at the moment, but they're there! I'm excited for teeth so she can get down on some more food. She does pretty well with her gums, but teeth probably would help a little in the chewing department. And man, that baby likes to eat! Or at least play with her food and make a giant mess. She has still yet to meet a food she's not a fan of, I am loving it. Girlfriend chows down on raw spinach leaves. She'll eat anything. I know that wont last forever, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

SELFIE, photobombed by Sophie the bear cat. 

No crawling yet (not complaining), but Indiana is a champion wiggle worm and roller and somehow still manages to get her little butt all over the place. We're working on pulling up. She can pull up to her knees! And she's started pulling herself into my lap; obviously I love that. She has started pointing at stuff. Cutest thing ever, that tiny little finger and that chubby hand kills me every time. Still loving books, every time I get one out she flings her limbs around in excitement. (Classic happy/excited Indy move: jerk around like you're being electrocuted.) Slowly getting better about just reading and not eating the books, and she can turn the pages! When she's in the mood. Thinks all the cat toys are hers. But really, I mean aren't cat and baby toys similar? Dogs too. Our cats have this crinkly tube thing Indiana has stolen, also into the cat scratching pole? Why not? Indiana adores ALL animals. When she spots one she smiles and does her excited dance and tries to "pet" them. Working on petting versus slapping/grabbing. We've been visiting the kitties for adoption at the pet stores here in town; it's heart breakingly cute to see her put her hands on the glass to try to touch the cats. I hope she loves animals this much forever. I'm obviously an animal nut, so to see my kid love them too makes me real happy!

Indiana had two overnight trips this month, and did great. First longish road trip. And first swim in the ocean. Still obsessed with water! She's been "talking" a ton, and the noises she makes are getting more and more varied. And are obscenely cute. She even makes some "mama" sounds, although not at all directed at me. Loves smiling (and staring) at people, although she's still a little wary of being held by new folks. Loves being out and about, next to looking at animals people watching is her fave. We're regulars at Starbucks, HEB, and Target. 

  

Lol, clearly these on the back photos are the worst for her. She rolls over immediately. I just need them for continuity's sake. 

Definitely used Sophie the Giraffe (who we call Gilly since we have a Sophie the cat) as a photo bribe. It made me think of on A Goofy Movie when Goofy does all sorts of crazy things to get that baby to smile at the photo studio where he worked. Throw back! Mad kudos if you know what the heck I'm talking about. That movie rules. "It's the leaning tower of cheese-a!" Yeesh, when was the last time you thought about Pauly Shore?

Back to business. Honestly this age is kind of the best! Indiana is so happy and fun and all about exploring and playing and learning. She's started reaching for (or throwing herself at) us and when she's reeeeally sleepy sometimes she'll grace us with a head on the shoulder. And she's started nuzzling our chest when she acts "shy" around people. EEEE! 

I just can't handle it sometimes. She is the best. So fun and silly and gah, CUTE. I love her, love her, LOVE HER. I am super sad that time is going by and she's growing so quickly, but it's also the coolest thing ever. I find myself sometimes spiraling down this black hole of "oh my gosh she used to be so small, I don't want her to grow up, why can't she be a newborn again??" (usually prompted by photos) and I have to stop myself because Indiana is awesome. As she is now. And she's getting more awesome everyday and I suspect this will continue for years. And as much as I miss and wish we could go back to the tiny newborn days (so much sometimes that my heart hurts), I love my silly rolly-polly baby days more. Gotta soak it all in. 

But talk to me around her birthday and I might be singing a different tune and working on a time machine.

Hi Greg, ya creep. See the rest of Indy's first year so far!

Port Aransas 2016

Port Aransas! How I love you, you weird little place, you. This weekend we went to Port A with Brendon's mama and his brother AJ to celebrate AJ's FIFTEENTH birthday. I remember AJ in diapers, so it's a weird but cool thing seeing him as a (very tall!) young man. We had such a good time. Port Aransas is such a relaxing place. Every time we go I love it more.

And we were obviously super excited to take our little fish to see the ocean! I had a feeling Indiana would like it, as she looooves any sort of water, but goodness, she LOOOOVED the ocean. She was all about it. I thought maaaaybe the waves would scare her, but NOPE. We sat her on the edge to test it out and she was happy as a clam, so we figured we'd try farther out. We jumped in the waves with that baby out in the ocean! She was in heaven. Smiling and laughing and doing those happy screams. I guess when you nickname your unborn child the Seahorse... Destined to love the water.

So here are the pictures! Of course there's a ton.

I love this picture of these two. Too cool for school. We got Indiana some rec spec style sunglasses so she couldn't pull them off and eat them. They were definitely not the most flattering things in the world, but they worked really well! And she looked hilarious.

The view from our condo balcony! Casa Condominiums is our favorite place to stay in Port A, and we've stayed at a lot of different condos. This was our second time there and seriously, I don't think we'll stay anywhere else! It is SO close to the beach, the shortest walk of any condo I've stayed in. The rooms are great (huge kitchens), all of them have a good view, and the whole place isn't that big so no matter which room you're in, you're close to the beach. Some condos, I swear, you spend most of your time walking through the resort to get to the other side! Anyway, that's my schpeal. Best place in Port A.

The sleepy head birthday boy and Indiana, also a sleepy head. AJ is the sweetest fifteen year old I know. He was so good with Indy! It was awesome getting a whole weekend with Deb and AJ. We live far enough away from family that we don't get to see them regularly, so this was a treat! I loved seeing Indiana with them.

Okay here comes the onslaught on Indy at the beach photos. And omg, please forgive the dang confederate flag in the background. I was not paying attention when I was taking photos and did not realize that silliness would show up. Our beach neighbors were... special. We are obviously NOT about that, at all.

LOL THOSE SHADES!

There was a pretty spectacular storm brewing over the ocean. We got to hear the thunder and watch the lightening, but it was sunny over us!

Hollaaa at my running "tan"! Palest folks on the beach award goes to me and Indy.

Birthday boyyyy! Indiana's like, yo, can I get some of that cake?

Two goooood looking dudes! They look so much alike here! We've been talking about how strong the bones are in Deb's family. Her baby photos look just like Indiana! I'm forever grateful that that baby has my eyes, because dang, she's all daddy.

And of course, the shark mouth photo. Indiana's first!

What a fun weekend! I am a mountain lover at heart, but man, I do love the beach. And traveling with family is aaaaawesome because, more hands to help! Brendon and I even had a "date night" on Friday! We had a blast with Deb and AJ and are already looking forward to next year's birthday trip. What an awesome birthday tradition, lucky kid. ;)

And Indiana was so good. This was her longest car ride (4.5 hours, without pit stops) so we were a little wary. But she was great on the drive down, although... she did had the most massive blow out we've ever experienced half way to the beach! I mean, it was crazy. All the way up to her armpits. She got stripped down in a gas station parking lot, people were laughing. Other than that though, smooth sailing! We left a later than we should have Sunday so she was a little fussy on the home, but really, she did so dang good. She's the best baby to travel with. She's just so happy and loooves exploring and looking at stuff. That being said, traveling with a baby, no matter how easy going, is exhausting. There's just a lot involved. So much STUFF. It's always good to be home and back in your routines again. We've spent the last two weekends out of town, and I'm ready to not go anywhere for a while!

Thanks Port Aransas for a great trip! We love you and will see you soon! Here are our past trips, if you care to walk down memory lane and watch AJ shrink.