Regina here again...

Disclaimer: the following descriptions of Annie's development may be boring to those of you who are not her grandparents or family members, (hopefully they won't get bored too!) so feel free to just look at the pictures and videos here. :)

Annie turned 8 months old on Monday the 7th.
She already seems like a little girl in so many ways instead of the baby she is. Her most recent "genius" moments, as we like to call them, are that she can stand by herself when she holds on to something (although she can not get to the standing position quite yet by herself) and the most wonderful to moi is that she yelled "MAMA!" for the first time the morning of my birthday, March 21st. I couldn't have asked for a better gift! Brad, me and Annie were in Arkansas visiting my mom, and we were getting ready that morning. Annie wanted me to pick her up but I was busy so she was getting frusterated at me. She vocalized the usual irritated mumblings with her lips closed when all of a sudden, as if a light bulb went on and with a burst of energy that sprang from her vocal chords, she yelled "MAMA!" to get my attention. Well, she sure did get my attn. I screamed and Brad fell on the floor laughing. Poor Annie didn't know what she did to elicit those responses.

Below is a video of her saying "mama" repeatedly. That was the same weekend she discovered those sounds, so she was practicing, and still does say it constantly. She also says "poppa", "bob", "bop", and for some reason will say "Pop" in a whisper. It's so cute. She's getting closer to crawling, as she will get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. So far she is starting to master crawling backwards, and she also likes to roll across the floor.

We started her on some solid foods besides rice cereal, about a month ago. She does not care for beef, chicken, squash, green beans or peas. She likes sweet potatoes with apples, pears, bananas, apples with cherries and sort of likes carrots and avocados. Because she has tried so many things that she does not like, she is very careful when I bring that first spoonful of food to her lips. Her face contorts into a "I doubt I'll like this" expression as she leans back with her lips barely open and slightly tight, she'll sample it until she knows it's something she likes. She's careful about the color of foods as well. For example, I tried to get her to eat squash for the first time, which she decided no way. Right afterwards, I opened up her favorite sweet potatoes and apples, but she would have none of it because it was the same color as the squash. I had to smear it on her lips for her to realize it was a favorite. A couple of first time tasting pictures are above.

Regarding the "allergies", or in actuality the 'protein-induced enterocolitis' that she has... her GI doc. wanted me to wait to introduce dairy or soy into her diet until she is at least 9 months, preferably a year old. A couple of weeks ago, I accidently ate something with soy in it and we discovered she has not outgrown the sensitivity yet, unfortunately. I had ordered some probiotics w/o the 2 culprits, and hopefully will pick that up today to help her GI tract. The next appointment with the Dr. is in May.

That's about it for now... it's getting time to baby proof the house!