8 Months

Inga is 8 months old today. That also means we've been in our new house for one month. Inga has made the transition rather well. She is pretty used to sleeping in her own room. She is even adjusting well to going to a new babysitter on Wednesdays. Fortunately, Inga is pretty happy go lucky so far.

She has two teeth now and I think is working on a third. She likes being able to eat more food from Mom and Dad's plates. She can also pick up those cereal puffs and feed herself. This is the benefits of teething, but the downsides include being extremely needy for Mommy (and Mommy only) and using lots of baby Advil (that stuff no are cheap). Oh well, it's just another one of those baby phases that seems so long at the time, but is just a little blip. 

No crawling yet, although she is really trying hard. I'm expecting some sort of army crawl here soon especially with the laminate floors. She is also really close to pulling herself to standing. I am slowly baby proofing the house. The big thing I need to get is a gate for the basement stairs. Her biggest new "skill" is giving kisses. She will give one when you ask and spontaneously. This is very Mommy approved!

The "nice" portrait

With her favorite stuffed animal, Ornery the Otter

I was sitting on the couch today writing some emails while she played on the floor in front of me. It went a bit too quiet all of a sudden and I couldn't she Inga. Then I heard a muffled noise from underneath me. This is what I found.

The little explorer

Inga has been helping out in the yard a lot, too. Our yard needs tons of work since we bought a new build. Our front lawn is coming in rather nicely, but there are lots of problem areas to dig out, weeds to pull, lumps to smooth out, trash to pick up, and trees to tend. Inga just catches a ride on one of our backs while we dig and rake kind of like you would see in Africa or something. Inga enjoys being a part of the action and we get a great workout. It's like conditioning for backpacking. LeConte Lodge, here we come!

To prove Inga isn't all sugar and spice and everything nice, this is what happened when I told her she couldn't play with the camera.