All By Herself

The other night I gave Jocelynn some oranges to eat while I had my dinner. I looked up after a minute to see this...

Well now! She apparently can reach farther than I thought and discovered some food nearby while I wasn't looking. 

And she loved it!

So since she was already such a mess I gave her some pasta that I was having for dinner

And she loved that too!

This was the first meal she'd eaten all by herself and it shows! 

But what an accomplishment! Our baby's all grown up and feeding herself! 

Getting Out

Since Jocelynn and I got back from Idaho we have had quite a few cloudy and rainy days. I was getting all homesick for Idaho summers that get warmer and last through at least August. But...the sun came back! To celebrate we've been getting out as much as we can. We have discovered some pretty cool places and are excited to find even more!

Here's some of the things we've been up to:

Went to the beach:
       It was SUPER windy but it was great to be out. We watched the waves roll, a tug boat pull a huge                barge in, and Desoto run around and just be on cloud 9.

Watched some ducklings and goslings just outside our back yard:
          I counted three ducklings with their mom and nine goslings with both parents. It was a good thing                   Desoto wasn't running around because they all came out at the same time and were so fun to watch!!

 

 

 

 
Went hiking along the Turnagain Arm:
         It was more intense than we had planned or prepared for, but we still had a blast enjoying the                        outdoors, the exercise, our crazy friends :) and the views!

Workin' it!

 

Another One of These

Ever since we found out that we were expecting a little one we hoped and prayed for her to develop as she should. Now, as I watch our little girl reach and jump past milestones, I'm thrilled and saddened by it all. I'm still on that rollercoaster and am coming to realize that I'll always be on it. I'll probably always feel bittersweet about her growth and development, excited that she's doing what she needs to and is supposed to be doing, but sad that my little one is changing. It's kind of a twist on the view that the next stage is always better...when you just can't wait for to do this, or until you have the money for that, and so on. The old principle of enjoying the moment now is still the same though. Since it's going to be happening for the rest of my life with Jocelynn, and again and again with every other child we have, I better get over it. So, this is my last rant about it...for now haha :)

What milestone(s) has she mastered now, you ask? Well, check it out...

Crawling

Sitting herself up on her own

Pulling herself to a kneeling and standing position 

Doing this...when she doesn't want to take a nap

Making messes and getting into good and not so good places

 

Piano playing! (so she hasn't MASTERED it but she sure loved playing my Mom's and I am searching EVERYWHERE for a good one around here).

Sticking everything she can outside of her crib while she sleeps 

Did I mention crawling?! And she's now a happy crawler too! 

Climbing ALL over us (she's always tried but now she really can!) 

Playing with her pretty dress :) 

Having enough hair to put gel in and curl a little (I know this kind of makes her look even more like a boy, but her hair is growing!)   

Being patriotic! (she carried this all around the house and part of the farmer's market too)  

As sad as it can be that my little girl is getting so old at 8 months :) she sure is an incredible little girl. I really am so excited to see who she becomes and what she ends up doing in her life. She's going places!