Walking the Thin Blue Line: September Status Report: My Silent Hurricane

My oh my, how our baby girl has changed since the last time I wrote. I don't know where to begin!
I can't believe she's already 8.5 months old. It hit me like a brick just a few days ago. She is now just barely older than Paige was when Kyle came home from Iraq. She seems to have grown so much faster than Paige! Perhaps that is because Paige's first 8 months were the longest of my life. Words cannot express my elation at the fact that Kyle has been here for her entire baby-hood and will be for the foreseeable future! Anyways, let's go back a few months and fill you in.

The beginning!

On June 11th, while we were in New Jersey, she started a very precarious balancing act while in her Daddy's lap and, she had it down pat within 2 weeks. Of course, sitting up is second nature now.

Our DVD collection is her favorite
off-limits toy.

During the same chunk of time, she perfected rolling over and the girl hasn't stopped moving since! It took me the longest time to get used to her rolling across the living room and getting into everything! Paige absolutely hated being on her belly so, even when she could roll over, she didn't. That girl stayed on her blanket until she was crawling at 10 months old but her sister doesn't believe in staying put. When she was 2 days shy of her 6 month birthday, I captured the first video of her hopping across our living room. Let the crawling commence! Of course, once she was crawling, she moved right on to pulling up and is now taking very small steps. She is will walk the length our couch and is so close to taking a step away from it but she can't quite figure that out. She will stand by herself for a few breathtaking moments, then gravity takes over and she is helpless to save her rear-end from a jolt. I have taken to calling her my 'Silent Hurricane' because she never stops going. If something is in her way, she simply goes over it. If it's too tall and she ends up landing on her face, she is unfazed. The girl is all over the place and quiet as a mouse. You never know exactly where she will be or what she'll be into when you come back in the room.

I don't have a current weight and length to report but we are due for her 8 month appointment soon so I will add the latest stats after that. She did get stuck with more needles at her 6 month appointment, which always brings a huge smile to her face. At that point, she was still holding steady in the 100th percentile at just over 18 pounds and 29 inches long. I have no doubt that she will continue to rock that statistic at her next appointment. I'm beginning to wonder how we're going to clothe that girl! At 6 months old, she was the average height of a 12 month old. WOW!! She's not a fat baby by any stretch of the imagination but she's definitely a moose...long-legged and heavy!
If it isn't clear already, Taylor does not believe in doing anything on a small scale. When her first teeth came through, she got 4 at once!! Paige's first tooth popped through at 15 weeks and it didn't faze her. Naturally, I was expecting the same thing with Taylor. WRONG!!! She is normally a very quiet, content baby but I couldn't make her happy for weeks. Before that, I had never understood why mothers complained about teething. Well, I can sympathize now! I was so relieved when I saw the first tooth poking through her top gums! I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then I noticed another one and thought, "Ok, she's getting 2 at once. Paige did the same thing so it will be over soon." The next morning, when I saw 2 more peeking through on the bottom, I went straight for the baby Tylenol and adult Advil! She has a total of 7 teeth now and not a single one made their introduction easy on her. I now have a high respect and fear of a teething baby. Taylor is definitely putting her new chompers to good use and is enjoying a plethora of new food. She has also discovered the glory of Cheerios, thanks to her older sister feeding her one when I wasn't looking. Between the two of them, we make it a point to never have an empty Cheerio container. If that were to happen, I do believe we would have a vicious mutiny on our hands!
To wind it up, Taylor is moving right along. In a 2.5 month span of time, she started rolling, sitting up, crawling, standing, stepping, eating real food and got her first teeth. Can I breathe now???