Claire can:

• bear weight on her legs and stand while holding on to something and with light support around her middle.
• feed herself Zwieback or cracker.
• look for a dropped object.
• rake objects with her fingers and pick them up in her fist.
• hold a toy in each hand.
• tap two objects together, such as a small ball held in each hand.
• pass an object from one hand to the other.
• work to get a toy out of reach, and now “commando crawls” to get to it.
• understand and enjoy peekaboo but doesn’t yet cover her eyes.
• creep and commando crawl as well as roll and pivot her way across the room; Stella provides great incentive, since she’s a movable toy as far as Claire is concerned.
• say “mama” and “dada” indiscriminately, as well as “baba.”
• wave hello and bye-bye (though not always on command).
• bring her arms together to clap but doesn’t yet open her hands to make the palms meet; the fists meet.
• understand “no” (which is used rarely such as when she tries to roll over on the changing table).

Claire has not met a stranger yet. She genuinely enjoys people and readily smiles at and responds when others say hello and talk to her. She’ll sometimes even have “conversations” with them. However, Claire is definitely beginning to experience separation anxiety. If I begin to walk away from her, she cries. She often prefers me to Husband, especially at the end of the day when she is tired. I think object permanence has been established; it’s clear that she recognizes the sound of my footsteps and will coo, whine, or cry when hearing them depending on her mood.

Claire now naps in her crib. She was taking only 30-minute naps three times a day until recently. Since she’s often still tired after only 30 minutes, I was hoping for improvement there. Monday a mother made a suggestion that seems to have worked the past couple days. After she’s been asleep 10-15 minutes, I place a small, buckwheat-filled sack (the kind you heat in the microwave to use as a heating pad, but I don’t heat it) on her back. (She now rolls onto her tummy to sleep.) Tuesday her first nap was 70 minutes and the second was an hour. Wednesday the morning was 40 minutes and the afternoon was 1 hour and 20 minutes. There is a lot less eye-rubbing, yawning, and whining as a result. And we’ve made progress in that I’m no longer her bed! Before a nap I read her a couple of books, and then we say “goodnight” to Mirror Baby and the Mama Moon drawing. Then I rock her and sing four lullabies — the exact same ones in the exact same order — for five minutes. Then I kiss her, tell her I love her and that we’ll play after her nap. She will fuss, sometimes for up to twenty minutes, but usually she relents and allows sleep to come.

Claire’s been drooling to beat the band and chewing avidly on everything, and when I can glimpse inside her mouth, I think her gums are puffy where her two front teeth will appear. She eats heartily and recently has added squash, spinach, and potatoes to her menu, as well as peaches, apricots, and plums. When she drinks her bottle, Claire likes to play with my hair. After the morning bottle, she’ll nuzzle her head into my neck and cuddle.

We go out at least once every day to interact with people (run errands, play date, music class), and I try to get to the park daily too. Claire enjoys the swing so much and will stay in there up to half an hour if I’m willing to push that long. The play group I’m in has coordinated smaller groups of women called Sit-n-Plays. Up to six women who have discovered an affinity for each other and whose children are close in age meet once a week in each other’s homes to develop closer friendships. Eventually when the kids are old enough, they’ll actually play together. Right now they all sit around playing with toys and babbling and occasionally trying to touch or taste each other.

Life is luscious. Happy 8th month birthday, my love.