Somehow, someway, our sweet baby girl is 8 months old. 8 months sounds alarmingly close to 12 months, which means that she will be one soon! How can that even be possible!?

I’ll be honest, it’s really been only the last two months or so that I truly feel like I am thriving as a new mom, rather than just surviving. When friends ask me how we’re doing, I can finally say with true honesty, that we are really doing great. Yes, some days are really hard and exhausting, and the countdown to bedtime is on starting around lunchtime. But as I get further and further away from her newborn days, I realize how deeply in survival mode I was for so long, and I’m so grateful to be in a stage of life where we are truly enjoying our daughter, and the new pace and lifestyle of parenthood. The fog has finally (finally!) lifted over these couple of months, and we are enjoying this sweet time with our girl so very much.

I plan to share more about our struggles in the early months, most specifically my experience with post-partum depression and anxiety, but for now we will focus on the joy and light we have felt over these last weeks!

Month 8

At the end of June we took our first annual beach trip as a family down to New Smyrna. 8 hours in the car with an infant was interesting, to say the least. We discovered on this trip that the girl LOVES the water, and the second the Moana soundtrack comes on she is happy as a clam.

Things got patriotic for this little bean as we celebrated her first fourth of July! We had our own little Rosie the Riveter on our hands!

This girl is more mobile than ever this month. I constantly joke that I have an 8 month old toddler on my hand. I know it will only get crazier when she is actually walking, but this girl is climbing on every single thing she can. Her latest favorite thing is to pull herself up, then let go and slowly fall down to her bum. On repeat.

We took her down to the Saturday market for the first time this month, and she loved the people watching and strolling through the street. I can remember in years past walking through this very market, streets lined as they are with families and babies in strollers, lusting for the day when we’d be able to walk our own babe at the market. It’s surreal that this day has come.

Her bond with her “brother” gets stronger and stronger by the day. She loves her “boy boy,” which is what we typically call him instead of his real name, Eddie.

She’s a great little sleeper, and is consistent with 12 hour nights, and 2 good naps every day. 

She also had her first annual family trip to High Hampton, a Malone family tradition for the past 30 some-odd years. It’s my favorite summer tradition, and I hope James grows up loving it as much as we do.

We also learned that she is NOT a big fan of sitting in the grass…

Teething is in full force, and she now has two little bottom teeth that are soooo cute. I definitely got teary when I realized she’d never be my gummy little baby again. Sigh. They grow so fast.

This past month brought a lot of firsts for our James! She LOVES music, her paci, and her “boy boy” Eddie, and is getting more and more mobile every day. We are so lucky to be this joy filled girl’s parents!