Riley is 8 months old!

Wowthatwasfast! During her seventh month Riley started crawling, pulling up and cruising on everything (her favorite being mommy and daddy's legs), added "mama" to her words, sprouted her first two teeth, had her first cold, ate mama's spaghetti and meat sauce, had her first days away from mama (jack's most ever, too - 3 nights), lost her beloved Biscuit, became better friends with Abby (she likes having her fur grabbed), and tried to crawl down the stairs (I caught her). She is more daring than Big Bro and a lot more mobile than he was, too. We love her just the same! She also started waving hello a lot more and can clap. She does a little bouncy dance and happy noise when she is really excited (usually involves milk). Baby Girl still nurses every 2-2.5 hours except of course at night. 11-12 hours of bedtime sleep and three naps a day with the longest being 1.5 hours.

Riley also started her own class this month with me. While Jackson is at pre school on Wednesdays we go to a sweet mommy and me music class. It only took her three classes to figure out she should crawl up to the teacher at the end to say good bye. So sweet! She loves music!

Now that the weather is feeling less summery I have been using the Ergo a lot. So happy she still enjoys it because it gives me hands to play with Jackson while keeping her close to me.

Riley started wearing a hip "cruiser" at bedtime (12 hours) to hopefully get her right hip to move three more degrees. This seems to be more comfortable than the Pavlik Harness. It is less restrictive and she figured out how to flip herself over and crawl in her bed by the second night. She is a belly sleeper or side sleeper without a cruiser on. We go back at the end of November to see if both hips are perfect.

Last night the three babies were in dreamland by 8 p.m. Sierra works really long days--usually gone at least 12 hours and by Friday we all are exhausted. I am so fortunate to be home this year with the kiddos full time to see how they change literally overnight. Having experienced part time working mom, full time working mom, and full time SAHM, I believe all are challenging--being a Mom is the hardest but BEST "job" there is no matter what hours you work or where you work because you are always on duty, 24/7.