*m*

Sweet lil miss Gemma is such a fun baby. It’s almost like she reads the next chapter of What to Expect: The First Year and says, I’m gonna do this today.
She moved in such a quick progression from rolling over to sitting up to pulling herself up to rocking on her knees to crawling to cruising to standing to climbing. She is so close to walking. She is only 8 ½ months but man, she is one busy child.
This morning Lincoln sent me a picture of her standing up and opening the kitchen cupboards. Just yesterday she was watching me closely as I opened the pantry door. I could see it in her eyes. She was figuring out how it worked and what she needed to do to get that door open. Sure enough, while Daddy is trying to pack her bag for daycare, she opens the door that has all the baking pans and quickly tries to pull them all out.
Last weekend she was watching me unload the dishwasher. The second I turned to put away a dish, she crawled at full speed over to it and was in the process of climbing in.
Another wild antic of hers is trying to stand in the tub. I have a non-slip mat down but still. When she falls, and she will fall, it’s gonna hurt. But she keeps trying.
She has also learned how to throw fits. Not very often, mostly just around naptime/bedtime. They normally involve yelling (she is still not much of a crier) and throwing everything out of her crib. Eventually she settles down and throws herself onto the bed with a whimper and a sigh, then a snore. I’ve been stuck in her room a few times just waiting for her fall asleep. Hiding in the corner. Because the slightest squeak of the chair, turn of the knob, pop of the knee joint, and her perfectly round tiny noggin pops up and she starts her fit all over again.
She also has decided she wants to be a nakey jaybird. Changing her diaper turns into a wrestling match. No matter where you are or what you give her to distract her, she just wants to flip over and crawl her naked little butt away.
But 99% of the time she is such a sweet baby. Like the times when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap and is sitting in her bed quietly playing. Years ago at Build A Bear I made a Golden Retriever and named it Baru. Now it’s Gemma’s and she’ll sit in her bed and hug the dog and pet its soft ears. And sing songs to it.
She gets really excited when I pick her up from daycare. She laughs, flaps her arms up and down, and claps. And then gives me the sweetest hugs and sometimes slobbery kisses. She is working on waving bye bye. For now she just raises her arm and looks at her hand.