Eight Months of Selah Grace

My MIL recently reminded me that since I showed her where the blog is, I haven't done an 8-month update on sweet lil Selah. So, once again, better late than never! At least we're still in the same month....barely, but it counts.

Let's see. Not nearly as much to report this month as last. Seh is crawling like a boss. She doesn't usually move up on all fours, preferring instead to army crawl, but the little one is pretty fast. And determined. She mostly likes to go from the safe place where I put her to someplace far away, preferably full of objects she can put in her mouth and wires to yank on.

Baby-proofing soon is clearly a must.

Photoshoot at City Park

We dropped her crib down last night to the lowest setting because just recently, she has begun pulling herself up to standing when she's supposed to be laying down. Obviously, that made me super nervous, and I had visions of her pitching headfirst out of the crib onto the hardwoods. Thankfully, A brought out the tools last night and took care of that so we can stop lining the floor with body pillows.

 Speaking of standing up, Selah is not only sitting up on her own now (moving from back to belly to bottom), but she is also pulling herself to a standing position frequently. She finds an edge of a table, or a basket or a leg to push off of and away she goes. Pretty soon she'll be figuring out how to do that without any assistance some day soon :(

Selah had her first major fever last week - right before Easter! She was cranky and warm Thursday evening while I had some girls over and I attributed it to her 2nd tooth coming in. Friday, although the tooth was already in, her fever was 101+. We called the pediatrician, who had us come in for a check-up (thank you Lord for health insurance). Although she didn't find anything wrong, the fever last all day Friday and all day Saturday and finally broke Sunday morning. She slept great while fevery, only waking to eat a couple time Saturday, but by the time she started feeling better she was SOOO sleep-full that she didn't want to sleep much Saturday night. Super.....We're finally back on her normal schedule mostly, and I'm so thankful! 12 hours a night with occasional night cries - we're golden. At least until tooth #3 comes in.

Smiley Selah

So, in the last month or so, Selah has gone to the library for the first time, gone on lots of walks, had her 2nd tooth come in, begun wearing bows, mostly mastered crawling, gotten a fever, celebrated her first Easter, begun sitting up on her own, started pulling herself to standing and eaten rice cereal, squash, mashed potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes. Next on the docket is zucchini! We are all so excited :) She makes noises that sound like "mama," but not with any regularity or any intentionality. I have a feeling though once she really gets to talking there won't be any stopping her!

Anyways, without further ado, here is her 8-month photo!  

Selah's 7-Month Update

7-month shot

Ok, so March is over and I only posted my personal photo challenge once. I also never posted the exciting update I had planned on and mentioned in my last post. Obviously, by the truckloads of angry fan mail I received, all my adoring readers are upset about my lack of posting too....Anyways ;) Fail.

Win? Selah turned 7 months and celebrated a ton of milestones! Here goes the past month (and a half...) of her life quickly!

She turned 7 months on the 13th, and between her last update and now, she has had a tooth break through, started to crawl, transitioned out of her swaddle, seen a herd of elk, gone to Summit Kids for the first time, gone to her first movie, started solids, had her baby dedication and slept 12 solid hours straight through the night. Whew. What a month!

It has been a crazy whirlwind here. Spoiler alert: A got the job he has been working toward since October! So, with the news of his impending start date and secure employment, we tried to do some things we've been putting off as a family. This culminated in lots of chaos around the VanderHouse as we tried to fit various memories in before a new chapter began for our family.

Contemplating elk...or her tooth...or food.

We took the little nubber up to Estes Park one day and we had fun! She loved seeing the herd of elk and watching the river. This came on the heels of her first tooth making its appearance, so I think her excitement was tempered by the woes of babyhood.

The last week and a half or so has had its share of changes. She started rice cereal, did it like a champ after the first try (at first she wasn't impressed), but now she's eating some squash and seems to love it. Next up are carrots and sweet potatoes, in that order. It will be a miracle if this child likes and craves vegetables, so I'm trying to hold off on the sweet stuff I'm sure she'll enjoy!

Not impressed with her first go-round with solids (rice cereal). She's a fan now.

Selah began crawling about a week ago. She has only done a legit crawl a few times, but she can definitely do it. Mostly she goes in circles. The first time her motivation was Ben's stuffed meerkat toy, which she happily put in her mouth as she scooted around :/ I'm sure it's only the beginning of the toy sharing!

Showing off her snaggle tooth!

Just within the last few days we FINALLY transitioned her out of her swaddle with the use of a Zipadee-Zip. I had read about them on Baby Center and figured we needed to do SOMETHING or she'd be swaddled till she was 12. So, we started with naps, not swaddling her, and then transitioned to bedtime this past weekend. With the lack of a swaddle, I figured it was time she learn to self-soothe and so began letting her learn. The first night was rough, listening to her cry for 10 minutes, but by the second night, she was putting herself back to bed within about 10 minutes. We made a few more tweaks to it and the other night she slept a solid 12 hours!!


So, that's about it from the VanderHouse for now! Here are a few more 7 month pictures!

Parent Commissioning at church with our friends Angie and Cedar and Melissa and Zoie.

Getting commissioned to send our littles as arrows into the world for God's glory.

At her first movie! I think she enjoyed it.

The Lego Movie at the Alamo for Baby Day :)

When we put her in this bouncer, she transforms into the happiest little nutcase. We sure are fond of her.