Week 35-December 15-21-Hi baby girl. Papa and I started sleep training you. We actually began on the 14th and it lasted until the 16th. Well, its a start....Papa would lay down with you after eleven pm and get you to go back to sleep when you woke up, instead of me nursing you throughout the night. You did protest but by the second night had already adjusted somewhat. Unfortunately, we didn't keep it up and now you are back to nursing every few hours. We will try it again after the new year. On the 16th, we noticed that you are getting your two bottom teeth in the middle. So many teeth, all at once. It doesn't really seem to affect you other than a runny nose. You are on your hands and knees all of the time now. It seems to be just a matter of days before you are mobile.

I love nursing you. It is precious bonding time that you only share with me. It will be too soon before it ends and this intimacy transitions into a different one. I am not ready to give it up, but we want to have another baby and so it has become a decision that needs to be made. So far, I have not weaned you even from one feeding. At eight months, I feel you are still too young to be taken off the boob.

You push yourself backwards now. Although not yet crawling, you are able to get around. You have managed to wedge yourself in a bookshelf and between the couch and glider. Papa and I try to coax you forward with fabulous toys and even our phones, but even though you very much want these items, you do not come forward. We wind up bringing you to these instead.

When upset, you scream and you know the order of actions. When in the car seat, I unbuckle you, I then pick you up. Once I took a little too long to pick you up and boy, did I get yelled at.

I love the innocence of this age. At mommy and me, there are three other babies your age. The moms usually sit next to one another and chat about our babies. While we do this, the babies are touching each other, climbing on the moms, but not their moms, other babies' moms. It is sweet to see the lack of boundaries, the light and energy within you. It restores some of the innocence within me, or at the very least makes me aware that it does exist.

You lay on your tummy now, with your arms and legs in the air, like an airplane. Your muscles are strong. Everything you do is preparing you for crawling. Everything you do, you learn though playing. It is fascinating. At what point do people stop learning though play and begin learning through books and sitting still and listening to a lecture? Having been a teacher for so long, I feel I understand children better now with you, than from all of the training I went through.

You have started to say, "Yaaaaa". It is adorable. We went shopping with Yana and while she was holding you, she muttered to herself that an item of clothing a pretty and you said, "Yaaaa". She was floored that you agreed with her!

When you are sitting and you start to topple over, most times you can catch yourself and sit back up. You also can push yourself from a laying position to a sitting position. You are becoming super independent, it is remarkable.

I love you more than life itself, and so does Papa!