Zara at Eight Months!

I'm sorry this update is so late in coming. We've been busy with getting things taken care of for our impeding move so this will most likely be my last baby update from Seoul. How quickly our time here has come to an end!

General Observations, Physical Changes, Etc.

Zara's weight has appeared to plateau and she still weighs only a little more than 19 pounds. This is fine by me because I was not looking forward to having to cart around a 30 pound baby. Now that she's mobile, she's thinned out quite a bit. From my own measurements, I think she's about 29 inches long but she's a squirmy little sucker so I could be wildly off.

It seemed to take forever, but Zara's top right tooth has finally broken through the gum!

She's outgrown her infant car seat carrier and we've finally upgraded to a convertible car seat. We finally opted to go with the Britax Roundabout 55.

Zara has also been taking her baths in our bath tub for the last two months. At first, she just clung to the side of the tub the entire time, but now she crawls around in the water and splashes and plays with her toys. It's made bathtime a lot more fun.

I think the poor girl has some seasonal allergies. She's had a running/snotty nose for almost three weeks now but no other visible symptoms. She also occasionally wheezes (but she's been doing that for awhile). I'm taking her in to the doctor next week just to be sure.

Eating and Sleeping Habits

Zara seems to require less and less breastmilk during the day (she nurses for about 2 minutes before she gets distracted and wants to do something else) but still has a long nursing before bed and wakes up about once or twice a night for more. Even when I attempt to feed her a lot during the day (to fill her up, the books say), she still wakes up at least once during the night.

Zara continues to enjoy eating solids though she much prefers to feed herself, thank you very much. She's added mangos, yogurt, green beans, crackers, juice, and Cheerios to her list of foods. She definitely prefers fruits over vegetables and she enjoys feeding herself. The other day, I had a banana sitting on the table (which I had intended to eat) when Zara grabbed it and started munching on the peel. Since I was getting ready to leave, I let her hang onto the banana as we walked (she strolled) over to base. By the time we got to our destination, she had managed to break open the peel and suck out some of the banana so I opened it up the rest of the way and let her go to town. She ate almost the whole banana herself although there was banana EVERYWHERE.

Napping is still somewhat problematic, but Zara's nighttime sleeping has greatly improved. She's generally asleep and down for the night between 7:30-8:00 (8:30-9:00 on bad nights) though she often wakes up around 10:30-11:00 (as we're getting into bed) for a little top off. She generally wakes up again around 2 a.m. and is up for the day between 6:00-6:30 a.m. (Sometimes much earlier to my consternation.) I wish she'd sleep in longer (at least to 7 a.m. for my sake) but we're figuring things out.

I find that swaddling Zara during her pre-bedtime feeding has been an effective way to get her ready and focused to eat and then to sleep. As soon as she falls asleep, I unswaddle her because she tosses and turns and twitches and moves around A LOT in her sleep. In fact, there has been many a night when I've woken up to find Zara's feet instead of her head on my pillow.

Accomplishments and Firsts

Zara desperately wants to be more mobile than she already is. She's pulling herself up on everything, walking along the furniture and has even begun to work on climbing. Heaven help us all.

Zara celebrated her first Easter. I bought her a cute pink basket which I filled with (empty) eggs and new pajamas.

Favorite Toys, Places to Go, Etc.

Zara's favorite things to play with are of course the things that are not meant to be baby toys. They include: a tape measure, cat's toys, DVD cases, toothpaste tube, Kleenex, cell phones, cups, spoons, keys, books, the broom and Swiffer mop, and lately, her infant car seat.

Zara will be heading to new and exciting places soon. We'll be making our return to America in the first week of June and I'm really hoping that Zara will do well on the plane ride. Otherwise it's going to be one loooong flight. Not to mention that we'll have Suyom with us as well. I feel bad for all the people who will be sitting next to us. I've even thought of bringing them a little gift as a pre-emptive "I'm sorry." But if we sit next to Koreans, they won't care because they love babies and they'll spend the whole time cooing and saying "Ah! She's so cute. She looks just like a doll!" and making faces at her. Pray for Koreans people!

And now some photos: