Eight Months Old...

I am a complete blogging slacker now. I can't help it. I'm just too busy at work and too tired when I get home, so there is just no time to write about my crazy beautiful children. What can I do? I am trying to at least keep up and write at LEAST once a month, but if I wait that long, then I end up missing a bunch of interesting stories because too much time has lapsed...

::sigh::

Okay, now that I am done sulking, let's get on with the entry.

The past month has been a "growing" one for Riley...not necessarily in the physical growth, but definitely in cognitive growth and experiential growth. Since the last post, we made our trip to Cebu, and it was fantastic, albeit EXHAUSTING.  We spent a week at Plantation Bay, and we had a blast. Ri LOVED being in the water and would splash and splash while I carried her around. She didn't care too much for the float (or maybe I didn't care too much for the float because she would just suck the water off the part near her mouth) so I did most of the "floating" for her. Although we didn't get a good video or picture, we also used the "infant lifejacket" and she was actually floating there on her back in the lagoon by herself and when we said kick-kick-kick, she'd kick and Jeff made the flapping motion with his arms and said "move your arms, too!" she did! It was so adorable...I only wish we had our waterproof camera CHARGED.  arg.

She didn't care too much for the sunscreen, but it had to be done with her sensitive and fair skin; luckily, neither girls got any sunburn the entire trip! She did pretty well with keep her hat on her head. We were able to get some really cute pictures. She didn't like being thrown in the air as much as Tay did when she was her age. She prefered the splash down and I think she enjoyed the slides (since I couldn't really see her face coming down).
---

Development. Riley has grown leaps and bounds in the cognitive development. She has mastered the "mama" and "dada" and has recently even started saying "ata" for Tita! If you say, "bye-bye" and wave, she'll raise her hand and say "ba-ba-ba." She knows if she bangs on something, it's going to make a sound, and she LOVES to do that. She's a complete copycat, too! If you stick your tongue out, she'll do it right back. If you blow a rasberry, she'll do it over and over! If you squint your eyes, she'll squint her eyes (and make a funny face), and if you go to kiss her, she'll open her mouth and try to eat you. :)

In the physical development, she has finally figured out the forward crawl so she is quite mobile. She combines the forward crawl with the roll and backward scoot to get exactly where she wants. Babyproofing the house has begun. I am finding it is MUCH HARDER to babyproof with a toddler in the house! Her fine motor skills are developing nicely as well. She can now pick up a Cheerio-sized piece of food with her pincer grab and get it into her mouth (most of the time). She has also almost gotten down the "flying kiss"...but she usually gets distracted once the hand is at the mouth and starts biting or blowing rasberries on her hand instead of letting the "kiss" fly.

I know this post is a bit rushed, but at least it's somewhat written, no?  Man, I really need to put in more time to write...I miss it.