Isabella is 8 months old!

Isabella is 8 months old today (11/15), and she is full of new accomplishments all the time. Last week she mastered clapping and waving - and she even kind of says "bye-bye" when she waves. She loves to "dance" to music by somewhat spastically moving her arms and upper body when she hears music she likes - which is anything with a good beat. She is nearly crawling: just a few days ago she managed to get up on hands and knees and start to rock back and forth. She started sleeping on her stomach. She "talks" when she's happy and when she's not - and she is quite clear about when she's not happy. Grandma Dawn says she's seldom seen a child who loves the bath as much as Isabella, laughing and splashing and getting water everywhere and not at all concerned about getting it in her face - and she is really happy after her bath, too. She is starting to get really worried when Mama leaves the room, and this last week she started to be coy and turn her head away and smile when people talk to her. She still loves to be the center of attention, though. We've noticed that she really likes watching all the people here at the hotel. And she still loves to feed herself, though her focus has changed from getting food into her mouth to just chewing on things and feeling the texture of different foods between her fingers. She is also working on cutting her first two teeth (bottom center). I wish I could add how much she weighs, because my back tells me she has gained weight, but we don't have a scale here.

The videos I'm posting include the long-awaited avocado-eating video and one of her clapping and waving (this one was rougher video to begin with).