She’s 3 months away from being a whole year.  She laughs out loud, and she cries out loud.  She’s begun pointing — as in pointing at the random woman at the supermarket.  She waves hello, and waves goodbye.  She also shakes her finger at people as if to say, “no, no.”  She continues to be super playful.  When we say “no” to her, she puts her head on the ground, face down, and cries (I secretly think it’s adorable).  She’s phasing out of her signature army crawl, and has now begun crawling on her knees.

Dhara loves her yellow felt bird, which we endearingly call, “Birdie” — yes, like in the movie E.T.  We’ve even heard her say “Birdie” a few times.  She can crawl around with Birdie tightly gripped in her small hand for hours.  Sometimes if we don’t see her with it, we ask her, “Where’s Birdie?”, she’ll look around, and finally become distraught when she realizes she doesn’t have it.  It’s really just too cute.

She gives extravagant hugs, and a multitude of kisses.  Sometimes in the mornings she’ll give her daddy a kiss, and then turn over to me and give me a kiss — and then she’ll start all over again.  Oh Lord, may she always love extravagantly!

[I thought I would take these photos outside in the newly fall weather amidst the wildflowers, which as you can see are preparing for hibernation.]

Our wee one is quickly growing up.  She’s in her eighth month and she’s in full baby swing.  She loves giving kisses — “ummas” in my native language of Malayalam.  She also greets most people by raising her arms/hands high up in the air — (signifying, “hallelujah!”) — it’s something my dear mom has been teaching her for a couple months now during family prayer, but Dhara has taken it to the next level and uses it as a greeting as well.

Baby talk is hilarious.  She rolls her tongue in the cutest manner when she talks — I wish I could do the same when I speak — it probably wouldn’t be as cute though. She says “mama” and “dada”, and she also says “bay bee” for baby.  My sister, Becky (aka Zuma), has sworn she’s heard the babers say “Bec-kee” on numerous occasions.  Other than those few words, the rest is a dialect I don’t understand, but truly wished I did.

She’s crawling all over the place.  I love seeing her on the kitchen floor — there’s just something so domestic about it — it warms my heart.  On the other hand, she loves licking the kitchen floor.  She’s pulling herself up these days — it started last week when she pulled herself up onto her first step — since then she’s been taking tiny cruiser footsteps along steps, couches, and coffee tables.

Dhara also seems to have formed preferences in the last month.  If she doesn’t want a bottle she’ll swat it away.  Or if she doesn’t want a bite of her mama’s sugar snap peas, she’ll swat it away and look intently to see your response to the food that just fell from the spoon because of her swat.  Hmmm…what to do, what to do.  How do you discipline an 8 month old?

As you can see, our baby discovered “the serious face.”  She’s been using it quite often in the last couple weeks.  Also, as a side note, the muumuu dress is from her Zuma Aunty.  I told Zuma it looks like a 70’s muumuu, but Zuma insisted she wear it for this shoot.  It makes her look like she should be on the old sitcom, Three’s Company.  Also, as another side note, it may look like my 8 month old baby is standing on a chair by herself, but what you can’t see is my sister waiting to catch her just on the other side.  : )