Yesterday morning, Gabe sent me an e-mail that said, "Our baby is 8 months old today. Here's a look back to when she was a day old". This is the picture that was attached.

I started crying. Yes, I'm one of "those" moms, apparently. :-) Wow, these past 8 months have been amazing. Jada is such a little blessing to our family. I can't believe it. It really seems like she is growing, changing, and learning new things every single day. In just the past couple of weeks, she started CRAWLING (watch out, she's fast!), opening drawers, clapping her hands, and becoming generally more perceptive of her surroundings. All of a sudden, straps and tags that have been on her toys all along are discovered and, of course, tasted. :-)

I am so amazed at how quickly she picks up on new concepts. We started introducing sign language about 2 weeks ago. So far, we're working on, "drink" and "eat". Soon, I'd like to include "more", "please", and "thank you". She doesn't mimic the sign yet, but it seems like she understands that "drink" means "Would you like your sippy cup?" because she loves her sippy cup and starts smiling and gets excited when I sign and say "drink". A couple days ago, I placed a toy up to her mouth, then pulled it away, then back up to her mouth when she was saying, "Ahhhhh", which made more of a "Wah, Wah, Wah" sound. The following day, she held a toy up to Gabe's mouth and said, "Ahhhhh". We think she remembered what happened the day before and was trying it out on Daddy. What an incredible girl.

She is still an excellent sleeper; she now sleeps from about 7:30 pm - 7:30 am straight through. Gabe and I are very much enjoying this new time that we can spend together in the evenings. It's like having a stay-at-home date with my husband almost every night! We either watch episodes of 24 together while just relaxing on the couch or have devotional time together and great conversation. I love it. This Saturday, we are going to exchange dates with our good friends, Ross & Becky. We're going to go out on a date while they watch little Jada, then they'll go out on a date while we watch little David. All of us are very excited!

Jada has pretty much dropped her morning nap at 10:30am, but occasionally, she still takes it if she's especially tired. She still takes her afternoon nap at about 1:00pm and it usually lasts about 2 hours. She also takes a mini dinner time nap that lasts about 30-45 minutes. Naptime is when I try to squeeze in my bookkeeping work, cleaning, and dinner-making. Although naptime is ever-changing and highly depends on Jada's activity level & growth spurts, I try to keep a rough daily routine for her so that she can anticipate what is going to happen next. She eats solid food (pureed fruits & veggies and now little puffy crackers) about 2x/day.

I don't know what percentile she is in height and weight right now, but she is 21.5 lbs. We just ordered a new carseat for her today, actually, because we just discovered that her current carseat has a maximum weight of 22 lbs... yeah. We're pretty much there. Jada is wearing 9 month clothing for the most part. She has to wear cotton pants/shorts with elastic waists because zippers and buttons are too tight on her tummy. :-)

Here's a video of Jada playing with Kaya; they're best friends. You can see Jada crawling just a little bit in this video; we'll post another one soon that will better show off her skills. :-)

Last Monday, Jada & I drove down to Eugene to visit my sister, Annie. We had a fabulous day just spending time together. If you've ever wondered where Jada's blue eyes or light brown hair comes from (since Gabe & I both have dark brown hair and dark eyes - dark brown for me and hazel for Gabe)...just take a look at this picture. Annie & Jada's eye and hair color are a perfect match. I joke with Annie sometimes that Jada looks more like her Aunt Annie than Mommy.

Jada started clapping her hands last Saturday! We were going for a walk and she did something cute, so I said, "Yay, Jada!" and clapped my hands. She then looked back at me, smiled, and proceeded to clap her hands too! She is definitely the smartest baby in the world! I am so proud of her. Now whenever we say, "Clap your hands, Jada! Yay!", she claps her hands with us. :-)

Jada loves hanging out with Gabe so much. Here are a couple sweet pictures of them reading together the other night.

Last weekend, we headed over to Sunriver with the Louis Palau Association for their Presidential Council weekend. Gabe, Jada, & I helped out with the 5-11 year old kids. We had a blast. Not only did we get to play with fun kiddos, but we also had some fun free time on Saturday. We spent that time as a family walking to the Sunriver mall for lunch then we went swimming. Jada LOVES splashing in the water. Here are some fun pictures of us chilling out in the pool and a couple of us hanging out in our room. There are quite a few pictures, so Gabe put them into a slideshow for me. :-)