8 months already?

Now that Natalie is 8 months old, here's what she can do:

*Gets into crawling position, rocks (can even take a few "steps") and back to sitting position
*Gets into "bear crawl" position
*Pulls up on anything and everything within her reach
*Babbles with consonant and vowel sounds
*Says "Mamma" and "Da da" indiscriminately (although, I'm pretty sure she says "Mamma" correctly)
*Uses her index finger and thumb to feed herself crackers
*Is a sippy cup pro
*Understands and obeys (sometimes) "No"
*Has 3 teeth
*Waves "hello" and "bye bye"

The past 8 months have gone by so quickly, I can't believe we're only 4 months away from celebrating Natalie's FIRST birthday! Goodness! It's hard to believe how far we've come, it seems like only yesterday I had a squishy little newborn. Even though I miss newborn Natalie, I think it's pretty safe to say that in no way am I interested in another! I'm still traumatized from my pregnancy and her first 4 months!

Natalie has been trying to crawl with all her might. She can get into the crawling position and can even take a few a steps, but she gives up. I've read that crawling is only an optional skill and is not considered a milestone. Who knew? Anyway, I tend to think Natalie is going to skip the crawling thing all together. Mom tells me I graduated from scooting to cruising, so maybe this is just one more similarity that Natalie and I share. Natalie has recently been around two babies that do crawl (Graeme and Christopher) and she acts very interested in what they're doing. Maybe their influence will push her to try harder.