8 months!

8 months old today! She now has 2 teeth, and today, lo and behold, she started saying "ma-ma," which of course, I love. Especially since she said da-da first!
And, I'm taking a photography class online, from Rawsii, so hopefully you'll continue seeing better and better pictures of the kids. here's the latest:

my how she grows

My my my, how this little Emily is growing so quickly. Since my last post, she has gotten her first tooth, and she has started pulling up on things (actually on the very laundry basket she's pictured in below)! She's not even 8 months old and I am not ready for a mobile Emily! Good reality check though for us to locate and put baby gates on standby!
The other kids are, of course, quite anxious for her to get after them! Boy, if they only knew what they were in for!

she can READ!

Ok, it's sorta a long story. For the last several months, Abby's been telling me how much she wants to learn how to read. So I started (in my free time, ha ha) working with her on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We really only got through about 15 lessons and then one Friday, she was sitting at the table with us as I was giving the boys their weekly spelling tests. She wanted a spelling test too, so I gave her words that I was pretty confident she knew, like Mom, Dad, Abby, cat, dog, etc. She aced it, but I wasn't shocked. Then as our school day progressed, I was cutting out some sight word cards for Matthew from his binder. I flipped to the beginning of the binder and showed the words (on cards) to Abby. She read them all, with no help. They were rhyming words, like rat, sat, mat, cat, bat, fat..... I continued showing her more and more and she continued reading. Matthew showed her some of his current spelling words (bring, big, hand, trap) and she continued reading. By now, both the boys and I were cheering for her with every correct word! It was amazing!! So, apparently she's ready! (totally missed that one!) I dug out some easy readers for her, simple books like "I Can Do It" and "My Week"..... she's doing wonderfully, and is really excited about it too! We're so proud! Way to go, Ab.