Eight Months - Such a Big Girl Now!

As Julia grows, we are amazed almost daily at what she does - she picks up new skills so easily and then acts like she's done them for months! She is also growing very much like a weed;
.just the other day I came home from work and could have sworn she grew and changed in her face Don't ask me what her measurements and weight are because I have no clue, but I can tell you it feels like she weighs a metric ton :-)
What she's doing:

• Laughing spontaneously at things she finds humorous, including but not limited to: zerberting being done to her neck and belly, daddy bobbing his head and making weird noises, mommy shaking her head and screeching, tickling, other people laughing, being "baby hat", and "getting" sissy.
• Rolling over and doing a strange Jane Fonda-esque pose a la aerobicising (or whatever Jane was doing in legwarmers in the 80's), holding her foot in the air. She's also big into her feet. And ours, which makes me crazy because I have a thing about my feet.
• Getting herself into a nearly-seated position, all by herself.
• Sitting up with some assistance and maintaining it for a bit. Eventually she does fall over, but we've made this as non-traumatic as possible.
• Getting up on her knees, then to her hands and knees. We're still not moving forward, but at least we're up - she can sort of go backwards and today we helped her move forward, much to her delight, but she needs to practice some more.
• One day two weeks ago she looked square at me and said "mama"but she has not done it since. She'll babble ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, na-na-na and variations on those themes.
• Leaning towards what she wants while being held - this includes going to daddy, mommy and sissy.
• Grasping things using more refined fine motor skills - she's getting pretty good and picking things up, using pinching to grab things she wants, and manipulating things in her hands.
• Growing hair. It may not be as evident in her photos, but there is a healthy patch of hair coming in on her noggin. She gets "Alfalfa" hair in the morning or after her bath, which is adorable. It's still light brown with some reddish tints from what we can tell when she's in the sun, but we still don't know what it'll be.
• Starting to get upset when she realizes we are not in her immediate vicinity. Separation anxiety is starting to rear its head and she has begun to demonstrate favoritism towards us when she's in certain moods. For example, right this minute she's daddy's girl curled up on his chest taking a nap, but last night when she wasn't feeling well and she was tired, she was mommy's girl.
• Expanding her interest in toys and activities. Some things she was introduced to earlier may not have tripped her trigger, but now she is into them - like her caterpillar, Pooh and Piglett toys, blocks and exesaucer. She also likes books, but more for touching and turning the pages. She is a very tactile child and spends a lot of time touching and scratching at things. This includes our skin.
• Eating more solids. She's done great with cereal, but does not enjoy much else unless it's mixed into her cereal. She goes ape over cereal mixed with prunes (yeah, I know but she doesn't poop nearly as much as you might think) and does quite well with pears and squash in the same manner. This week, Steven says he'll try cereal with green beans or peas, since we tried beans on their own and it went over something like a lead balloon. She will try things is we put it on our fingers (or hold it) - like the caramel apple smoothie I had last night, some guacamole from one of our favorite local restaurants, and home made bread. Sometimes it goes over well (bread), sometimes it doesn't (smoothie and guacamole), but she tries it.