10.5 Months

Colder weather reminds me of last year this time when I was really starting to get excited for Eva's birth. I can't believe she's almost a year old!
I've started watching some children in my home and it's a lot of fun. Eva loves to have the playmates!
She is really walking now! It's very slow but she can walk all the way across a room. The other day I was in the kitchen and she walked in and it was just weird, seeing her turn the corner and just walk in!
Thanks to my sister Tricia we now have a play thing in our back yard with two slides. So fun! We'll try to get lots of use out of it before it gets too cold.

Apple Picking

Eva and her cousin Alayna

So my sister Kari and her family and Eva and I went apple picking today! It was so much fun! We got to walk out into the orchard and pick which apples we wanted and everything! We also got to see some goats, but Eva thought those were pretty scary.

Almost 10 months and walking!

It's official. We've taken our first unaided steps!!
It's only two or three at a time right now, but she's doing it! I love it.
She still crawls when she wants something fast, but she practices her steps all the time.
Other milestones....turning book pages as you read to her which is too cute. She's very impatient though and if there are more than a few words on the page she tries to turn it again right away. She has eaten lots more 'real' food now too! She had her first grilled cheese sandwich and her first mac and cheese. She LOVES peas and will eat them by the handful. I think my mom fed her pizza once (sigh, grandmas). She has three teeth, two tops and one bottom, which she has started to grind together. I'm a teeth grinder in my sleep so i wonder if she gets this from me?? The sound makes your skin crawl though! She hates sleep time as much as ever and fights it to no end. She has herself down to one nap already, usually midday and that one is less than an hour. It's so not cool. She should be sleeping WAY more.
She's doing so great though and looking more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. I love to watch her grow, but I lament her babyhood coming to an end!

9 months plus

Finally getting another post up!
Evalyn is now 9.5 months old. She is still totalling along furniture and standing on her own, but no walking on her own yet. Her little two front teeth come in more every day. She's eating so many new foods too....today she tried mac and cheese! She loves to eat! I think she'd chose to eat over a bottle almost always.
Her grandma Babb bought her a pony she loves to ride and a kitchen! She can only reach the lower cabinets so far, but loves chewing on the play food!
I live for her smile and feel her anger or sadness like my own. I can't believe there was a time when she wasn't here....how did I get up every morning without her insistent squeals or go to bed without checking for her steady breathing under my hand?
I can't wait to see what the next months and years bring for her.

Standing Tall

Watching Evalyn has been so amazing this month. She learns so fast, it's just incredible. She went from crawling to pulling herself up to stand in about 3 days. She's a master crawler now; I think she could do about a 7 minute mile, at least that's how it feels to try to keep up with her. She's pulling herself up on anything that will stand still long enough including animals, our legs, and typically things that will fall over and land on her. She loves standing and looking out our living room window. I think she probably knows all the neighborhood gossip from watching everyone out that window.
She loves being just a little scared and squeals with delight when she's spun around fast or swung high on the swing or when her papa crashes her little push cars into the walls.
She is sprouting two front teeth as well, just barely out of the gums as of this post. This perhaps explains some crabbiness and sleepnessless as of late.
She's been watched all summer by a mix of her grandmas and her aunt Kari (thanks guys!) but will be going back to Michelle's soon. I loved having her spend time with my family, but I'm sure she'll enjoy being with all Michelle's kids again! Next post she'll be nine months old! I can't believe I'm already thinking about her birthday party. Didn't I just have her yesterday?!?

Crawling!

Eva declared her independence this fourth of July by learning to crawl!

7 Months

Finally summer! Eva has enjoyed getting out into the world! We've been all over in our stroller on walks, and now we got a jogging stroller so we can go for runs too! She is such a great sitter. She can sit forever and just play. Now that she can sit so well she HATES to be on her back. It's either sitting or standing (with help on the standing of course!)
She eats both lunch and dinner now. Loves her some veggies and rice and that Yo-Baby yogurt. She's tried birthday cake at her cousin Brian's birthday and had ice cream too! She still doesn't want anything more solid though. I tried scrambled egg and she thought that was way yucko.
We tried to go into a little kiddie pool this weekend, but I think the water was too cold, because she didn't like it much. I think I'll try in my mom's big pool when the weather gets warmer.
My mom is watching Eva for me all summer, so that will be fun for all of us! My parents are also moving nearer to us within the year, so that's exciting too!
I love to watch all of Eva's little victories; her sitting and eating and getting so much better with her hands. She is trying to rock herself into a crawling position all the time, so I think she'll be crawling before the summer is over. She really has given me a different perspective of and a deeper appreciation for the gift that is our life.