Eight Months Old

On her 8 month birthday, Evie weighed 19.5 lbs. on the bathroom scale and measured 26 inches tall. Of course, she measured over 26 inches at her 6 month doctor visit and being 26 inches now would put her in the 12th percentile, so I'm pretty sure I did a bad job measuring. Maybe it's because the only time I can measure her accurately is when she's sleeping and, as any mom will tell you, the last thing you want to do when your baby is finally sleeping is try to fumble around them with a measuring tape. She's probably more like 27 inches tall because that would put her closer to her normal percentile. Anyhow, she's in 9-12 month clothing, which fits her great if it is short sleeves and shorts. Long pants and long sleeves need to be rolled up a bit.

Here is the link to her "then and now" comparison pictures in her birthday diaper, and here are this month's best shots. They're not great, but they are much better than the bloopers! Evie is getting more and more difficult to photograph; she just will not hold still anymore:

And her 8 month interview. Busy, busy. At the end she waves "bye bye" for the very first time and I'm just sick that the camera didn't catch it because she was too close to the lens.




More pics from this month:

Trying on and tasting her new purple C*rocs (size 2/3):

One of our teething remedies: frozen banana in a mesh feeder. MESSY.

Demonstrating some stranger anxiety with her great-grandparents (meeting J's grandparents for the first time). Evie's newborn second cousin is in the second photo:

First time eating broccoli:

Mommy found Evie some fake C*rocs ($4 on clearance at BRU) that look exactly like the real pink C*roc slippers that Mama has been wearing all winter long. (Have I mentioned that Evie is obsessed with shoes, particularly mine? She still prefers mine to her own):

One of Evie's new favorite toys is this yellow disk that came with her play gym. When J and I first put the play gym together before she was born, we were confused about these flat plastic tags with photos of animals. Why would babies play with them? I still don't know, but Evie loves the yellow one with the duck on one side and the frog on the other side. She teethes on it all the time and the picture of the duck is slowly dissolving.

Evie is still obsessed with Goodnight Moon. No matter how tired and cranky she is at bedtime she will sit still and listen to this book. If she's in a particularly alert mood she likes to help turn the pages:

Remember Pearl, the B*uild-A-B*ear she made with R and G in January? She adores Pearl. She'll squeal with delight when she sees her after a long absence (e.g. 30 minutes). In Evie and Pearl's universe, a bite on the nose is a polite and loving form of greeting:

Month 8 Roundup

The good stuff:

*independent play

*self-feeding

*I can distract her from being fussy much of the time

*not balancing a car seat precariously on shopping carts

*longer naps

*more cuddly

*adorable toothy grins

*enjoying books

*the cuteness of crawling

The not-so-good stuff:

*stranger/separation anxiety

*the obstacle course of baby gates

*she's STILL spitting up. It's gotten a tad better, but runny purees, water and formula still set her off. And last Sunday I sat through the entire church service with yogurt spit up on my shirt. It smelled awful.

*teething crankiness

*nap strikes

*the trauma of diaper changes, which require her to LIE STILL for 1 whole minute

*the persistent late night and early morning feedings

The worst thing: running out of our bag of sleep tricks. We've tried nearly everything but naptime is a battle almost every day now and bedtime can be just as bad. We throw everything at her: bath, massage, bottle, books, white noise, lovey blankets, pacifier...but the thrill of staying awake seems to be stronger than what we are dishing out. We do have a plan. I'll write more about that if it works. If it doesn't, I'll come back begging for advice.

The best thing: now that she is mobile, as soon as I enter a room she will drop whatever she's doing and crawl to me, unless someone distracts her. She and I now relate like a moth and a flame, a monkey and a jungle gym, a paper clip and a magnet. I love being her favorite. I love that mine are her favorite shoes to stalk. Mine are her favorite legs to climb. Mine is her favorite face to pinch. It reminds me of that cliche "if you love a thing, let it go; if it comes back to you, it is yours forever." It's not really true, since she will leave for college some day, but for now it's true enough. I adore my little moth.

For the record: Evie drinks 3-4 bottles of formula each day (mostly at nighttime now) and eats:

Fruits: apple, pear, banana, mango, avocado, papaya, plum, peach, prune

Veg: asparagus, green beans, peas, all kinds of summer and winter squash, broccoli, carrots, sweet potato

Starch: white potato, cereal (rice, oats, barley), K*ashi H*eart to H*eart cereal, H*appy B*aby organic puffs, Baby M*um M*ums, wheat bread, pasta

Dairy: yogurt and cheeses (cottage, mozzarella, cream and ricotta)

Meat: chicken, turkey and beef

Drink (besides formula): water only, no juice

Lesson learned: dresses and skirts are useless for crawly baby girls because they trip up their knees. I'm really not sure why the baby clothing manufacturers even make baby girl dresses in sizes 9-12 months since most of those babies are crawling. What a waste of cute clothes.