Friday, May 22, 2009

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.

11 comments:

  1. I love her consanant babbles. We've yet to hear those in our household. The sleeping strike was last week for us, so I assure you it DOES end within a week. Ariana would wake up screaming bloody murder but smile and jump in her crib the second I ran in to get her. And no amount of nursing or rocking could get her to go back to sleep. Most nights it as 2 hours of her just staring at me and trying to grab my bottom lip before I put her back down with eyelids at halfmast. She still thinks our day should start at 6 am, but that's a whole different battle. Hang in there and keep posting pictures of the beatiful Evie!

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  2. Love the crocs! Yup, if you put her in a dress for something fancy just tuck the dress into her bloomers while she's hanging out and crawling around.

    Learning to feed herself-definitely messy! But that's the only way she'll learn.

    I took the 1 year old I nanny for to her 1 year appt yesterday and her head was 5th percentile and her height is 95th! Lol! String bean with a peanut head!

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  3. She is so precious, it is unbelievable how quickly they grow! I love all your pictures and seeing all the great things she's doing these days!

    I actually need your advice on the whole cloth diapering thing. I'm attempting it with Charlie (bum genius 3.0 all-in-ones,) but so far the diapers are really bulky on him, even with only one insert. I don't have many diapers yet because we were so last minute, but I'm building up my collection and just wondered what your thoughts are based on your experiences with Evie. I know you're busy so no pressure, but I'd love to hear anything you have to say!

    Melba

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  4. Elizabeth has those same fake crocks, she LOVES them!!

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  5. I remember the difficulty photographing G at that age. One of our official portrait sessions at Target was mostly disasterous. I explained to the young photographer that I wasn't a stuffy "portrait" mom and simply wanted a few candid, personality shots. She ended up making him hysterical because she kept trying to insist he hit in a certain place or stand a certain way. We got one, morbidly sad, close up of him with a tear on his eyelash, that was worthwhile...but otherwise the entire session was a bust. I've learned to pick my photographers better now.
    I can't believe Evie is 8 months already. Wow.

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  6. I just want to squeeze those cheeks! How are they not raw from you kissing them all the time? I can't wait to show Eli the new pictures and video. He adores the computer "baby" and wants to see her whenever I am on. Thanks for your comments....it's hard not to feel guilty about letting them watch a couple hours of tv just so I can sleep in the middle of the day! Today we played outside from 8:30am (poor neighbors) until 1:00. BOTH boys took a nap today! Andy for half an hour and Eli is still sleeping! I am going to try this everyday if it's sunny! I am sorry about Evie's sleep. Eli was a major PAIN and because Andy was so easy I just couldn't figure it out. All babies are different, just do what you gotta do!! Good luck!

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  7. Wow, I can't believe she is 8 months old already! She is getting so big. She is as big as my boys are now. I love that age from about 6-9 months...I think they are at the height of cuteness. :) You sound like you are doing a fabulous job with her!

    PS- We are going to be in your area in about a week! Can we meet up for lunch? I'll email you...

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  8. She looks wonderful! I especially love the teddybear bite pic. I can even hear the sound effects in my head---lots of high-pitched HAPPY.

    And, I LOVE that she's your favorite thing. =)

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  9. O love that birthday diaper, what kind is it?? Do you CD full time? I'm an adoption mama too and it's been wonderful!

    Found your link on the baby center jon&kate conversation.

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  10. +Suz: hi! Yep, we CD full time except for when we're traveling. The birthday diaper is a 3SR from Muttaqin Baby, the pattern is called Pink and Chocolate Floral.

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  11. Evie is so adorable, and already a Shoe Girl!

    I can only imagine (well, remember, actually) how busy you are, now that she's on the move.

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