Eight Months Old

Evie turned eight months old on Monday, but both Anna and Evie were sick with a virus that day, so I totally missed the anniversary. Just yesterday Evie learned how to move across the floor on her hands and knees. She still army crawls often and will often collapse as soon as she gets near whatever she is trying to reach, but it's time to put the gate back up on the stairs. And the books and DVDs on the bottom shelves are no longer safe. Yesterday I found her playing with Dan's copy of Moby Dick and crying. I told her I cry too when I think of reading that book.

We've started giving Evie table food while we eat dinner. She actually did pretty well with the pasta and loves cheerios. More often I use my little grinder, so that the food is more like a paste. She'll eat anything we give her and she often smears it all over her face. I gave her some mashed up black beans a week or two ago and as usual she spread them all over her face. I wiped her face off and then went to put her in the bathtub. After her I got her out of her high chair I realized that I had missed her eyebrows. They were caked with black bean paste.

Her favorite toy these days seems to be the wires hanging down from my computer. She loves to crawl over there and pull on any of the cords she can get her hands on. I try to limit it, but sometimes she's fast!

She still takes three naps a day, but it seems like two of the three naps are usually less than forty-five minutes long. I personally don't think that constitutes a nap, but she's usually pretty adamant that she's ready to get up. A week or two ago I realized that Evie's not much for rocking in the chair before her nap. In fact, there was a time a short while ago when she would start to cry whenever I would try to read to her. I guess she knew that reading a book means nap time. Then after the book, I would try to rock her and sing to her, but she would always struggle against my arms and start to cry. One day I put her straight into bed after reading her a book, and she actually cried less. She usually cries herself to sleep. Even if she's fallen asleep in my arms, as soon as she hits that mattress she will wake up and cry until she falls asleep, but she seems to get less worked up if I don't try to rock her.

No one can make Evie laugh quite like Anna does, but Evie's also learning to fight back. If Anna gets too close to Evie, Anna usually leaves some hair behind. Evie wants to grab or touch anything she can get her hands on. Gone are the days when I can hold her during dinner. She's also quite wiggly and strong. If I try to hold her she usually wriggles and writhes as if she wants me to put her down and then when I do, she refuses to sit, preferring to stand, except that she can't stand by herself. The only way to get her to sit is to lean her back until she's almost lying on the ground and then she'll usually drop her bum and take a seat.

It's fun to see her personality emerge. She's generally easy going, but also quite tenacious and determined. We love her smile and giggle and we love Evie.