I'm going to be better and "Eight Months!" and "Five"

I really do want to get better about blogging....especially at this time in my life. There is so much going on now that I know I'm going to love looking back on if I would just take the time to write it down. And since there are a few of you that keep up with our goings-on through my little blog here, it's not fair to you for me to go TWO MONTHS without writing something! So, I'm going to try to be better. I want to set a goal, but I want to be realistic, too. Feel free to hold me accountable and send me "Get with it, woman!" e-mails if you care enough to want to see a new post. :)

SO.

Since the last time I blogged, Evie turned seven and eight months old and Zachary turned five. I don't have posts for any of them. Seven months is just going to have to never happen. But here's an eight month post and in the next day or so, I'll get one up for Zachary's fifth birthday (and pre-date it so it fits in the blog chronology, so look for it a bit further down).

Evie turned eight months 2 days ago. SO much has happened with her in the last 2 months! Here's the rundown.

• She has two teeth!! Both on the bottom, and both like razors. She likes to bite. She's gotten better about not biting while nursing, but probably only because I scared the bejeezus out of her by screaming a couple of times. I'm gun-shy now, and I get a little nauseus during every feed because I'm nervous she's going to bite.
  

• She's wearing mostly 6-9 months clothes, but the 6-9 month pants are too big around the waist and fall down. But with jammies and dresses and such, the 6-9 month size is perfect.

• She graduated to size two diapers a couple weeks ago.

• We had a follow-up appointment a couple weeks ago with the gastroenterologist, and she weighs a little over 14 pounds, which is back to her regular growth curve finally! She's probably closer to 15 pounds now.

• Speaking of weight, she's an eater!! She loves to eat, loves to sit at the table with us and eats just about everything I give her. At this point, she eats avocado, sweet potato, green beans, bananas, pears, peaches, squash, peas, yogurt, oatmeal, chicken, apples, and turkey. I still make a good part of her food, but when we don't eat at home, I don't bother with it. Her favorites are sweet potato and banana, and her least favorite are peas and green beans. She still eats those things, but she just makes a funny face and holds them in her mouth for a long time before she finally swallows. She also hums during her entire meal, which is equal parts cute, funny and annoying.
  

• She's MOBILE. She started creeping just before Christmas and has now just about mastered crawling!

• And TODAY, she pulled up to stand on her own for the first time. It's so funny to watch this little tiny baby do all these things. But she's SO PROUD of herself! (Grrr...the video came out sideways...I don't know why my camera (or computer?) is doing that! Sorry! I'll try to fix it...)

• She is STILL fascinated with my hair. I swear I will be bald before she grows out of it. It hurts, and she always grabs and yanks when I'm not paying attention. Once she gets a handful, I'm totally at her mercy!
  

• She had her first Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was such a joy to have her this year. She did really well being around all those people so much, but you could tell it was overwhelming for her. She didn't really leave my hip at every get together. For her first Christmas, she received a new exersaucer, her first cabbage patch doll, a cute outfit (with ribbon to match for me to make bows!), a fun ball-type toy for her to sit and play with, a touch and feel book, and a couple of little baby toys.

• As far as sleep, she's doing well. She sleeps through about half the time, and when she doesn't she wakes at around 4am or 5am to eat, and then goes back to sleep until she wakes for the day at 7am or 8am.
  

• I've started signing with her, but she hasn't done anything yet. I don't expect her to, but it's fun to do it with her.

And here are her tiara pictures. They were incredibly hard to get because she kept wanting to leap off the chair. There were a couple times she actually almost fell off!

She's so wiggly and wanted OFF that chair!

She seriously almost fell off before I could catch her.

But I was able to distract her a few times.

Or hold her back with my feet.

I eventually let her down on the floor, and she was happy with that...

But not before I got a really good one! She's growing into that tiara so well! I bet it will be a perfect fit for her first birthday pictures!