9 Months

Our sweet little girl is 9 months old today. It is hard for me to believe that she has been a part of our eveyday life now for as long as it took for her to grow to full term in utero!  I'll say these past 9 months seem to have passed more quickly than the 9 when she was growing and developing in the womb. 

Here are some of the things Evelyn is doing right now...she will go for her 9 month check up next week, so I'm anxious to see what she weighs and how much she has grown since her 6 month check up. So check back for those stats later!

Very Social: She truly is a sweet heart through and through. She loves her mommy, daddy and big sister so much and shows great excitement and affection for all of us every day.  When she is excited she waves both arms and kicks her feet wildly...I think she might run marathons when she is older as she is constantly kicking her legs at rapid speed! She is in the separation anxiety stage and sometimes misses her mommy when I'm not around and she also gets her feelings deeply hurt if she sees me walk past her without stopping to pick her up or at least give her some attention. She also knows what the word "hug" means and when you ask her to give you a hug she'll lean into your shoulder and bury her head into your chest....one of the sweetest things ever!

Sitting & Nursing: She is sitting up well and plays happily with toys when they are placed near her. She also loves to be near Mara Kate and play with her. She laughs, giggles, blows bubbles and smiles whenever she is with Mara Kate. It is difficult for me to nurse her when Mara Kate is in the same room as she is always so interested in what her sister is doing that she won't concentrate on nursing. If Mara Kate is anywhere to be found she would much rather watch her than eat, so I sometimes have to ask Mara Kate to go play in her own room when I am nursing Evelyn because it is a lost cause otherwise! When she does nurse it is a very quick thing---maybe under 10 minutes. She eats quickly and is done--a very efficient nurser for sure!

Moving: She isn't crawling yet, but is up on all 4's...she likes to balance on her tip toes and the top of her head and will go from that position back to sitting up. Even though she isn't crawling she is moving by rolling and scooting. I will sit her down in one spot and come back to find that she has moved across the room in the time I was gone. I think she will be crawling soon because when she is up on her hands and knees she is starting to pull forward with her hands and rock back and forth. She just needs to coordinate the use of her legs and hands, but once she figures it out I know she will be everywhere and into everything!

Talking: Evelyn is getting more verbal and likes to whisper "da-da". She says loudly "ma-ma" when she is hungry or wants something! She also says ba-ba too. So far those are her three main sounds. 

Eating: Evelyn could teach her big sister a thing or two about eating...especially when it comes to vegetables. Evelyn loves her baby food and downs anything and everything we put in her mouth. She eats all veggies and all fruits we have offered her and hasn't once turned her nose up at anything. She normally eats a fruit mixed with rice cereal for breakfast and a fruit and veggie for lunch and supper. As my previous post showed, she is starting to be able to feed herself cheerios. This is a wonderful stage to be in as I am able to spoon feed her her supper in the evening, then throw some cheerios on her tray and she'll be happy as can be eating them on her own while the rest of us sit and eat supper together. She still nurses several times a day as well...so all in all, a great eater!

Sleeping: She is also a better sleeper than her sister was at this age. She has slept through the night a few times (from 7:30pm-7:00am), but most nights she wakes up to eat once. It's getting to the point that is she wakes up I'm not surprised and if she doesn't wake up I'm not surprised. When she wakes up I nurse her and she goes right back to sleep. This nursing time is one of my favorites (other than the fact that I have to get out of bed in the middle of the night) because she is usually sleeping and very, very cuddly during this feeding....unlike the daytime when she is more interested in everything else going on around her than cuddling with mommy. :)

Nicknames: Evie, Evelyn-Smevelyn, Evinator, Poopsy McQueen (she has lots and lots of b.m.'s!), Sweet Girl. We call her Evelyn and Evie mostly....and probably each about 50% of the time. I love the shortened version of her name (Evie, with a short e sound), but also like using her full name too (Evelyn) so I'm glad we have naturally fallen into using both interchangeably.

Here she is...

 Our smiley, 

Happy,

curious & blue eyed,

sweetie pie!

I am amazed that Evie is big enough already to just "hang out" with Mara Kate. On Thursday mornings while I'm getting ready for Bible study I usually get the girls all ready and after breakfast they sit and Evelyn plays while Mara Kate watches a short show---this past Thursday I checked on them and noticed Evelyn was paying attention to the tv too (for a few minutes), so I snapped this photo...just thought it looked so sweet. :)

Sisters! Love spending time together.