Evelyn is 8 Months

Evelyn is now 8 months old.  This past month has brought a new first - a tooth!  Her bottom left tooth has just poked through, and I think the right one is not far behind it.  She had a few weeks there where she was waking a lot more frequently at night, and I think this was due partially to that tooth coming through.  Thankfully, she is back to waking just once a night now.

The weather has warmed up just enough for us to spend some time sitting outside on the grass on a blanket.  Evelyn really loves being outside and watching the breeze blow through the trees and the birds fly by.  She has a darker complexion than her siblings, which probably means that she will be less inclined to sunburn.  I will still have to be diligent about keeping the sunscreen on her, though.

She sits up very well now, and enjoyed her first bath with Miles and Vivienne.  It was incredibly sweet to see them all in the bath tub together.  Miles and Viv enjoyed stacking foam letters on her head and "helping" to wash the baby.  Evelyn got knocked down more than a couple times, though, so the threesome bath is a rare treat.  We will have to start trying it more often now, because she has become more and more stable at sitting up.

She has little interest in crawling so far.  I put her on her stomach, but she is usually pretty quick to just roll right back over onto her back.  She is showing some interest in learning how to reach toys that are further away, but she still seems to use her rolling to obtain them instead of pushing up on her legs. 

Evelyn loves to eat, which is no surprise.  I have enjoyed not making any baby food this time (no pureeing, no ice cube trays, no messy spoons).  The baby-led weaning has gone very well.  Instead of baby foods, we just give her finger foods and larger chunks that she can gnaw on.  She loves pita bread, applesauce, cheese, rice, beans, cheerios, sweet potatoes and other foods, but she seems to have found a special place in her heart for cantaloupe.   I'm sure that the cool melon also feels good to her teething gums.

She has just recently started clapping, and it's really sweet to see her giggle when we clap back.  Her clapping is still not incredibly coordinated, but it seems clear that she is trying to clap.  She makes lots of new consonant sounds and enjoys experimenting with her voice.

Evelyn is still an incredibly mellow baby.  She is very easy-going and rarely fusses much, unless she is hungry or tired.  She is a great sport about hopping in the Ergo and letting me wear her to the park or playground or hiking with her brother and sister.  She wakes up most mornings around 7:30 and usually doesn't go to sleep again until around 1 pm.  At that point, she is eager to take her nap, but she still usually doesn't fuss much beforehand.

We love watching our youngest daughter blossom into a little toddler.  Some days seems tiring and endless, but I know that I am going to miss these sweet baby days when I have three "big kids" running around the house.