Lately

I win the award for the worst blogger ever. I have the best intentions but these past couple months have been one big ball of stress and I have simply lacked the motivation to write about Evelyn's milestones and our happenings. I have tons of cute pictures, but it is a huge chore to upload them, partially due to the fact that Google blogger makes me do them one-by-one and then I feel guilty that I don't make the time to do it. There are so many wonderful people in our lives who don't get to see us or Evelyn hardly often enough, and I feel so sorry for not posting regularly.

So a quick update:

Evelyn is great. She is such a happy baby. She is saying mama, dada, and num-num-num. Over the past two weeks she has been going poop on her little frog potty. She cues me by grunting and sitting very still, then I take her diaper off and put her on the potty. It's so very cute and it makes me feel good that I can communicate with her in this way. We've caught 8 poops so far. Only one pee, but I know that having poop in her diaper really bothers her now. She waits for me to put her on the potty and this whole thing really fascinates me! My 9-month old goes poop on her potty.

Evelyn hasn't shown much interest in crawling or walking yet. She scoots backwards and can turn around many times. She's an acrobat during sleep; half the time I awake to find her head down by my back and her feet in my face. I love those moments.

One of Evie's favorite things to do is take a bath. No matter how tired or upset she is, taking a bath makes her feel instantly better. She calms right down and starts babbling away. She loves to lay on my chest with her back to me so that she can sway and kick her feet under water. She'll turn around every once in a while to nurse for about 5 seconds then goes back to playing.

She loves to rip apart paper and napkins or anything that will tear. She'll store a few pieces in her cheeks then spit them out after a few minutes. She has been eating baby food pretty regularly; she loves sweet potato, carrots, pears, peaches, plums, and the awesome medleys that Earth's Best makes. The past week she's been only eating a few bites of food and then completely refuses it. Those are the days she nurses a lot instead. I never worry about what she's eating because I know that until she's at least year old, she can drink breastmilk and it will provide her with all the necessary calories and nutrients she needs. Maybe after her first birthday I will become more scheduled in when and how much she gets fed solids. 

Evie sits and stands up very well now. She loves to sit and wiggle her feet in opposite directions. She likes to kick her feet when she's laying on her back and she knows how to hold herself up when she's standing. Sometimes she rears back while sitting and hits her head on the floor. We always have a wail for a few seconds then she's fine and back to doing whatever she was doing. 

Some days Evelyn only wants mama, other days she says Dada all day long. She'll even cry when Grandma leaves the room at times when Mama is being boring. I love that she is comfortable with other people besides me, but that I can always come back to her and cuddle or nurse her if I've been gone for some reason. I actually don't leave her often at all, but I know if I really need to go somewhere my family will take wonderful care of her. 

It is still very important to me that Evelyn always feels like we will comfort her and meet her needs. I have not pushed any type of early independence on her and I really believe it shows. She is such a happy, alert baby!

When I have enough time to myself, I will try to post more photos of our pumpkin :)