Evelyn Clara: 7 months

We just got home from a week long vacation in Florida, and Eric and I both came home with head colds (boo!), so forgive my tardiness with Evie's 7 month update. :) We are all doing wonderfully, and enjoying Evie more and more as she grows before our eyes.

Evie has mastered a lot of new and fun skills over the last month, she's been a busy girl! we started solid food this month as you all know from the videos and such, and she's doing great. Evie has eaten everything we've given her, and hasn't shown an aversion to a single food. She seems to love eating, and sometimes I think she'd just keep eating and eating if we kept giving her food- she never wants to stop! ;) Right now she's having a fruit mixed with oatmeal for breakfast, and a veggie and oatmeal mixed with formula for dinner. I've just started putting her in the high chair when I'm eating lunch and letting her play with some finger food. She's doing really well with picking up bits of food and getting them to her mouth, I can see that she'll have this mastered soon.
On the mobile front, we're still army-crawling, but Evie spends a lot of time on her hands and knees stationary, so I think she'll start crawling for real soon. And she has pretty much totally figured out how to pull herself to standing on furniture, laundry baskets, etc. so now she's standing quite a bit. It's so strange to see such a tiny girl standing up, it makes me laugh everytime I see her. :) And I'm afraid she's going to a climber with her interest in climbing up on anything she can reach, so watch out for that!
We went to the pediatrician today for a weight check since at her 6 month visit her weight gain was a little low, but she's bounced right back and we're on track again so nothing to worry about. Evie is 15.6 lbs and 26.75" long.
Here are some photos from our trip to Florida with Grandma and Grandpa Rudy, Uncle Dan, Aunt Tammy, and Uncle Greg. We had a great time and Evie was SO good, especially on the flights there and back. She slept great in the hotel and discovered her love of swimming. :) I'll be looking into Mommy and Me swimming lessons soon for us!

Evie is a Fish

Just popping in to share a moment from our vacation in Florida- we're having a great time and the weather is great! Tomorrow we're going to Sea World, which I'm hoping Evie enjoys. She clearly likes water, as seen from her fearless attempts to swim out of Eric arms in the pool this afternoon. :)

http://youtu.be/5camXU2TPmw

She's a Daredevil!

Evie has been getting more and more adventurous lately, exploring her abilities and strength. Her new favorite thing to play with is her carseat. She grabs the edge of it, pulls it down, then climbs inside. We need to start putting it in a different spot so she doesnt do this anymore, but I did take a photo while she was supervised. :)

 Then the other day, I changed Evie's diaper, and while taking care of it in the bathroom, I put her on the floor in her room with a toy. I come back to find her like this:

 That basket has toys and stuffed animals in it, and apparently she wanted in! She has now since mastered pulling herself up to kneeling on baskets and boxes. Then this morning, this happened:

Um yea. My 6 and a half month old pulled herself up to standing all on her own. No help. Is that even allowed!?!? I told Evie it's not. ;) She did it again this afternoon on a laundry basket- pray for us. She is growing up way too fast!! And I think it's so interesting that she still can't sit unassisted, but can do all these other things. I'm afraid this means we'll have a little girl who won't sit still!! ;)

Giggle Fits

Generally speaking, Evie's not much of a laugher. She'll smile for you all day long no problem, she's a very happy girl, but it takes a lot to get her to really laugh. But Daddy- he gets the giggles every time. :)

Pumpkin Take 2

Now there's a smiley Evie. :)

First Foods

http://youtu.be/pzvxM8bhZjA

Here's Evie's first experience with solid foods, we started with oatmeal. She did so great!!

Evelyn Clara: 6 Months

*sniff*sniff* My baby!!!!!

Okay, I'm alright now. Promise. ;) I just can't believe that Evie is half a year old already! She's such a little person now. Everyday we see her learning new things and picking up new skills, it is so much fun to watch. She's completely mastered army crawling now, and is all over the house into everything. No crawling yet- I think she's gotten so good at army crawling that she doesn't have much interest in getting up on her knees!
Evie's also babbling up a storm now- her baby vocabulary now includes "mamamama", "dadadada", "babababa", and occasionally "lalalala" (a rare but fun one!). She LOVES when we sing and dance around the house- particularly when I do crazy dance moves for her. She's only 6 months old, but she definitely already knows when I'm acting like an idiot for her. :)
We're starting to upgrade Evie's toys to more interactive ones and it's really fun to see her learn to use new things. She loves blocks now, and is fantastic at knocking down towers. She also likes cups and bowls of all kinds.
After her 6 month appointment this Thursday... we're going to start food!!! I'm really excited. :) I can't wait to watch her explore new tastes, I've been making my own baby food and keeping it in the freezer, so I'm stocked and ready. We will of course video her first experience, so stay tuned for that!
So many new things to see and do- it's a blast!