9 months and never slowing down

Sorry for the long wait for a new post, but things have been a little chaotic for the last couple of weeks. Evalee and I very much enjoyed our Mommy/Daughter bonding time after the whirlwind of Christmas week was over and we could relax and bring some normalcy back into our routine. It has been really fun to watch Evalee with her new toys and books she got for Christmas and watch her discover and learn how things work. The toys, however, have still failed to distract her from her two favorite loves: her books and her cats. She is tireless when it comes to her pursuit of the cats every night. She has kind of given up trying to catch Gizmo, who is afraid of her own shadow let alone a 9 month old so she scrams at the first sign of an attack. Gadget, however, is just the right amount of lazy that sometimes, she lets her get close enough to touch. Eva figured out one night that Gadget liked her new Christmas toy, so she was trying to entice her to come closer (which is pretty clever, if you ask me). She also likes giving her her treat for being a good kitty and letting her pet her fur.

She has also really started getting daring when it comes to travel. She loves to be standing, although she still can't quite stand on her own yet. She has started to master "cruising" and gets very proud of herself when she can navigate around the couch and the coffee table with no help. This week she has also been pushing around the walker that Santa brought her, and although she prefers to push it sideways it has helped her get around the living room. We have, however, had our share of bumps and bruises as a result of this daring nature. I've been looking into getting one of those padded leather benches to serve as our coffee table in place of the one we have now, since she has bumped her head one too many times on it for my taste.

We have also been trying our best to transition into better eating habits and better sleeping habits. It's been hard to get her used to anything with all of the excitement and busy-ness of the last month or so, but we are finally now starting to settle down. She has recently started screaming her head off when she sees a jar of baby food, almost offended by the idea that we would feed her such things. So, she has been eating a lot of mixed fruit oatmeal, Gerber crunchies, Gerber puffs, and even a few Cherrios. She wants our table food, but she's still not very good at getting it down. We tried to feed her some ground spaghetti and meat sauce this weekend when we were eating, and she ended up coughing it up and throwing up everywhere. Fortunately, a top tooth is breaking through so hopefully she'll be able to eat a little easier soon.

She has also started making it through the night without a bottle in the middle of the night. She still wakes up once each night, usually (though sometimes a couple times) but we can usually coax her back to sleep with a little snuggle, rocking, and pacifier and be back in bed in 10-15 minutes. She spoiled us this weekend with TWO nights in a row of sleep from bedtime until around 6:30. I long for the days of a full night's sleep. But I know they are a light at the end of a tunnel I have barely begun to start trekking through.

She goes in to see Dr. Moen on Friday for her nine month well baby visit. I can't believe she'll be a year old in less than 3 months. We have quite the celebration to plan, as we definitely have a lot to be thankful for in the last year!

Come here Gadget, I have a secret for you.
Just chillin' with my buddy.
Giving the cats' treats a little shake before facing the music and realizing they are not for her.
Here kitty, kitty, kitty....
You know you want it...
Lovin' life.
All dressed up in my new outfit from Grandma Kershaw and ready to head to church. Watch out, whoever sits behind us.
She's still my daughter even if we look nothing alike.
I'm sorry, future Evalee, but this had to be remembered. After the puke explosion mentioned earlier, we attempted to change her quickly so we could get back to our dinner. She was not interested in food. Or clothes. Or diapers. Only toys.
So we relented only long enough to have a good laugh and to snap a couple of pictures. I hope the play time was worth the future humiliation, Ernie. :)