seven month pictures

Let's just assume from here on out that I will not be posting Ellie's "birthday" pictures on time.  Or anything

for that matter.

Ellie's 8 month "birthday" is on Sunday.  Isn't that crazy?  It feels like she changes almost every day.  She sits like a champ, has perfected the slow army-crawl, and frequently enjoys playing by herself for minutes at a time.  Yesterday at church, she sat on my lap, reading books and playing with toys, for an entire hour.  It was lovely.  And it's getting more and more common.

She is still shy with strangers, but smiles occasionally at a select few.  The rest of the time she just buries her face in my shoulder.  But she is always happy to see babies and children.  And dolls that look like babies.  A couple of weeks ago while we were grocery shopping, she squealed happily at the baby boy ahead of us in line for about five minutes straight.  He was a few months older than her, but he looked very intimidated by her brazen overtures.  One can only hope it isn't foreshadowing for her teenaged future.  I shudder at the thought.

Her favorite "words" are still "babba" and "dadda," but she occasionally delights me with a rare "mama," though usually it's only when she's upset.  My favorite are her excited squeals.  I feel like I should probably be more embarrassed when she does it in public, but it always just makes me giggle, which makes her giggle, which makes me giggle...you get the idea.  I should probably repent or something.

She eats almost all the purees at this point, except for peas or green beans or really anything green.  But have you smelled green baby food?  Can't say that I blame her.  We're still too chicken to give her the typical finger foods, but we started letting her gnaw on steamed carrots and judging by her vice-like grip, she thoroughly enjoys it.  I also gave her a piece of avocado to gnaw on, but she ended up just smearing it everywhere.

E V E R Y W H E R E

I'm still having nightmares about it.  Well, ok, maybe not.  But you just wait and see if I try that again in the near future.  Tim thought it was hilarious.  Of course.

We tried a modified version of the "cry-it-out" method the other night, where you go in and pat them on the back after 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, etc., but after 20 minutes total, Tim and I were about ready to cry-it-out ourselves.  Needless to say, her sleeping is still erratic and leaves something to be desired, but we are very consistent with her bedtime routine, and we tell ourselves that it might be making a difference.  Maybe.

Ellie has become my little bestie, and we have the best time hanging out all day.  She follows me around from room to room and sits on the floor with her toys while I get things done.  Until, of course, she gets cranky and needs to either eat or sleep.  But, barring those two events, she has become the happiest little girl, and every day, I feel so lucky that I get to be her mom.