8 Months Old

8 months old

Am I seriously going to have a one-year old in four months? What is up with that?? I know I'm a few days late here, but just a few short days ago little miss Evie turned eight months old and boy, oh boy! That girl is on a mission! She must have heard me talking one day to the kids when they asked me how long it will be until Evie is walking. I told them that Abby was the earliest walker at 8 1/2 months. Apparently Evie decided she could totally beat that record. She took her first steps at 7 1/2 months old. It was four steps to mama. And she's been getting better every day. Just tonight she took about ten steps to me while at vacation bible school. She monkey crawls, waves bye-bye, signs "all done", claps, and started climbing stairs. Holy cow, that girl can move!

With the speedy mobility has come the joys of fishing things out of her mouth...constantly. But the worst part is that she won't lie down in her crib. She stands up, latched on to the bars with her little hands, and screams like she's being tortured. Not "sad" screams. No, no. I call them "horror film" screams. She's not just unhappy. She's (for lack of a better term) royally pissed off! Thus, the days of sleepless nights has come to pass. I don't sleep through the night because she doesn't sleep through the night. At all. She gets up every hour...on good nights. It's exhausting. So, do I sneak in a little co-sleeping? Yup. And I don't sneak it in, either. About half way through the night, I flat out give up! She lays that little head on my pillow and is out like a light. I partially pass out shortly after. Altogether now, say, "Mommy complex!" She's got it bad. This too shall pass though and I will miss parts of it.

Otherwise, all is well with Evie. She's eating more solids everyday and gaining weight like a chubby little pro. I haven't had her officially weighed, but according to my scale, she's about 18 pounds. She's a sweetheart and I'm just so happy that I get the privilege of being her mama! She's at that fun age where she is learning so fast and I'm having a fun time watching her grow.

 

Here she is standing on her own. I am going to try to get a video of her walking tomorrow and post it. You know...in all my spare time. :-)

The Deep End

It's more obvious to me now that two of my children possibly have fish genes spliced into their system. Last year I signed Alex and Abby up for swim lessons at our closest YMCA. It cost a minor fortune for someone on our budget, but was well worth it in the end because both of them took to water like they have gills. By summer's end, they were crazy kids in the water. This year I wanted to further their skills with a second round of swim lessons. I decided, due to financial restraints, that I would sign them up at our local pool.
1. We can walk to lessons. It's two blocks down the street.
2. It was much cheaper. Nuff said.
3. They have a baby pool for Evie to play in when the kids are swimming.
All around, good idea. So basically, this was their first week. Monday, they already knew most everything they instructors taught (I should have bumped them to level 3, but had no way of knowing until they started). By today, they were both in the deep end of the pool. What?! Yep. That's right. They can survive in water. Granted, they just started learning how to tread water and there is NO way I'd just let them go in the deep end and play for a long period of time without me or Josh. But they surprised even me. Two years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd be sitting on the sidelines watching my kids jump into ten feet of water without having a small panic attack. Today, I just sit there and smile - nervous breakdown free.

Yesterday, Alex jumped off of the "high" dive. (It's not really that high...small town pool ya know.) Today, He did it without the instructor helping him get to the ladder. Then today, Abby jumped off the low dive and then strutted right over to the high dive and jumped! I was so dang proud of those two monkeys! I think we'll do swim lessons every year until they cap out at level 5 just so they get two straight weeks of pool time. It's worth it and I feel super comfortable when they are around water. And the really fun part? Evie loves the pool! She loves tootin' around in her lady bug car (complete with inflatable shade canopy!). When she sees the kids playing, it's all I can do to keep her from climbing in. So does that mean I've tortured the world by getting into a bathing suit? Yup. Pretty much. It's worth it.