Month 11

Its all coming together & quickly:
Sunday May 4th - Evie crawls from one side of our bed to me on the other side
Monday May 5th - Evie starts really flop/crawling/scooting across the floor (long distances)
Tuesday May 6th - Evie pulls herself up on the coffee table unaided
Wednesday May 7th - She starts dancing to music on a TV commercial

Evie likes to run her finger across her lips making a "ba ba ba" motorboat sound
This month was filled with the one thing Evie showed zero interest in so far, MOBILITY!
By month's end she is not only army crawling slash scooting with one leg under her... but also crawling on all 4's (but only on carpeting. She's no dummy, hard wood hurts her knees!). She moves from one room to another - poof! She pulls herself up on... anything! Evie will pull herself up on your shirt if you are sitting on the floor, she will walk along cabinets & couches, she stands up at the glass doors and, as of May 31st, she now stands up in her crib when waking up in the morning. Yikes! What an eventful month!

Evie also LOVES to "walk" around the house; endless circles trotting from one room to another assisted by anyone willing to wrench their back. She has also adapted a raised right hand with squeezing fist gesture to sign, "Someone here, now, please! I need to go for another round around the house!"

Evie at her first kid birthday party
We've really branched out & tried MANY more exciting foods from curried rice, cheese cubes, deli ham, grilled tuna steaks, squash, mushrooms, Kix, strawberry applesauce, strawberry preserves on toast, scrambled egg, grilled red pepper, fresh mango slices, shared orange slices with mom, kiwi, s'getti, Vienna sausages, lima beans, and rib bones (yummy!).
I am now realizing that Evie can really eat nearly everything these days. She doesn't no longer likes to be fed by spoon (its going to be hard to use up some of these baby foods the way she shakes her head "no" to anything pureed). This is both cool and sad... no longer a baby but moving up to big girl foods. Once willing to eat anything put in front of her but now beginning to shut-down and shake her head "no" to anything she doesn't feel like eating. Ugh, this could really suck when she's transitioned into a picky eater at 2 years old.


First s'getti
Evie is also now fully weened off bottles. Boy, that was no big deal at all. I heard horror stories from some but she really hasn't made any motions to having even noticed. Maybe it was that we started giving her a variety of water-filled sippy cups over a month ago. Maybe its just luck. We do still use a pacifier at night-night and during naptimes... maybe this could prove more difficult when we toss those.

We got Evie a toddler toothbrush. After nearly losing an index finger to the finger brush, we wised up & moved up. Its funny to think we have a little fat handled brush now occupying the toothbrush cup. I'm realizing more and more that Evie isn't just this thing we care for but a being we have to teach how to be a part of mainstream society. This as an overwhelming thought at times.

This is as close as they get
The realization that Evie needs discipline already has dawned on me this month. She eats things off the floor. She tries and grab things out of the recycling bin (once it toppled over atop of her nearly scaring her to death). She tries to eat things she picks up in the yard. She actually tried to stick her finger in the one socket I hadn't covered yet in my bedroom. She tries to grab, yank and shake the water pipes in the bathroom sink while I am pee'ing. She chases the dog taunting him as he desperately tries to get away. She tries to pull at the fireplace screen. She does everything now at lightning speeds. Just last week I actually caught her as she began to flip and fall off the changing table. I flashed my pointer finger while scolding, "no!". She giggled and grabbed my finger. "No, Evie!" She found that equally funny and laughed more. Damned, my mother's curse is coming true. I'm screwed. I do have a kid just like me.

Grandma cracks Evie up–this is the same highchair I sat in.

One more month, Pie, and you officially become a toddler. *sigh*, its all moving so fast!
Mom and baby self-portrait