Standing?

Daddy told me that Eliana stood on her own for a few seconds today...twice! There is no photo evidence so we'll all have to take Nate's word for it. But to compensate, here are some crazy hair after bath pics:

Nine Months

On the 30th of June Eliana turned 9 months. To celebrate, we went to have her check up.

Weight - 16lb 7.5oz (10th - 25th %)

Height - 28" (50th - 75th %)

Head Circumference - 17" (25th %)

The doc was happy with how she is growing. So are we!

More growth news:

• Favourite foods: avocado, any fruit, egg yolk, chicken and peas, hommus
• Least favourite food: beef
• Favourite Activities: tackling mum, bath time, climbing on our bed, playing with other children, chewing on our lip balm, reading the animal sound book.
• Least favourite activities: nigh-night time, immunisations, losing the lip balm or finishing the animal sound book!
• Personal quirks: Eliana sounds like an eagle when she's excited. She still loves banging on the piano. She scrunches up her nose at Daddy whenever he puts her in the hot car. She lights up whenever Daddy gets home from work. Eliana gives amazing hugs. She likes to cuddle for a bit after nap time. Her smiles still melt hearts. She seems a very social baby. She takes a while to warm up to strangers, but once she's warmed up, she loves them!
• Movement: Eliana is a speedy crawler. She pulls up on things and scoots along. She will grab at anything within her reach, especially if it's unfamiliar. She is just learning how to grab finger foods with her pincer grip. She doesn't put food in her mouth yet, but she'll put anything else in there! She prefers drinking water out of a cup if we hold it, rather than using the sippy lid.
• Feeding and sleeping: She still prefers 3 naps during the day but she's slowly adjusting down to 2 naps. She sleeps great at night. I nurse her 5 times a day. I now wake her up for a feed at 10pm to try and help my milk supply. She eats solids 3 or 4 times a day.
• Teeth: She has her 2 middle bottom tooth and the other day, daddy discovered that her 2 top teeth are cutting through.
• Sounds: Along with her eagle call, she repeats the sounds babba, dadda, mamma. I think that she may have even said mama to me today - she was in someone else's arms, looked at me and said "mama" ... but it could have been a coincidence :).

Pulling Up

Eliana pulled up for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Below is camera proof of her first successful attempt. I didn't get to witness it though. She decided to do it with lots of people in the room, except for her mama. How ungrateful! :)

She pulls up all the time now and so the other day I naturally thought I could capture a video of it. Not a chance. But I uploaded the video anyway because I thought that if your name is Grandma, you'd like to watch Eliana in action as much as I do.

A Day Difference

Today Eliana and Abigail were playing together. Abigail is one day older than Eliana. I think Abigail has been riding the 100th percentile on the growth charts while Eliana has been surfing the zero percentile. Note the difference in the size of their legs! The weight difference didn't stop them having fun together though. They loved stealing each others toys!

Eliana gets her 9 month check up next week. I wonder if she'll still be riding the low waves?

Water Baby

A friend had a pool party recently so we took Eliana to have some fun in the sun. I had tried taking Eliana in the pool a month or two ago. I was keen to have her quickly grow bold in the water so dunked her a few times. It didn't go down so well. I was a bit afraid that I'd turned her off swimming for life.

But as you can see, she forgave me and the water and she had a ball splashing around!

Expectations vs. Realities

Parenting is such a journey of discovery. My latest enlightenment is that my expectations of the crawling stage have turned out to be opposite of what is true (for now.) I thought that crawling would mean chasing Eliana everywhere. It seems that really, I can't get away from her! She chases me around everywhere. Toys are second rate when there is a mum to torment! There is definitely a sweet aspect to having Eliana sit at my feet while I sew or crawl to the kitchen outskirts to watch me wash dishes.

But I'm also subject to daily savage attacks during our mum and bub times as she delights in crawling and drooling all over me, pinching, head butting, and tackling me, and (her favourite, I think) pulling my hair. I tried doing a pilates home DVD during Eliana's wake time the other day. I now think "the hundred" and other floor routines are best confined to nap time!

She daily makes me laugh as I see her unique personality coming out more and more. I thank the Lord that on this journey of discovery, my expectations of parenting have been far exceeded by the wonderful realities.

Eight Months

Eliana turned 8 months old on the 30th of September. She is going well with her crawling. If you visit the Schoen household these days, it's highly likely that you would be greeted by the sound of Eliana excitedly breathing in and out as she explores new territories of the house.

I was a little concerned that the crawling phase would be more exhausting but I had nothing to worry about. Perhaps more effort is required on my behalf, but I haven't even noticed it. Each day with Eliana just gets more fun. She's not pulling up yet, and doesn't seem interested in it. But she does LOVE standing at the piano and bashing away. Hmmmm, a future musician? (No pressure though, sweetie :))