9 Months and a New Year

Tonight we say goodbye to 2011 and prepare to usher in a New Year! There will be snacks, late-night games, cousins playing, family laughs, the writing of resolutions and backyard bonfires! 

I could not let this year slip away without writing a post about our Evangeline. December marked her 9 months old and I wanted to document what this little girl has been up to! 

She is becoming increasingly independent! She is pulling herself to standing and walking along furniture. Her sisters will hold her by one hand and have her walk next to them. Sometimes she has to grab onto their legs to steady herself but she is learning. One baby step at a time! We predict that she will probably be walking before our newest little nephew arrives in early February!

Evangeline is also waving goodbye and hello! Sometimes she gets so excited she uses both hands to wave. She also seems to makes a sound that resembles, "Hi" while she waves. She always gets a "Wow!" from her sisters when she says this.

Just recently, she has begun to play peek-a-boo. She finds it highly amusing to hide herself behind a blanket (or the shower curtain, or a pillow, or her sock monkey) and then peek around it so we can shout "peek-a-boo" at her! She thinks it is just about the funniest thing she has ever experienced!

If there is not something to hide herself behind, she will simply turn her head to one side and then whirl back around awaiting her "peek-a-boo!" and a fit of giggles! It is darn cute.

Evangeline is also working on her sixth tooth! (Is that even possible?) She has been using her pincer finger skills to pick up small pieces of food and navigate them to her mouth. She is still breastfeeding throughout the day and night and eats with us at every meal. She eats a modified version of the meals that we all eat as a family. So far she has had no aversions to any foods we have fed her and she is eating well! Yea, Eva!

Well, I am off to finish the focaccia bread that I will be bringing to my parents' New Years Party tonight. We are having appetizers for dinner and then ice cream sundaes to ring in 2012. (Guess I will hold off on the "lose weight" resolution until January 2nd. Hehe!)

Catch you on the flip side!

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce