8 Months

Elliot Claire is 8 months old! 

Okay, this is officially my favorite age. She's active, curious, and so much fun! She's suddenly super detail oriented -- fixating on jewelry, zippers, cabinet knobs, crumbs on the carpet, the sock fuzz between her toes -- all that good stuff. Here are some more updates on our little E-Claire:

• She now bathes in the big girl tub! And she loves it. She scoots her little bum all around the slippery tub to grab toys and investigate the perimeter. She also loves to dunk her face and drink the bath water. Yuck.

• Miss E is working hard on crawling. She's not quite there yet, but she can now easily get into the position and rock back and forth a little. She's gone for it a couple of times but since those attempts resulted in a skinned nose, I think she's decided to take her time. 

• The inability to crawl hasn't stopped her though! She might even skip crawling all together and go straight to walking because guess what...Ellie stood up all by herself a couple of weeks ago! And now that is all she wants to do. She'll climb over anything and anyone to get into a standing position.

• Her "vocabulary" has increased even more this past month! Ellie now knows how to say/copy "yaaaay," and my personal favorite, "mum."

• Elliot's new favorite toys are blocks. We can barely construct a tower more than a few blocks high before she lunges and knocks the whole thing over.

• She now holds her arms up in the air when she wants to be held. Cutest thing ever.

• This past month Ellie has become super affectionate, which I love. Pretty much anytime we are sitting close to each other, she'll scoot up next to me and climb/crawl on top of me until I'm holding her. She also gave me a kiss for the very first time! It was a big, wet, open mouthed suction right on my cheek! It was oh-so sweet :) She's given kisses to Daddy and Grandma Purcell as well.

• Ellie still has the best sense of humor. We invent games all the time together. Recently, I was sitting next to her crib on the floor and she thought it was hilarious to suddenly pull down the bumper, squeal loudly, and surprise me. Peek-a-boo bumper is now one of our favorites.

• Ellie now waves bye-bye! Well, mostly she just sticks her little fist in the air and holds it there. So I guess it's not technically "waving" but she gets the idea :)

• This baby girl loves to sing! She is extremely musically inclined. She coos, hums, and jabbers along to the hymns at church as well as lullabies and music from the radio.

• Our sweet girl got her very first tooth (bottom center)! FINALLY! The past couple of months have taught me that Ellie does not handle teething well. Poor kid. But that sucker has finally broken through! It's hard to see, but you can definitely feel it! And man, does this kid like to bite! Ouch! But she soon found out biting crackers is way more tasty than Mommy and Daddy fingers. 

• Speaking of eating...she is officially done with baby food. This kid only wants real food that she has to chew. She's gotten really good at picking up tasty morsels and shoving them in her mouth.

This is what we did with the last couple of jars that she wouldn't finish. Edible finger paint!

• Elliot is finally starting to resemble ME! Hooray!! She still looks like a mini Christian but I'm finally recognizing bits of me in there as well -- mostly in her personality and mannerisms. There are two main things she does that are exactly what I did at her age. 1) She is obsessed with her tongue. She is constantly clicking it and sticking it in and out of her mouth. 2) Ellie "whispers" now instead of "talking." Whisper, whisper all day long! Just like Mommy used to.

• Ellie had her first non-family babysitter last week! I was a little apprehensive at first, but she took to the sitter right away (Brittany was wearing a necklace) and Ellie didn't even look up when Christian and I walked out the door. What a champ!

• Here's something random...Ellie is scared of glasses. Well, let me rephrase that. Ellie is scared when Mommy wears glasses. I found my old glasses the other day so I put them on to show Christian, and Ellie freaked. Like sobbing and screaming. I look them off to show her it was still me and she stared me down, wide eyed. As soon as I put them back on, she burst into tears again! We tried it with Daddy, Uncle Michael, and Grandma Purcell -- no reaction. They all have permission to wear glasses but not Mommy! I've tried it a couple of times since, and she still cries. Weird. 

And now...PICTURE TIMELINE TIME!

7 Months

Elliot Claire is 7 months old!

Isn't she sweet? Here are some facts about our little E-Claire at 7 months:

• She loves stuffed animals. She only has one, but she's obsessed. Meet bunny. She loves to suck on his soft nose and pull his ears. Ellie also loves a Simba plush toy that resides at Grandma Purcell's house. 

• So...feeding babies pureed food is pretty much my least favorite thing ever. I hate that it's always messy and that it takes forever. My solution? Elliot eats her purees with a straw! I'm pretty proud of my resourcefulness and ingenuity. A feeding that would usually take 10 minutes and leave both of us frustrated and covered in orange splatters now takes 2 min tops. She slurps up the food and we are done! Sadly, I discovered this trick a little late because she is now pretty much done with baby food. This little missy only wants what mommy and daddy are eating.

• Speaking of big people food...she loves to eat! She's tried a variety of food and loves pretty much everything. Her favorites include meat, bread, cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, and mandarin oranges. The only thing she's consistently spat out is avocado. We're working on that :) Here she is trying a pickle.

• Elliot is really expanding her repertoire of noises. Currently, her new favorites are the "k" sound and blowing raspberries.

• The thing Ellie hates most in this world? Getting her face washed. No matter how soft the cloth is, or how warm the water, or how gentle I wipe, she whines and twists away. Also, she's still a little hesitant around blenders, mixers, and other loud appliances. Hairdryers are a little scary too.

• Ellie LOVES her cousins. And most little kids for that matter. She just thinks they are hilarious. Especially when Chase makes volcano noises. Watch the video and check out that belly laugh!! 

• At just 7 months old, this baby girl is already a little model. Like, for the life of me, I can't get a candid shot! She poses for pictures. I'm not even kidding. Whenever I pull out the camera or my phone, she stops what she's doing and flashes that gummy smile.

• But that sweet, gummy smile might not last too much longer! I can just barely feel two little teeth bumps on the bottom middle section of her mouth. This might explain why she's into biting everything lately. 

• Ellie babe is working really hard to pick up little bits of food and put them in her mouth. She hasn't mastered the "pincer grasp" yet. She'll grab the snack with all of her fingers and try to eat it but it gets stuck between her fingers and her palm, so she ends up just sucking on her fist until she gets bored and eventually drops the food. But she's learning!

• This kid is amazing. She is the best baby anyone could ask for. Seriously. She is happy ALL OF THE TIME. She only cries when she is tired or hungry. And even then it's more of a whine/baby babble sort of thing. It's amazing the range of emotions and feelings she can communicate. Maybe it's a mom thing, but each one of her sounds means something different. She will look me straight in the eyes and tell me what she needs. She is just so dang smart!

• This baby is majorly ticklish. Especially on her back and chunky thighs.

• Elliot has recently started sucking on her toes! I painted her little nails pink for Valentine's Day, and ever since then she's had an increased interest in her feet. Probably because of the bright color :) She loves to bend her legs all the way up to her face and suck, suck away.

• Ellie went to the zoo for the first time! Heather and Eliana picked us up and we went on a fun (free) little field trip together. Ellie didn't get too much out of seeing the animals...pretty sure she just thought we were on a really long stroller ride. But I sure had fun! I love the pictures of the girls in the stroller together. Aren't they precious?

• Another fun life event Ellie experienced for the first time was swimming! We were in St. George visiting cousins Chase, Ashtyn, and Blakeley. And after a long day of blocks, coloring, and walks, we decided to take the kids for a swim. Elliot was a little nervous at first because but warmed up pretty quickly and ended up having a great time. Plus she looks so stinkin cute in a swimsuit :)

•  This is nothing new, but Ellie loves, loves, loves, Daddy. She gets so excited when he comes home and whips around as soon as she hears his voice. And once he's home, she refuses to be parted from him. If her puts her down or walks away, she'll burst into tears. I can't say that I blame her...Christian is pretty great. 

 And now for my favorite part! Ellie from 1-7 months:

6 Months

Elliot is 6 months old!

She is half of a year old already. She was born last year. In 6 more months, she'll be 1 year old. She's growing up too quickly. How the heck did this happen?!

Those are the thoughts that have been on my mind lately. How is it that my little person could change so much in just 6 months? Here are the updates on our little lady:

• Ellie eats a variety of baby food. She loves pears, peaches, bananas, squash, and apples. Her least favorite flavors are green beans and prunes. (Can you blame her?)

• She still hates rice cereal.

• But! She loves, and I mean LOVES, her sippy cup. She's such a big girl.

• She says "hi" now! Well, sorta :) She can copy our inflections and repeats the word when we say it to her. This started whenever she saw my mom and now Ellie always greets her in that way. Grandma loves it. (Oh, and she's still a pro at saying "dada")

• She can sit! She mastered this skill seemingly overnight. One day she was wobbly and only lasting a minute or so, and the next she's sitting and playing by herself. I am so proud :)

• She wears 9 month clothing.

• Elliot is still working on rolling from her back to her tummy. She twists and rolls but hasn't quite figured out how to lift her chest and simultaneously pull that arm out from under her body.

• Speaking of twisting...this girl is a wiggler now! She used to sit so nice and still while you changed her clothes or diapers. Well those days are long gone. 

• Recently, she's been "singing" along with me when I put her to bed. It melts my heart. She stares at me with those big, blue eyes and hums and coos quietly through her binkie. Best thing ever.

• This girl still loves her car seat. She gets so excited when we put her in it and as soon as she's buckled in, she immediately grabs both sides like she's sitting in a little throne.

• Her favorite part of the day? Bath time! Look at that chubby little body! I could just eat her up.

• She hates toys that vibrate. It's kind of sad but also pretty hilarious. She has a bee that lights up and plays music that she loves. However, it also has a button that makes the toy vibrate. She'll be playing happily with it and then accidentally bump the vibrate button and then flip out. Her eyes get huge and she immediately starts to whine and cry. 

• Speaking of things she's scared of...this girl has been showing signs of stranger danger lately. There has been more than one time in the past couple of weeks where when someone goes to hold her she looks at their face, bursts into tears, and then twists around to look for me or daddy. Maybe we need to socialize more.

• I'm thinking it's about time to ween this kid off swaddling. Which is a shame really, because she sleeps so well when she's swaddled. She just doesn't last for long periods of time before she works her arms loose and then wakes herself up by scratching her face or something. She's just getting too big and too strong.

• Another night-time issue we've been having...this girl won't sleep. I always thought we lucked out when Ellie was a newborn because she slept through the night from day one. She's been a champion sleeper until just recently. Now all of a sudden she wakes up around 3 times each night. Maybe she's teething, maybe it's a growth spurt, or maybe she's just making up for being such an awesome newborn. Either way, we're all a little sleep deprived over here.

• This baby loves to read. She gets super excited and kicks her legs when I pull her onto my lap and grab a book. She's really good at paying attention to all of the words and pictures but then as soon as I take time to turn a page...those legs start up again! The anticipation of the next page gets her every time :)

• And now for her stats:
• Weight: 16 pounds 12 ounces (60th percentile)
• Height: 26.5 inches (75th percentile)
• Head: 17.75 inches (90th percentile)

And last but not least, the picture timeline!