Elle Evergreen: 8 & 9 months old

Little Elle Belle - You continued to get sweeter with every month! Here are some highlights from your eighth and ninth months:



You learned how to move around during your eighth month! It wasn't exactly crawling, more like scooting - and you really only knew how to go backwards - ha! That means you sometimes got stuck (like in the photo above when you're stuck under the TV stand).

We took you to your first play when you were eight months old - Newsies! You didn't love it and didn't love having to be quiet, so it was actually pretty stressful. We sat on the very back row and brought lots of toys, but we ended up taking turns walking in the lobby with you until you fell asleep on Daddy's shoulder.

The fall in Virginia was pretty rainy and chilly, so we did a lot of playing inside during your eighth month. You didn't seem to mind, and it made for plenty of practice time to perfect your crawling skills.

Your temperament continued to shift in and out of fussy phases during this time. Sometimes you would be super pleasant and easy going for a while, and then you'd start cutting another tooth or something else would happen that would throw you back into fussy baby mode.



During your ninth month, you started legit crawling - on all fours! It was crazy to see you go from scooting to crawling, and man, were you fast! You loved being able to cruise around the house and get to where you wanted to be all by yourself.

You also started pulling up to stand during your ninth month. I would be sitting on the couch, and next thing I knew, your little head would POP UP as you pulled yourself up to see what I was doing.

You started doing this mouth breathing thing, almost like you were pretending to be a puppy dog. And you gave us BIG cheesy grins all the time, squinting your little eyes. Your hair was so dark at nine months - it slowly started to get lighter after this. And look at that belly (above)! You loved food - eggs (prepared any way) and bananas were your favorite. Also, look at your tiny feet! You had the smallest feet ever and it was really hard to find shoes to fit you to keep your feet warm outside!

You took your first plane ride during your ninth month - to Texas for Thanksgiving. It was a terrible flight (bad weather + a bumpy failed landing attempt), but you handled it like a champ and slept most of the way. Everyone in Texas was so excited to see you and hang out with you, but you were very nervous because you didn't know them and preferred to be with me most of the time, which was a-ok with me!