Nakey girl.

Pretty in purple.

We love this thing she is doing with her tongue—she has been doing it for a few weeks now and it is cute!

8 months!

Our little Elna is 8 months old today!  This was a big month for little E!

happy clapper

trying to get her books

At 8 months, Elna:

-is crawling!  All over the place. 

-claps when I start singing "If you’re happy and you know it” or doing pat-a-cake with her.  She will also randomly just start clapping because she’s happy!

-puts her hands up above her head in a V.

-waves.

-LOVES to stand!  For over a month she has been pulling herself up onto everything and walking while holding on. 

-seems to have some eczema that won’t go away.

-loves bath time, but because of the eczema, I’ve been giving her less of them, cooler ones, and for less time.

-hums when we sing in church or when she is really tired and I am rocking her to sleep.  It is the sweetest thing!

-finds every piece of teensy tinsy garbage that is invisible to the rest of the world and puts it into her mouth. 

-still only has the 2 bottom teeth she got right before 4 months.

-is totally up and down with her sleeping.  One time last week she slept from 6:30 until 8:00 a.m. (only waking up once at 5 to eat)—the fact that I can remember one good night is indicative of how bad a sleeper she is.  Super inconsistent.  The night after that good night she woke up 4 times. 

-loves to do this funny thing where she sits in front of me, facing me, then plunges her face into my lap, expecting me to grab her and flip her over.  The second I set her back down she dives her head down into my lap again, ready to do it again and again.  It’s pretty funny

-is fearless—with her new skills of crawling and standing she tries everything over and over again, even if she sometimes gets hurt in the process. 

-LOVES books and reading.  Behind her rocking chair in the nursery is a bookshelf with some of her favorite books.  She often cranes her neck back while we are sitting or when she is done nursing because she wants a book.  I let her choose the book to read and she usually picks “A Baby is Born.”  I don’t remember who gave this book to her, but she loves it and we read it several times a day.  She also likes to turn the pages.

-is as sweet as they come!

She’s happy and she knows it!

The moment I start singing “If you’re happy and you know it,” Elna starts clapping.  She’ll also start clapping when I start pat-a-cake.  This may be my favorite stage yet.  She is a lot of fun.

I never want to forget these face expressions.  Or these moments.  I just love her!

Mover and a Shaker.

Elna is such a mover now—she isn’t quite crawling, but who needs to crawl when you can scoot, lunge, climb, and walk along everything?  She might just decide to walk before she crawls.  (I wrote this blog post a few days ago.  As of today, she is officially a crawler!  So fun!)

  

She does a lot of this—a pushup/plank which transitions into a lunge to get what she wants.

She spends a lot of time playing with the curtains:

She often finds her way between our legs.  I love her crazy static hair.

Where’s Elna?  Peek-a-boo!

One word: ragamuffin.

She spends a good portion of her day walking along our hearth.

Our little Russian girl—wearing Brian’s hat.

There is nothing sweeter than this girl!