The Seviers: Elliott at 8 months

Elliott turned 8 months old last week. If you haven't seen her in a few weeks, you'd think she was a different baby! She's doing all kinds of cool things now. Here are some facts about Ellie at 8 months old:

-She weighs about 19 pounds and is about 27 1/2 inches long (based on our measurements).

-She babbles and "talks" a lot! She says and repeats words that sound like "da da," "momma," "dog," "bye-bye," and "num-num" (for yum-yum). She says "num-num" when she's ready for another bite or when we are eating something in front of her.

-When she is somewhere confined like her changing table, carseat, or highchair, she'll stiffen her body and grunt in frustration (over and over again!).

-She can pull herself up to a standing position, let go, and stand by herself for several seconds. She also "cruises" around her activity table or the coffee table. And of course, she is crawling everywhere!

-She feeds herself finger foods and her bottle very well now. She concentrates very hard to pick up her snacks with her pointer finger and thumb as to get it in her mouth as quickly as possible.

-She's learning to wave hi and bye.

-She moved up to a bigger carseat.

-She loves to play with anything that is not a baby toy: doorstops, pens, phones, remotes, dog bowls, cups, shoes, the computer keyboard, and any type of small plastic bottle are just some of her favorites.

-She loves to eat and having no teeth doesn't stop her from that! She loves cheese, avacado, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, mashed carrots and green beans, small bits of tortilla and wheat bread, yogurt, oatmeal, and puffs or mum-mums. She does not like the meat baby food (who can blame her?) or cottage cheese.

-She's beginning to get more attached to her pacifier now and after reading some recent posts of friends with 2-year-olds, I may regret that. But, I figure 2 years worth of soothing at naptime will be worth 2 weeks of pacifier withdrawal in the future . . . maybe????

-She loves to listen to music and dance. She loves for me to sing "Tony Chestnut."

-She's beginning to understand the word "no." When she's fixing to get into something I'll say her name and then "no." She'll stop and sit up and look at me with big eyes. Then she gets in to it anyway. :)

"Hi, Mom!"