February Update

Hello friends and family! Long time, no blog! I'm finding it difficult to find time to write or even upload pictures with an increasingly active and mobile toddler in the house. Especially now that she's dropped a nap or two. Most days we get a good, solid 2-3 hour nap in the morning/early afternoon and then nothing until bedtime. She is, in general, sleeping much better at night. She gets her last bottle at 8 and is usually in bed by 8:30, although there are some nights that she fights it and it feels like we spend 2 hours taking turns settling her back down. But, generally, we get a couple of quiet hours in the evening before we have to be in bed ourselves, and it's done a lot for my sanity (can't speak for Tim--he'd probably claim he lost his mind years ago:P)
She has sprouted 4 (yes, FOUR) molars in the last week. Two on the top and two on the bottom. So the entire month of runny noses and sneezes and fussing was worth it, I suppose:P She is a little more unsettled at night, but now that they're all cut through, maybe she'll sleep a little better. The upside is that we can now give her chewier foods. She is increasingly interested in solid foods. We're working on making the transition from the world of bottles and purees to the land of sippy cups and finger foods. She ate peas and potatoes for dinner last night. PEAS. Inhaled them like they were M&Ms.
She's an expert crawler, climbs the stairs while squealing with delight, and cruises around the house with ease. She's making slow, but steady, progress toward independent walking. We've been practicing with her a lot. I can get her to walk with only one hand held if she's motivated enough. We sit on the floor and pass her back and forth, encouraging her to walk between us. She toddles back and forth and then falls in our laps. We got her to take 5 independent steps that way yesterday. She will pull up on the furniture and then let go to clap or play with something and stand unsupported...and then she notices and flails or falls over.
She is playing a little more purposefully with her toys now. She tries to stack up her blocks and put rings on the ring-stacker. She 'talks' to her stuffed animals and moves their limbs around or gives them hugs. She laughs hysterically if we make the stuffed dog woof and lick her face. Today, she hugged the dog and said "wuff wuff". She picks up the toy phone, holds it up to her ear, and babbles into it. She likes to take things out of their containers and either throw them or hand them to you. She will also sit with a book in her lap and flip the pages while babbling.
In terms of words, she has mama, dada, hi, ba! (for "boo"), and yes/yah. I'm trying to talk to her more and give her words for things (up, more, cup, etc). She's understanding a lot more now and can understand and follow directions without seeing visual cues. And, when she knows she's done something right, she claps for herself:P
We took a trip to visit Mamaw and Papaw earlier this month, and she had a blast playing with them, and I was happy to get out of the house. And she slept the whole way, there and back. I'll call that a successful trip:) We also had Dan and Emily over for dinner, which Evelyn thought was a blast. She slept well that night:P And we went to dinner with Gerry and Emily over this past weekend, and she was a perfect angel (which was nice, since we were at a fancier-than-usual restaurant). She even took a few steps for them when we came back here for dessert:)
Coming up in March, we have Evelyn's 15 month check-up with the pediatrician. We're also hosting our playgroup this month. I'm enjoying the small playgroup and the mom's night out parts of our Mom's club here, but the larger events are becoming a little stressful, since Evelyn seems to be the only crawler that shows up for them. She is too big to play with the younger babies and I'm constantly pulling her out of the way of the older kids who don't know how to watch where they're going yet. So I'm anxious for her to start walking independently so we can enjoy those events more. It would also be nice if we could make it to the park on these nicer days we're having. I'm also getting a little concerned because she's on the late end of the spectrum for learning how to walk. The sensible half of my brain says she'll get the hang of it in her own time, but the Early Intervention Service Coordinator in me is panicking. Deep breaths. She's doing totally awesome:)