Trixie: Nine Months

It's been an eventful month for Trixie. She now army crawls and sits up really well on her own. She occasionally goes from sitting up to lying down so she can crawl, but mostly when I put her down sitting up she just sits there placidly. Once she finally tips over, she'll go all over the place. She's gotten into a sitting position on her own once. I'm sure she'll get much better over this next month.

This month was Trixie's maiden voyage in a canoe. I'm not going to lie, we ditched the ill-fitting life jacket pretty early on.

She started to get a bit fussy toward the end of the journey, but overall, she was a great baby on her first canoe ride.

We went again this past Saturday with various people in our ward who also own boats, and she was even better the second time. Also, we borrowed a learn-to-swim vest from somebody (not technically a life jacket, but probably better than nothing), and that worked somewhat better than the life jacket. Mostly she sat in my lap, but I also plopped her down on the floor of the boat and let her gnaw away at my apple core, which she thought was pretty okay.

Our boat was really full with our three kids and two additional kids from our friends' family.

This month we discovered that Trixie does not like grass.

But she does like balloons. (She was giggling like crazy while Grandma Great played with her.)

I love to dress her up on Sundays for church. (Also, note that her eyes are still blue. People often comment about that. I think they might stay blue with this one, but we'll see.)

Trixie loves her brothers, and they love her. I was on a phone call one morning that wasn't wrapped up by the time she woke up, so I sent her brothers to entertain her until I could go get her. They found the whole concept of climbing into her bed hilarious. She enjoyed having them around, but I think she was also a little bewildered by the experience.

We've bathed all three kids together a few times before, but it was hard with the little baby seat and the two boys. Now that Trixie can sit up on her own, it's easier to bathe all three. But it's still kind of crowded. (Also, look at those tan lines on my boys. And it's only May! I need to be more diligent with daily sunscreen for them.)

 And, I saved the best picture of the month for last. We took this one of her at the Tulip Festival at Ashton Gardens. I love tulips, and I love this baby.

Trixie: Eight Months

This past month has been one of mobility. Trixie doesn't crawl (or even army crawl) yet, but she does roll all around. She'll be crawling by next month.

This month Trixie has loved watching her brothers play. She really wants to join them, which is her major motivator in figuring out movement. She also loves the exersaucer. And all foods. I have yet to feed her something that she doesn't like. All food is good and desirable to this baby.

Also, she has two teeth! I know that's not a big deal, but the boys didn't get teeth until eleven months, so to see a tooth pop through at just past the seven-month mark was surprising. And then its neighbor followed a week or so later. I spent all month saying, "I can't believe you have teeth already!" even though having teeth at this age is perfectly unexceptional.

We took Trixie camping and hiking for the first time this month. She was a champion hiker (because really, how hard is it to ride around in a backpack?), but not such a champion camper. Once she is finally sleeping through the night, I think she'll be better at camping. I tried sleep training her this month but took a hiatus when she got an ear infection.

I am insanely sad that she has outgrown this dress. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Here she is, happy as a hiking clam.

She has really grown to love the exersaucer. She loves all the toys around it, but she also loves that she can flail her body around while she's in it and not hit her head on anything.

Ike actually took this picture of her. She was so excited about him standing over her with my phone that she couldn't stop flailing around. She adores her brothers.