Evalynn at 10 Months

Oh boy. I've been slacking on keeping up with Evalynn's monthly stats. Rats. So mad at myself. Anyway, our little ten month old is still going slow on meeting mile stones, but I feel like she is in fact making some strides in the past four weeks. Here are some things about Evalynn at ten months:

1. She's started to grab her toes.
2. She's now started to be ticklish...and she's okay with it too. Before, even if she was somewhat tickled she didn't know if she liked it and half cried, half started to giggle. Now she belly laughs when you tickle her belly button and smiles when you tickle her toes.
3. As far as her sleeping schedule goes, she wakes up somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00. She's usually ready for her first nap at about 9:30-10:00. Her first nap is usually about four hours long. Then she usually takes about a 30-45 minute nap some time in the 4 o'clock hour. She is usually ready for bed by 7:30-8:00 and nine times out of ten sleeps through the night.
4. I've noticed that she doesn't hold eye contact very long. She'll look at you, smile, look away/past you, but continue to interact with you. It's almost like she is using her peripheral vision.
5. She's started to use her legs to push up against my belly when I'm holding her. She still doesn't bare weight on her legs though.
6. She's really started to interact and laugh at her siblings. She loves them to talk to her face to face and jump for her.
7. Evalynn's been really easy to put to sleep. She's slept on her tummy for a long time now. She will nurse and then I lay her on her belly and she puts her right middle two fingers in her mouth and soothe herself to sleep. Lately she's been fighting it though. She digs her legs in the bed and tries to roll over. She has to find her fingers several times. She's also picked up that she likes to have her left hand at the base of her head and her fingers in her hair.
8. She sits really well now. She does fall backwards every once in a while, but not often and very rarely hurts herself when she does fall backwards.
9. She reaches for stuff in front of her and can pick up pretty much anything. Including flat things off of the hard floors.
10. When she sits, she bends herself all the way forward and folds herself in half to get stuff. For the most part, she can pull herself back up. She does so without using her arms. She does this to the sides too, but isn't as successful in sitting up again.
11. When I'm holding her, she pats me a lot. Almost constantly.
12. She rocks herself when she's sitting.
13. She loves loves loves puffs. She doesn't like baby food. She is doing slightly better with level three baby food, as it is chunkier, but still not great.
14. She doesn't like being placed in the car seat, but once she's in, she's generally fine.
15. When she's napping, she is awoken several times by her very loud siblings. She will pop her head up and if she doesn't see anyone or if the noise calms down, she puts herself back to sleep. If she's woken up while she's initially going to sleep by her siblings, she will wake up and stay up for another 30 minutes or so and then go to sleep. Her sibling's screams/fighting, opening of the bedroom door for requests for TV shows or apple juice and/or Ruger's loud footsteps on our hard floors are usually the things that wake her up.
16. When she is laying on her back, she likes to lift her legs up in the air, usually one at a time. 
17. She loves books and loves for Isabelle to read her favorite board books to her. 
18. She hates having her diaper changed.
19. She likes being in pools. She's even fallen asleep while we are in the pool. 
20. She only likes her parents to hold her. And strangers at church. It seems the more people try with her, the more she dislikes them. She does smile at people, but doesn't have a lot of smiles for those that try with her.

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day I wanted to start a new tradition. Every November we do the Thankful Tree and now on Valentine's I want to do hearts with reasons we love each other. Lately, I feel like we are struggling to love one another and fill our home with love instead of contention. Especially between Isabelle and Ella. Sheesh. Those two. Anyway...I didn't take any pictures, but we had hearts taped up all over our kitchen/dining room wall with reasons we loved each other. Here is a list from the hearts that survived through the month...which is most of them.

Isabelle: I love Emery because she helps me.
Emery: I love that Isabelle plays with me.
Isabelle: I love Mommy because she makes me dinner.
Isabelle: I love about me is eating icicles.
Ella: I love Isabelle because she helps me write my letters and numbers.
Isabelle: I love Ruger because he jumps with me on the trampoline.
Ella: I love that Daddy takes us outside.
Ella: I love Evalynn because she lets me lay with her.
Mom: I love Ruger because he smiles and loves to cuddle with me. I love to watch him run and interact with his sisters.
Emery: I love that Daddy reads me stories.
Emery: I love Evalynn because she smiles at me.
Isabelle: I love Isabelle because she teaches her sisters and loves Ruger so much.
Ella: I love Ruger because I like his smile.
Isabelle: I love Daddy because he takes me to the park.
Emery: I love Mom because she hugs me.
Mom: I love Ella because she wants to include everyone in whatever she does.
Mom: I love Emery because when she is happy she is so silly and makes us all laugh. Sh'e also a big helper.
Emery: I love that Ella makes me laugh.
Emery: I love that I love snow.
Ella: I love that Emery helps me draw.
Mom: I love Daddy because he works hard to provide for us so that we can have nice things.
Daddy: I love Ella because she has so much energy and she likes to cuddle.
Daddy: I love Emery because she is so sweet and she is the best at sharing.
Daddy: I love Evalynn because she has the prettiest little smile and she warms my heart.
Daddy: I love Mommy because she keeps me sane and laughing.
Emery: I love Ruger cause he runs around with me.
Isabelle: I love Evalynn because she makes cute smiles.
Daddy: I love Ruger because he is awesome.
Daddy: I love Isabelle because her laugh makes me laugh and she tries so hard to do her best at school.
Ella: I love that Mom makes me dinner.