8 months

Evie Jane turned 8 months old on 10/27. Here's the monthly update:

A few of Evie's latest tricks include...

• Effortless crawling & pulling up on anything from coffee tables to other's legs
• Saying "Ma-ma" (usually when crying) and "Da-da" (usually when laughing/playing)
• Dancing to music (most commonly at the coffee table when Mom is watching MTV)
• Waving goodbye (although, admittedly it's more of a "come hither" gesture)

A few of Evie's latest favorite things include...

• The kitchen's Tupperware drawer
• Going for rides in the Baby Jogger
• Bouncing in the Johnny Jump-Up

The art of photography

Just a funny look "behind the scenes" to see what goes into a picture of the little one, from her perspective!

Tryptophan

Thanksgiving 2009 was celebrated in New Ulm, MN with the Backer clan. Evie was introduced to a million new foods by whoever happened to be watching her at the time (freeze pops, potatoes, turkey, pancakes, pumpkin bars, etc.) and conked out for a long afternoon snooze with the rest of us. E's other highlight was playing with her "cousins" Tanner and Maddie and tearing through chests of old toys dug up by Aunt Nancy saved from her kids' childhoods.

We adults had fun too reminiscing about the old toys and wondering how we ever managed to have any fun without the bilingual, light and laser show the toys of today come standard-equipped with!

Denver

A few weeks back, the fam' pack up our bags and headed west... to Denver, to celebrate my mom's birthday. There was a lot less site-seeing and mountain climbing this time around with the little one in tow, but we did get out to get a tour of Laradon (my mom's work), the local REI and hit up Milo's (a Vikings bar) for Bloody Mary's and to catch the big game against the Seahawks on Sunday.

Sorry no card this year Mom... hope the time with EJB made up for it!

The smell of roses

Linds, E and I headed east this past weekend to see our friends Kim & Matt in Columbus, OH... and to take in the OSU/Iowa football game. Evie got some good bonding time with her new friends and the Buckeyes locked up the Big 10 championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl with a nail-biting, overtime victory.

Mission accomplished.

P.S. If you want to get a feel for what it's like to take in a game at the 'Shoe. It's red, it's loud, it's huge (>100,000 in attendance)... and they do a lot of spelling!

Rub-a-dub-dub

... little E in a tub.

Slow news week, so I thought a little naked baby would suffice.

Cute as can bee

No trick-or-treating for EJ this go ‘round, but we did get did have a very Halloweeny weekend. The annual pumpkin carving competition at the the Mc’s, the General Mills infant care center costume party and parade, and of course a little gutter cleaning and raking.

7 months

… was all it took for us to forget TLO’s b-day! On 10/27 Evie hit the 7 month mark. Without further ado, here’s the monthly update (better late than never, I guess).

A few of Evie’s latest tricks include...

• Crawling (especially when chasing the dogs)
• Pulling herself up on laps, coffee tables, boxes, etc.
• Yelling (and whispering) “A-ra-ra-ra-ra-raaaaaa”

A few of Evie's latest favorite things include...

• Grabbing fistfuls of Mom’s or the dogs’ hair
• Her dad (Linds’ words, not mine)
• Anything that isn’t technically a toy (e.g. watches, remote controls, cell phones, hats, boxes, mini-blinds, Tupperware, etc.)