Yankee Doodle

The Fourth of July is a holiday that is always best spent with family, friends, and being outside. This year did not disappoint; plenty of outside, family, food, and fireworks. Drake had spent the week at his vacation lake home (David's parent's house), so Friday afternoon we went to join him. After a nice dinner, we drove to Seneca for fireworks.

After a late night of fireworks and moon bounce fun, we returned to the lake on Saturday for more cousin time. Drake spent a few hours floating around in the lake with his cousins and we got them out just in time for the neighborhood fireworks show to begin. This was my first experience with a neighborhood fireworks display and I must say, I was impressed.

 

No nap on Saturday made for an exhausted Drake by the time he got out of the water, which is why he refused to be in the cousin picture. He did perk up for the fireworks and enjoyed the show also. On the way home that night, Drake was having a full conversation with us one minute and the next, he was sound asleep. Kids are amazing...

Sunday was a day around the house. In the afternoon, Drake and I walked to the park so he could get out of the house and run around.

9 Months

Evie turned 9 months old on Wednesday, July 2 and continues to grow and change almost on a daily basis. This past month was very busy in terms of her motor development.

• On Sunday, June 8th Evie really started to move with her crawling. She had been going backwards and move forward a little prior to that, but that day something clicked and she started really moving
• On Saturday, June 14 Evie started to pull up on her own and stand. 
• She is able to go from belly to sitting and belly to pulling up and from standing up to sitting back down 
  
• In the last week, Evie has not been interested in us feeding her and only wants to self-feed. So she has been eating a lot of soft foods that she is able to pick up and eat herself. New foods this month are: prok, toast, crackers, pancakes, grapes, blueberries, cherrios, and yogurt (I'm sure there is more but this is what I can remmeber)
  
  
• Evie has been swimming a couple times now and somewhat enjoys the water. She pretty much just sits in her float with her serious face
• Evie has a great personality and is really happy about 98% of the time. She loves to talk and make noises with her tounge. She is starting to be a lot more playful, both with toys and with us.

• Evie absolutly loves Drake and everything that he does. If she is crying, he will make her laugh. She searches him out in a room and will not take her eyes off him. She always wants to be close to him and this weekend we dropped him off at his grandparents house and the whole way home she cried. She is just not used to being the only person in the backseat and missed her buddy!
• Evie's sleep gets better everyday. This week has been amazing with her sleeping until anywhere from 5:15-6:45. It is so nice to have a night of uninterrupted sleep again!

Her nine month doctor's appointment is next Wednesday, so we will have the growth stats then. I think she is continuing to grow at a steady pace, and it has picked up some since introducing foods at 6 months. She is still in 9 month clothes, although I think it could be time to move into 12 months soon.