Elina at 8 months

I've been so bad at writing a monthly post for Elina.  Poor child.  She has such a fun personality and enjoys attention wherever she can get it...unless she doesn't know the person.  Last Sunday we put her in nursery for the first time and she cried unless she was in a stroller being pushed around.  She definitely has a major case of stranger anxiety!

Here's more about our little princess:

• She says "Da-da" quite often.  Once again I lose out to "da-da."
• She crawls everywhere!  Her crawl style is a version of the army man crawl where she lays on her belly and brings her legs up toward her sides and then pushes forward. Because I'm constantly being pulled in different directions by the boys, she is often left behind in a room and crawls all the way wherever the boys and I go.  I make it a point to be really excited when she finally reaches us to let her know how proud we are of her and she gets the biggest smile!
• She has developed the cheesiest smile. It is kind of a smile/angry face hybrid
• No longer eats baby food.  She has to eat whatever we are eating. Today for lunch, she ate a half sandwhich.  She doesn't even like it cut up!
• Can crawl to sitting.  The boys were closer to 10 months old before they started doing this.
• Yesterday, I saw her pull herself to her knees.  She's growing too fast!
• Has finally learned to drink from a sippy cup!  This is huge for me because now I can leave her if I need to.
• Makes the funniest noise at the dinner table if she wants more food.  She'll raise both arms, purse her lips and start breathing loudly out of her noise.  This is our cue that she wants more of something and we better get it before she really gets mad!
• Loves receiving attention from her brothers.  Carter is usually really good with her and gives her toys and shows her how to play with them. She wants to do anything her brothers are doing: sandbox, watching a movie...you name it.  If they are doing it, she wants to as well.