The Eoff's: All these new things

Alayna turned 7 months old last week on Oct. 9th. I know I say this every month, but I just can't believe my little baby is 7 months old already. Time is flying by and I just want her to stay my little baby a little longer. But, already she is showing her independence and need to be on the move.

This past month has been a busy one in the Eoff household. In the middle of September, Alayna and Derek made a trip out to Seattle to visit Derek's family and last weekend Alayna and I went to Wisconsin to visit my family. You can read about those trips in their own separate blogs. I aslo completed my second triathlon ever in the past month (which has it's own blog story also).

Besides all the traveling and busy weekends, this past month has been very busy developmentally for Alayna. After she turned 6 months old we started her on fruits and veggies. We introduced in the past month, carrots, green beans, peas, apples and sweet potatoes. She loves carrots and sweet potatoes, likes green beans, hates apples and is allergic to peas. I never knew that one could be allergic to peas until one morning when Alayna woke up with hives on her stomach, legs and under her arms. We thought long and hard about what could have caused them and then it clicked, the day before we introduced peas for the first time, so I read up and learned that peas falls into the second level of allergic foods. So, we didn't have any more peas after that scare and I called the doctor on Monday. She said that we can try to reintroduce peas at 9 months or a year, whatever we are comfortable with and Alayna will either still be allergic or she may grow out of this. I hope she grows out of this allergy and it doesn't indicate that she is going to have a lot of food allergies. We'll see I guess. I was also shocked that Alayna hated apples. What kid hates apples? Mine, I guess. We gave them to her and she made this terrible awful face that it was the grossest thing ever and kind of gagged a bit. It was kind of funny, but baffling. We tried again the next day at day care and they said she had the same reaction. I guess we'll wait awhile to try apples again. We still have so many good foods to introduce like pears, plums, peaches, watermelon, zuchinni, squash, bananas, pumpkin. But, it takes awhile since you have to wait four days between each food to make sure no allergic reactions pop up.

Alayna is on the move big time these days. She is still army crawling all over, but she has figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees. She isn't very fast and often face plants because her legs go faster than her arms, but she is getting the hang of it. When she wants to go somewhere fast though, she will army crawl, especially on our hard floors, she glides along pretty quick.

It has been a rough month in the teething arena too. Alayna had terrible diaper rash and diarrhea a few weeks ago because she has four teeth coming in. Two of them have broken through and are showing and two more are just under the surface of her gums. She is drooling like crazy and EVERYTHING is in her mouth. I try to get orajel on her gums and give her tylenol if I notice it seems to really be bothering her. She will soon have 6 teeth!!

Alayna started sitting unassisted a little over a month ago, but she was still a little off balance at times and we had to put her in the position. This month she has learned how to get into the sitting position all on her own. All of a sudden one day she was crawling along and suddenly she was sitting there looking at us. We were amazed at how one day things just seem to click and she can do something new.

Another new thing Alayna is doing is starting to try to pull herself up to standing. She is getting there, but not yet quite strong enough. She has done it once or twice but not regularly yet. I think it is also a challenge on our floors b/c we have wood laminate in the living room and cerami

c in the kitchen, so if she has socks on, it can be quite slippery. And for me, as the mom, quite frightening. I think I am going to velcro a crash pad to her back and get her a helmet. My nerves will be shot by the time she is walking. She has already slipped and hit her a head or landed hard on her butt a few times. FYI...babies don't bounce.

That seems to be the major milestones of the past month for Alayna. I am amazed every day at her growth and learning capabilities. She is really starting to develop an awesome personality and becoming quite the ham for pictures. When I use to pull the camera out her smile would disappear and she would give me a blank look. Now as soon as I pull the camera out, she turns towards it and gives a cheesy grin. She's my daughter, that's for sure!

Alayna is also starting to learn her boundaries. NO, is becoming a common word in our household. She likes to pull on the computer cord in the living room and try to roll over and play while getting her diaper changed. We tell her no and redirect her from whatever she is doing wrong and all we get is a big smile or giggle from her, the little stinker she is! I think she takes after Derek with this, I was a perfect rules abiding little girl (ha ha, maybe not...)

Here are some pictures from the past month...