Little Cruiser

I'm officially calling Ellie a cruiser now. She's been able to cruise short distances for a few weeks, taking a couple steps one direction, and then back. But just now she started at one end of the couch and cruised all the way to the other end of the couch to get a toy. Then I put a toy on the chair adjacent to the couch. She looked at it, so I put out my hand and she took it, then walked over to the chair, stopping briefly to use her little eyes to plead with me ("I can't do it, Mommy. Just pick me up and put me over there, please."), but eventually she made it to the chair and voluntarily let go of my hand to take hold of the chair. Then she proceeded to cruise to the other side of the chair in order to get the toy. Yes, I'm officially calling Ellie a cruiser now.

I've also been meaning to blog about another milestone she reached recently. We were at a party on Saturday night and Ellie managed to find some cardboard to chew on amidst some toys. I took the cardboard away from her and for the first time ever, she yelled at me for taking a toy away. Then, about a half hour later, she was playing with a little toy and Zach came over, took the toy from her, then sat down to play with it. She looked at him, then rolled over, climbed on top of him, took it back, then rolled back onto the floor and continued to play with it. She showed him who was boss. I've been reading that she should start to object to toys being taken from her, and I guess she has.

Our silly girl is pushing the step stool around right now, using it to get to things in the kitchen she wants to play with. Like the straps on her booster seat. Funny girl. And speaking of her booster seat, this morning she learned how to pull the white upper tray off the lower tray. I think she learns sometime new every day. In fact, last night she apparently learned how to unravel the ribbon on her mobile, so we had to take that down today. Eight and a half months is a very exciting time in the life of a baby. And it is no less exciting for her parents.