9 Months

Happy 9 Months Baby Girl!  This past month has truly flown by.  We had a rough night last night and to be honest, I almost missed today's photo shoot!  I think our little 9 month old is working on some more teeth and sleep seems to be eluding her currently.  Snot however is not - constant wiping of the nose took place during this photo shoot.

Even though she has been grumpy today, I still managed to get a few good shots in.  We go to the doc on Wednesday for her check up.  We did have to go the other day though to weigh her so I know she weighs 21.5 pounds.  Yes folks, that is more than some of my friends kids who are over a year!  I love it though.  To me she looks skinny and it makes me a little sad that she is starting to slim down.

Her personality is really starting to come out and I am loving it.  She went to her first VBS last week while I worked, she was in the nursery.  She did great!  They said she was so playful and was just happy to be there.  She was happy to see me every day and took a great nap when we got home each day!  I guess her snotty nose could be a combination of teething and being around kids for a whole week.

She is pretty vocal when she wants to be (which is most of the time!).  She has even started saying Da Da every now and then.  Nate is pretty excited.  My favorite is when she just carries on conversations with herself in the mirror.

She still loves to play by herself.  I had to finally get a play yard for her so I felt safe leaving her for just a minute.  She actually loves to be in there.  She will play each morning and each afternoon by herself and loves the freedom to move around more than in her pack and play.  Great investment for a busy baby.

 She has slowed down on the eating front.  I'm thinking it has something to do with her teething.  There are days when she eats like normal and there are days where it is a chore to get her to take a couple of bites.  This food transition is going to be the hardest for me.  She is ready to start eating more solid food, but it's so messy!  I'm getting used to stripping her down when I want her to try to feed herself and just letting her have at it.  I know she has to learn - so I'm trying to give up control!  She does great with Cheerios, Puffs and Graham Crackers.  I think the texture of real food has her confused and she isn't too crazy about picking up yet, but we are working on it.

Her hair is getting so long and it is really starting to curl.  I LOVE IT!!!  I'm going to have to learn how to tame it soon.  There are some mornings that she wakes up with crazy hair because she moved so much in her sleep.  The longer it is getting, the more it seems to curl.  It is also getting a little lighter.  She already has those beautiful highlights that we all pay big bucks for!

I believe her eyes have settled on brown.  Not quite as dark as mine, but they are more brown than anything now.  Sometimes they still have a gray hint, but I think it is safe to say she is going to be my brown eyed girl!

She is mobile.  Boy is she ever mobile.  This child does not like to cuddle.  Even today, I know she feels bad, yet she won't sit still.  I tried to snuggle with her this morning, and that wasn't happening.  She is getting better at crawling.  Usually she is lazy.  She crawls about 3 steps, then lays on her belly and drags herself with her right arm.  Today though she has been staying up on her knees longer.  Here is a couple of shots of her crawling to the door.  Nothing is safe anymore, we are going to have to start baby proofing!

She learned how to blow raspberries this month.  In the beginning we thought it was cute and we egged it on.  But then she started doing it with food in her mouth and we realized that we were reinforcing something we didn't want to continue.  She wasn't doing it out of defiance yet and you can't really discipline a 9 month old, so we were at a loss for awhile.  We tried ignoring, but that didn't work.  Then her daddy realized the hated having her nose messed with.  So every time she blew a raspberry, we messed with her nose.  It only took a couple of days and we are almost raspberry free in our house!  Here's to conditioning your child.  Thanks Pavlov!

She is still as content as she can be.  The Lord is spoiling us with this child.  She isn't hard to entertain and is pretty much laid back.  She must get that from her father!  I'm so thankful!! :)

We have moved her bedtime to 8:00 and that seems to be working well enough.  More mornings than not now she goes back to sleep until around 7:00.  I will say though, when she is not teething, she has become an expert napper.  Pretty much a total of a solid 3 hours each day.  It's pretty great!

Because she is now mobile, she is being promoted at church to the crawlers room.  It makes me a little sad - just another sign that she is getting so big!

She doesn't miss a thing these days.  She is at the age now where you have to be quicker than her at most things, which is pretty quick.  She grabs at anything faster than you realize.  So when you sit her down, you have to make sure that everything you don't want her to have is out of her reach!

She still loves reading.  She is starting to chew less on her books.  My favorite is when I give her a book to read in the morning while I'm getting her breakfast ready and I look over to see her reading the book like she is reading the morning newspaper.  It makes me laugh and I truly hope to instill in her a love for reading.

So thankful for this child.  We love you baby girl and though we hate that you are getting so big, we love to watch you grow and learn new things.  A child's growing mind is a beautiful thing to watch!