Nine Months

As each of these month-a-versaries passes, I’m more shocked by the passage of time. My little girl is growing up so quickly! People have been stopping me in stores for months to let me know that it would happen quickly, but I’m constantly reminded just how BIG you are! Doing some newborn photo shoots lately has reminded me of how tiny and squishy you once were… You’re still my little girl, of course, but you’re just getting so big and learning so much all the time!

You’re ringing in this month with seven teeth. I’m not even sure when the last two appeared… Somehow you went from five to seven seemingly overnight. 

    

You’ve got such a personality, too. You’re beginning to get very vocal (lots of mamamamama and dadadadada… and yes, the “mama” came first! Good girl!) and love to chatter at us all the time. You’re hilarious in the grocery store, chattering away at the groceries and checking out all the people around us. I find myself repeating “she never meets a stranger!” and it’s so true… You’ll smile, laugh, giggle, and awkwardly stare at just about anyone.

You’ve been standing up for months, but I feel like you’re getting so much closer to walking! You cruise around and climb through the craziest obstacles. Your daddy likes to put you in “predicaments”… meaning, he’s always putting things in your path to confound you and see if you can figure out how to get through. I know he thinks he’s being silly, but I think it’s actually helping you learn how to get around better as you navigate those various pillows, chairs, toys, tossed blankets, etc.

Your new favorite thing is to play in the pantry while I’m cooking dinner. We have a few of these water gallons on the floor and you enjoy knocking them over and scooting them around.

You’re eating really well. We give you lots of finger foods to try out, but you’re still a lover of purees. I’m trying to break you of that habit as much as possible so you won’t be weird about textures. I try to share part of my plate with you wherever we go so you get used to lots of different tastes. You’ll try anything, which is encouraging. And by “try”… I mean “smash it around and smoosh it in your hair”… but that’s good too.

You play HARD. You’re awesome when it comes to playing by yourself. We’ve expanded your play area to the whole den (we jam the ottoman into the wide doorway to the hall and pull kitchen chairs up between the recliner and the kitchen) and you’re all over it. You push toys around, toss them out of your toybox, sit and “read” books (meaning: chew the covers and yell at the pages), and love to cruise around the couch looking for one of the real tv remotes or my cellphone to grab and chew on.

You’re not really sleeping better… in fact we’re about to start working on your nights hardcore. Waking 4-7 times a night is just not cutting it, and while I don’t mind nursing you in the night, the constant night-waking is just too much and not necessary.

You’ve started this cute thing where I put my head near yours and say “bonk!”… you lean forward and tap your forehead to mine. Each time we bonk foreheads I say “bonk!” outloud and you just giggle and giggle!

The week before you turned 9 months, we went to the beach. You had a great time! The condo floors were tile, which freaked me out the whole time as I was convinced you were going to bash your head, but you loved it and they didn’t seem to bother your little knees. I’ll write more in another post, but you did a great job down at the beach, too. You weren’t too keen on sand so you stayed on our towel/sheet and played with your toys in the shade, only stopping when daddy took you on long walks down the beach.

Girlie, you’re amazing.