9 Months.

Either my photography skills have really taken a turn for the worse, or I have a nine month old that won't sit still.

Harumph.

I'm going to say that this past month has probably been the best one so far. I feel like her personality is just starting to take off and she is so fun to be around. She's so curious and into everything, and it's such a blast to watch her learn.


Her weight seems to have slowed down a bit, but she's still topping the charts at 22 pounds and 29.5 inches long, in the 95th and 98th percentile. Still my big girl! She's still in a size 3 diaper for day and night. She's wearing mostly 12 month clothes, but the footed 12 month pajamas are almost too short for her.


Here's what you've been up to this past month my sweet girl..

We went into your room on December 13th and you were standing up in your crib. Good times. Once you got up, you didn't know how to get back down so for two weeks we had to go in there multiple times and lay you back down.

You can now go from the crawling position to sitting up. Or from laying down to sitting up. Working on that core strength girl.

At 8 1/2 months, you started pulling up on the living room table and now it's everything. For about two weeks, we had at least one bump on the head a day. Now you are rock solid on your feet.

After about three weeks or so of pulling up, you figured out that you could just let go and sit back down. Good thing for all that cushion...

You squeal REALLY loudly when the cat walks by and then you take off after him. And even though you are still crawling, girl, you are fast.

You bathe in the duck still, while playing with rubber ducks, and with a duck spout cover. So it's no surprise that you can almost make out the word "duck". We can point to the faucet cover and you smile real big and almost say it. It's so stinking cute.

We got you a Pooh learning table for Christmas that you have almost figured out how to climb on top of. You want to so bad! But let's not get to climbing just yet sweet girl.

You love to play with balls. You love your soccer ball and then Nonny and Pops got you a bunch of plastic ones for Christmas and you love them. You crawl around the house carrying them now. It's funny to watch.

You pull up on the bookshelf in your room and pull off the books. But you won't sit still long enough to even look at them.

If we smack our lips or cluck our tongue at you, you will mimic us. And you are good at making those noises.

You seem to notice the difference in people's emotions a bit. If we're laughing, you're laughing. The other day, Mama was crying at "A Baby Story" and you got really serious and had this big concerned look on your face as you cocked your head at me. You really like to watch people and seem very in tune to how they're feeling.

You are currently very attached to me. And I lurve it. When you are tired or cranky, only I will do. It makes my heart smile.

You are still eating three meals a day of baby food with some finger foods of cheese, plain meats, and fruit thrown in. You love everything. You like Cheerio's and Puffs for snacks and you love your juice.

You are a pro at the sippy cup. You throw that thing back like you've been drinking from it since birth!

You still get four bottles a day, but you are quickly losing interest in them. The only one I can guarantee you will eat is your morning one, so I upped it to 8 ounces. I've even cut back your food to see if you will drink more, but it's just not happening. You're still growing good though, so I'm not too concerned.

You still go to bed at 7:30 and wake up between 7 & 7:30, but you stay in your bed and play til about 8. Then you want up. I love you for your sleeping child.

You take two naps a day and you are back on track with those. Your first one is at 10:30 and it's usually an hour and then you go back down at 3 and that's your long one, lasting an hour and half to two hours.

You really like to stand up in the tub. But that is rather dangerous (so says the current bump on your forehead), so we're working with you on not doing that.

You are very, very good at gripping finger foods in between your thumb and pointer finger. Your whole hand ends up in your mouth far less often now.

You destroyed your mobile. You pulled those little birds off one by one. This morning I went into your room and you were sitting in the middle of shredded up birds. Oops. It came down after that.

You have started throwing small fits. But nothing too bad yet. You just get upset if we take a toy away before you're done with it. Or if we take food away that you're trying to shovel in your mouth too fast.

You climb out of your vibrating chair.

You crawl up to doors and shut them. Of if we're on the other side of the door, you'll pull it back and forth and light up each time you see us.

You've started sucking in your top lip most of the time. It's so funny, you look like you don't even have a lip! I love when you give us your no lip little smile!

You celebrated your first Christmas.

You do not want to sit still. You don't want to sit still and let us give you your bottle. You don't want to be rocked unless you are EXHAUSTED. You don't want to be read to. Not going to lie, I'm a little bit worried about that. And I seriously miss my little cuddler.

Your newest thing is "pointing". You point at everything and poke us in the face with that precious little finger over and over...

You are a hysterical sleeper. You move, you flip, you toss, you grunt, you moan. It's like a one woman show every night in your crib.

You can pull up onto and stand on your tiptoes.

She shakes her head "no". Although I don't think she realizes what she's doing. At least I hope not!

You change so much everyday. Staying home with you right now is the biggest joy I've ever known. It's amazing what you learn each and every day.

You are amazing kiddo. I don't think you'll ever know how cool we think you are!