Nine Months Old

I'm trying to get caught up over here! BabyGirl turned NINE MONTHS OLD on June 15th. The speed at which this child is growing flabbergasts me. I simply can not believe it. Here is what she has been up to....

-EK has been a very busy girl this month. One morning Daniel went to get her when she woke and she was sitting up in her bed!! She's been sitting on her own since five months old but this was the first time she sat up all by herself!

-She started pulling up, crawling, and walking alongside furniture all within 24 hours. We worked really hard teaching BabyGirl to crawl. She really had to think about it at first and you could just see her little mind working. Now she flies all over the house!

-She does not nap well anywhere but in her crib. This obviously means we have to be home at naptime and bedtime. 

-She takes two naps each day.

-She nurses 4-5 times a day now.

-She is learning SO much! Early this month she slapped her hand on her tray while eating and I copied her. She slapped her hand again so I copied her again. Repeat this about a hundred times and you have the first of many times we've played this game! She loves it. She also began playing peek-a-boo. She clasps her hands together and holds them over her head. After a few seconds she'll pull them down really fast and wait for us to say, "peek-a-boo!" She'll play as long as we're willing! It cracks us up that she thinks she's hiding when she has her hands over her head. We've played peek-a-boo with BabyGirl for quite some time by covering her head or our own head with a blanket or whatever's handy and then pulling it down. She began pulling it off herself and now she plays with just her hands. It is amazing to watch a baby grow and learn!

-When she first wakes up, BabyGirl lays her head on my shoulder and cuddles for a minute. LOVE this. Since she learned to hold her head up, voluntary cuddling ceased unless she was sleeping. 

-She says mama, baba, and has said dada once. Her favorite thing to shout from her crib is, "MA MA MA MA..." How can a mommy resist that??? She can't. Which is why we are now sleep training all over again. Or attempting at least. 

-I mentioned sleep training above. With all of our traveling, cutting teeth, and injuries, BabyGirl's sleep habits at night have gotten a little scary. She is all over the place with waking up. We are lucky if we get a 4 hour stretch of sleep at the moment. When we walk in her room, she will raise her little arms up and clutch onto our clothes as tightly as she can and try her hardest to climb up into our arms. How on earth do you not pick her up then??? Well, we do (or I do at least...Daddy doesn't give in as easily). I have to say that even though I'm barely awake during the day lately, I cherish these late night moments when BabyGirl just wants to cuddle and rock. I am getting semi-weepy just thinking about it. She does NOT cuddle during the day like I've said many times before so these night time cuddles are just more precious to me than just about everything. 

-I mentioned an injury above. BabyGirl had her first injury this month and it was ROUGH. The sad thing is, there were three adults within arms reach of her the instant it happened. As we all know, BabyGirl is on the move constantly. An injury was bound to happen sooner or later. We were at Grandma's house where she was enthralled with her Aunt Rebekah's dogs the entire visit. She would just stare and stare. So, she was sitting watching them one afternoon when one got up and walked away from her. She began to crawl after it and got all caught up in her dress. She did a face plant into Grandma's stone kitchen floor. Now, before this moment, Erin had an "extended upper lip frenulum." For those of you out there who have no idea what this is, you are not alone. We didn't either. Anyway, the frenulum attaches the lip to the gums. E's was attached all the way to the base of her gums and possibly would have needed to be clipped when she was older if it interfered with her speech or teeth. Well...after the face plant, her frenulum was no longer "extended." She cut her gums open and tore her frenulum. On the bright side, she won't have to have that done when she's older. On the down side...well, you can only imagine the down side. The poor baby didn't smile for three days. She woke constantly during the night for several days. She did very little playing and only wanted Mommy at all times. PITIFUL. We went through lots of frozen food to suck on, Motrin, and Orajel.

-She is between shoe sizes. Size 2's are getting too small but size 3's are a little big.

-She wears mostly size 9 month clothes but can still wear most 6 month sized clothes.

-BabyGirl tried the finger foods, cantaloupe, watermelon, baked beans, peas, and white rice. She also loves sucking on lemons and oranges.

-EK is the cutest little thing while riding in her stroller. She likes to sit straight up with both hands holding on to her tray looking around, taking everything in. She has so much fun.

-She loves to wear sunglasses! She will wear them for quite a while before realizing she can take them off.

-She enjoys swinging. She smiles and laughs and just has the best time.

-She tried out swimming for the first time this month. She wasn't a huge fan because the water was a little chilly. She preferred sitting on a float playing with toys.

Our Little One is a busy, busy girl! Gratefully, our schedule will slow down over the next month, which this mommy is so excited about!

-Megan