Happy 9 Months Old Peanut

What a month this has been my love. So many things happened...so many "firsts." You started off the month with your first Christmas. You loved the wrapping paper and the lights and all the craziness, but you didn't so much care about your gifts (that will change). In fact we still have a couple of unopened gifts from Christmas sitting in your room for when we feel like you need a new toy.

Part of the above could be contributed to your very first sickness. You got a nasty cold on Christmas Eve and were sick as a dog on Christmas day. But even though you kept both of us up ALL NIGHT LONG on Christmas Eve, you were in relatively good spirits on the big day. You weathered your cold like a trooper and it seemed to last about 10 days until you were totally healthy again. But during that sickness you seemed to have forgotten how to do something that I deem quite important.

You forgot how to sleep. This past month has been a nightmare with sleeping. You went through a period where you simply could not fall asleep unless I was standing right next to your crib. That isn't so much the case anymore, but you still seem to wake up at all hours of the night screaming. As soon as I go in your room and give you back your Binky and your Kitty (lovey blanket) you roll over on your side and go right back to sleep. For about a half an hour. Rinse and repeat. I am really not sure what is going on with your sleep or how to solve it. I could write an entire post on what I have tried and what seems to work, but this is about all the lovely things you have done in the past month so we are going to move along...

You, my girl, are officially on the move! At the beginning of the month you were barely crawling. Just sort of getting into the position and moving a little bit--sometimes in the wrong direction. And slowly but surely you got better and better at it. Now you haul ass down the hall and into the bathrooms (I always have to make sure your brother's mini potty is clean now...) and into all the rooms and places you only looked at from afar before. You love your new found sense of freedom. At the beginning of the month you would cry hysterically if you weren't in the same room as me. Now you bellow something along the lines of "Dy Dy Dy..." and then disappear down the hall to see what mischief you can get into.

And speaking of that...it was time for the baby gates to come back out. At first you were intrigued by them, but now you just get down right pissed. You will see the door open and you will crawl over as fast as your little arms and legs will let you move. If we happen to slam that door closed on you right before you make it inside the door to eat the cat food, you sit there and look at me like I have just killed your only puppy dog. But you sure do look cute trying to convince me to let you in...
You also got your first official injury this month. You slammed your face on a metal bar at the pediatrician's office and got your very first bruise. It doesn't look like much in the pictures, but let me tell you, it was impressive. You should be very proud. In fact when we went to your doctor's office for your checkup today, the first thing he said to me was, "Um...did she get into a bar fight?" I am so proud I could just die...
Much to my dismay...you got your very first set of pig tails this month. Your Gigi couldn't stop herself. I would like to tell you that it was a one time occurrence, but really...have you met your Gigi? This is just the beginning my girl. And who knows? Maybe you'll grow up to be a pig tail kinda girl... And if that's the case, then you should be very happy that your Gigi is in your life because I have NO clue how to do your hair at this point. I am lucky if I can get the clip in it to keep it out of your face. I promise that I will work on this and hopefully get to the point where I can make you look cute without having to call in backup.
You did great at your appointment today and continue to sail along marvelously with your growth. Your stats: You weigh 18.8 pounds, which is in the 50th percentile, you are 27 inches tall, which is in the 25th percentile (it's okay to be short honey...Mommy will teach you all about it), and you are perfectly healthy. You are doing all the things you are supposed to be doing like crawling and pulling up to a standing position and chatting away and eating all the right things. You are the picture of "normalness" and I couldn't be happier.

Day in the life: You wake up around 6:30 or 7:00am (could be after a full night's sleep, or could be after getting up every single half an hour for the entire night!!!) and nurse. Then you are on the ground and you are off! You usually go torture your brother in his room while I get ready and get everyone dressed. At about 9:00am you eat breakfast which consists of 4 cubes of fruit and 2 ounces of breast milk mixed with either rice cereal or oatmeal. You top that off with a hand full of Cheerios. Then you play until around 10:00 when you nurse again and go down for your morning nap. Once you wake up you nurse again and then have lunch. Again you have about 4 or 5 cubes of pureed food (usually a veggie and a fruit) and then you eat a ton of finger foods. Your favorites right now are tofu cooked in chicken broth, mac and cheese, peas and your all time fave: sourdough bread. You love you some bread. Good girl. Mommy taught you well. After lunch we head out and do whatever we are doing with our day. Around 3:30 or 4:00 you will nurse again and go into your crib. Sometimes you sleep but most of the time you just play in there for about an hour or so. It depends on how long you slept in the morning. Then you get up and play until dinner. You eat your pureed food around 5:30 and then sit in your highchair with the rest of the family and eat your finger foods during our dinner around 6:30. Then there is more playing until about 7:30 when we begin the process of bed time. We clean up everything, put on jammies and clean diaper, put on our sleep sack and go out into the living room where we nurse in the dark. This is my favorite time of day. Just you and me. Sometimes you fall asleep while nursing and other times you nurse until you are full and then turn your head to the side and smile at me. I cuddle you and put you down in your bed and turn on your mobile and head out (and we pretend like you are going to stay there quietly until the next morning, which up until this last month you used to do but now I see you several times throughout the night but we aren't talking about that right now...)

You are a joy and a delight. Your smile makes my heart soar and to watch you explore the world around you with your new found freedom is just wonderful. You are fearless and curious and smart and perhaps the most adorable little girl I have ever witnessed and I love you more than life itself.

Now. Let's talk about these bean bag photos. You are making it quite difficult for me to get an entire year of you in one shot. I tried to take your picture today and instead of a cute, quiet baby sitting in the bean bag I ended up with shots like this...
...and I got quite a lot of shots of the top of your head as you tried to get out as fast as possible so that you could get your little hands on my camera...
...and when I kept pushing you back in the bean bag to try and get a good shot, you finally got fed up with my mean oppressive ways and threw a little fit...
But in the end...I think we got a pretty good shot. Happy 9 months old my love!