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9 Months Old

Katherine, today you are nine months old. That means you have now been alive as long as I was pregnant. That is pretty hard for me to believe. I continue to be amazed by you and how much fun you are. I laugh with all of my friends because every month we all say that it was our favorite month.

You are a really fast crawler now. You follow me all over the house and get into everything. Sometimes you move so fast that I can’t find you. I have had to move all of our plants (fake ones) out of the den because you love to go over and pull all the moss out of the pot. Really pulling things out is one of your favorite activities. You pull trash out of the trash can, laundry out of the basket, toys out of the basket . . . Someday we will have to teach you how to put the things all back where you got them.  You love to stand up and can pull up on anything. You just need a little something to support you and help you balance. YOu can “cruise” along the furniture really well too. You have not tried to let go too often so I am not too worried that you will start walking soon. That will be exciting, but I am not quite ready for it.

We are still working on eating solid foods. You like almost everything, just in really small quantities. We are also working on getting the consistency a little chunkier. You prefer homemade baby food and big people food over the stuff in a jar. We are introducing protein as well. You are still not great at a sippy cup. You can actually get the water out, but you just don’t like it. Your favorite is still just to nurse. You sometimes still nurse 8 times a day. I don’t think you realize this, but that is actually a lot for a 9 month old. I have been working really hard to get you to eat more solids so that we can stretch out how long you go between nursing.

You finally have teeth! Your two bottom teeth poked through about 2 weeks ago and I feel another coming in on top. That has not caused you too much pain and it is helping in your eating.

You are still not the best sleeper. It is really hard to get you to take a nap longer than 45 minutes unless it is in the car and you are still waking up at night. I am so ready for you to sleep better so I can sleep better. You have one tired mommy! My favorite time of day is when you wake up in the morning. Usually when you wake up daddy will go get you and bring you to our room to nurse. Sometimes you will fall back asleep but when you wake up, you play on our bed between us. It is so fun for all three of us.

You are so curious. I love to watch you as you investigate something or just sit and observe. I forget that everything is new to you and things that I take for granted are exciting and interesting.

You love to laugh, squeal and make all kinds of fun noises. It is so fun to get you laughing by tickling you or having Hooligan lick your feet. You babble all the time and talk to your toys. It is so cute.

You are expecially interested in your dog, Hooligan. If Hooligan is in the house you want to crawl to be with her. She actually is not that interested in you unless you are in your high chair and you get frustrated that just when you get to her she will walk away. You love to pet her fur. There is a chance that you are trying to say “dog”. You were in your high chair as Hooligan was lurking about hoping you would feed her some puffs (you think that is so much fun). You were looking at Hooligan and kept saying, “ga ga ga”. Maybe it was “dog”. I think you also may finally be using your first sign. When you are done eating you have waved one hand around kind of like I do for “all done”.

You have started wearing shoes more now that you are cruising and the weather has gotten colder. If I put you in your carseat, I usually hear the velcro ripping. By the time we arrive usually you have one or both shoes in your hands and you look so proud of what you have done.

You are having so much fun with your friends. We continue to have weekly play group and play dates. Now that you all are sitting, crawling, standing and cruising, you are having so much more fun as you play.

I am so thankful that you are such a sweet little girl and that I am your mommy.