9 Months....almost as long as she resided in my belly :-)

                 My baby girl is 9 months old already.  She has almost been out in this world as long as she cuddled in my belly.  That seems so crazy to me.  She is ¾ of the way to a year old.  We haven’t had her 9 month check-up yet but my at home measurements say that she is about 19lbs 3oz (just over 50^th percentile after her morning nursing J) and 29.5inches tall (97+ percentile).  She is growing quite well and it seems that her weight Is finally starting to catch back up with her height.  I guess she must be a good eater!  She also welcomed her first tooth (bottom left front) on 11-5-11 and it is gradually coming in more and more.

Maxin' and Relaxin'

                This month she has developed quite the appetite for food.  She especially loves her finger foods.  Foods she tried this month are: apricots, pumpkin (combined with applesauce and spices to make a pumpkin pie flavor), turkey, whole milk yogurt, quinoa, blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, tomatoes, grapes, kiwi (loves this!), broccoli, cauliflower, onions, beans, egg yolks (not a fan of hard boiled), cheese (loves it just like her Mommy and Daddy!).  Her finger foods of choice have been chunks of banana, pears, and kiwis.  Plus we found some freeze dried fruits from Trader Joes that she thinks are fabulous as well as some freeze dried yogurt drops form Whole Foods that she starts bouncing in her seat when we bring them out.  She is still nursing 4 times and eating 3 solid food meals a day and this schedule is working great for both of us. :-)

Needless to say we don't use the high-chair this way very much :-)

High-chair turned toy rocker...I used this when I was her age :-)

                This month she has started clapping a lot and putting her hand over her mouth saying “bah, bah, bah, bah” (with her tongue out at the same time too).  So cute!  She also loves to scrunch her face and make funny sniffing sounds.  She thinks this is hilarious!  I love how lately she has begun to be even more vocal.  She definitely vocalizes her displeasure and frustration, but she will also say “uh!” really loud if you aren’t looking at her and she is trying to get your attention.  So much fun!  Ben loves that she is so much more interactive and they have had a blast together!  Another fun development is that not only is she crawling all over and walking along everything and with her walker, but she is starting to take a few steps to get to something just out of her reach.  She is going to be walking everywhere before we know it! I think all she has to do is figure out she can do it and she will take off. J

Scrunchy face

Pre-raspberry face

She has taken a liking to the dogs cages....lol

Waving her arm and squealing "Aye yah yah yah!"

Loving her Daddy's shoulders

On her tippy toes in the fridge

Figured out she could stand on her toy bin

loving her walker

Mommy put her shorts on her head :-)

                Some of her favorite things to do lately are banging on anything and everything she can get too, getting into the dog bowls (not allowed), pulling up under the kitchen table so she can grab on the edge, pushing the stool I used in the kitchen all over the kitchen floor, and more.  She has decided that eating my chin is quite fun as well.   Getting my face, especially my chin cracks her up.  Her favorite thing to do in our family room is to empty all of the DVDs off the shelves and then she usually ends up walking/crawling around with one.  She also loves to knock everything off the tops of tables and when she does she shouts “ah!” or “uh!”.  She is quite the mimic as well which has resulted in some funny noises/faces, my favorite of which is a lizard thing that she imitates with her tongue.  Such a silly and happy girl!  She also loves to go on playdates to the park with Elijah and Theo, and then also with her buddy Molly.  It will be fun to see them as they are able to play together more and more. J

Playdate with the boys

baby oil mowhawk 

                Her 9^th month also marked a few fun fall and holiday celebrations.  We went to a pumpkin patch for the first time and she was able to watch her daddy carve a pumpkin (she felt the guts too!).  She experienced her first Halloween too, but we really didn’t do much to celebrate that.  We just had dinner over at a friend’s instead.  Later in the month we went to KY and she had her first Christmas celebration.  Since we will be in NY for Christmas, we decided to do a small Christmas celebration with my side of the family.  So fun!  She got to see a mini Christmas tree and she got lots of fun presents, including her next car seat which we will probably start using very soon. J

Corn Maze fun

Pumpkin guts!

painting her own pumpkin

Family photo in KY

At her Daddy's fave...Red Robin

Her first sight of a Christmas tree :-)

Her first stocking

Her first winter cap :-)

                One last first this month, which is a not so fun one, is that she got sick for the first time in her life on 11-20-11.  Thankfully it isn’t fazing her too much, but she has quite the runny/stuffy nose.  According to my mom, this is what my brothers and I did every time we were teething a lot.  I know she is teething too because that is the only time she cries in her sleep,, but I am praying that she doesn’t get a runny nose every time she teethes from now on.  I guess we shall see since she has many more that are still yet to come in!

                We have thoroughly enjoyed the past 9 months and are looking forward to seeing what the next bring.  We love this little girl so much and it is impossible to imagine life without her!

My two loves....priceless photo

Post bath curls....I am pretty sure there are more of these to come

This is one of my new favorite photos :-)