9 months in, 9 months out!

Nine month stats
Height:  28.25” (75^th percentile)
Weight:  17lbs 6oz (25^th percentile)

I was trying to get a shot of her teeth, but the quality isn't good enough, plus they're still pretty small.
Still cute though!

Hair: Still red, in fact it is pretty much the one thing guaranteed to be commented on, except how cute she is, of course! And how much she looks like her brother... Alright, maybe not the only thing then.

Teeth: I started writing this post a couple weeks ago so all I had to do when we went to the doctor was put in the height and weight stats and post, and this is what I had originally written: “Teeth? What teeth? Where are you teeth?!” Well, things change fast in a baby’s first year! She has since gotten her first two teeth, both on the bottom. One day the first one was there, the next the other popped through. I’m not sure why I was so anxious for her to get teeth because they only lead to one thing - biting!

Eating: She’s an eater, that’s for sure! She is still nursing, and I’m still pumping at work. Luckily, other than on a couple of occasions, I’ve been able to keep up with demand for milk. I say luckily because on those couple of occasions, she basically just won’t drink anything. She lifts her nose at formula… She knows good milk when she tastes it! We have also introduced a good variety of fruits and veggies and she eats them all! Her favorite stuff is anything she can feed herself. She didn’t seem to like avocado that much when I gave it to her smashed up on a spoon, but when I cut it up and put it on her tray… down the hatch!

Sleeping: She goes through spurts with sleeping. She’ll do ok for awhile, only waking up once at about 4:30, then let me put her down right away, then she goes crazy for a few days and wakes up every 45 minutes, or just won’t let me put her down. But the doctor suggested that we cut out the night feeding entirely and let her learn to go to sleep on her own. We tried this last night, and were up and down for about an hour, but… Hopefully she will learn quickly, Nate did!

Moving: She LOVES to move! She is crawling like crazy, pulling up and cruising and even climbing the stairs! She is so fast we really have to keep an eye on her. A couple times I’ve been doing something with Nate and I have to quickly get up to go grab her before she tumbles down the stairs. With her newfound movement she seems to be getting into everything. Her favorite thing is toilet paper! She’s also started shaking her little butt when music is on. Maybe that’s the problem we are having with her sleeping – who wants to sleep when you can MOVE?!

Standing: On top of pulling up and cruising, she has stood up on her own by letting go of things for a few seconds a few times, and has gotten herself into a standing position from leaning over. The first time she did it she was leaning against my legs then just stood up straight without holding onto, or leaning against anything (including me). She started to fall, but caught herself and straightened herself back up. That lasted a few seconds and she plopped down. She’s tried to take steps away from things a couple times without success.

Go Packers!

Babbling: She says "Mama" and "Dada" now. Sometimes she just babbles them, but she does seem to know what they mean. One time it even sounded like she tried to say "brother"! We might have another Bubba on our hands. She has also found her voice in other ways and likes to babble and sing along and screech! 

Signing: She definitely has “more” down, although she is just starting to make it look more like “more” than a clap. She has maybe started signing “all done” as well. Now we need to start on some non-food related signs. And though it’s not an official sign, she has started to wave hi and bye. She also claps sometimes, but we aren’t sure if she’s trying to say she’s hungry (more!) when she does that, or if she’s just clapping or wanting to play patty-cake. Also, the other day at dinner we were asking her where everyone was, and when we got to Grandpa she looked straight at her Grandpa and kind of swung her arm out toward him with a flourish like, “Ta-da! Here he is!”

Nate: Now that she’s moving so much we have some good and some bad in the sibling relationship. He really doesn’t like it when she pulls his puzzles off of the top of their bookcase or chews on his cars, but he’s very good about letting us know when she’s about to start climbing the stairs or turn the volume on the radio WAY up! Sometimes he grabs her legs and tries to pull her away from whatever he doesn’t want her to be doing. But the other night he asked to hold her for the first time in awhile. It’s kind of funny because when you see them together like that they look a lot closer in size than they seem when I’m trying to hold them! And he still wants to give her a hug and a kiss before bed, so I can’t ask for more than that!

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always