9 Months Old

Sweet Katherine, You are nine months old and are at such a fun age, but you're getting way to close to being one, and I am not ready for that. Not at all.

At nine months you are loving Cheerios, finding any kind of trash, Gerber baby cookies,  the classic baby pop up toy, baths and swimming pools, swinging, and your mommy and daddy. You laugh out loud at your silly siblings and cry when they pick you up and carry you off when you're just trying to play happily by yourself. It drives both of us crazy, Sister.

Your big accomplishment this month is that you're now a crawler. You love being able to get into all sorts of mischief. You started crawling on June 6. You had been SO close to crawling for weeks. Your dad and I just knew you were going to take off any day, but you never did. You'd lunge, get up on your knees, rock back and forth and then just sit up. But you finally figured it out at Granny and Grandaddy's house, and you have not stopped. You figured it out one time and you were gone. Now you crawl everywhere. You'll disappear out of sight and into other rooms so fast, and you're always after something you shouldn't have. You're surrounded by baby toys and you'll head off for a door stop, or a piece of trash, or an electrical outlet. I've had to pull beads, lego pieces, and coins out of your mouth. Whew, you are a handful, but then you'll crawl over to me, put your hand on my foot and grunt for me to pick you up, and it's all worth it.

Your other big milestone this month is that you got two bottom teeth. You got your first tooth on June 1 and your second on June 5. You normally sleep great at night, but you had an awful night- the worst of your entire life a couple of days before your tooth popped through. You were up most of the night, restless and unsettled. Your dad and I even had to take turns with you, because we couldn't get you to sleep. A dose of Tylenol finally soothed you and helped you sleep. But then that tooth popped through and it all made sense. Poor thing. We can tell your mouth is still bothering you some even now, and we're expecting more teeth to pop up soon.

You're eating solids okay. Your favorite foods are cheerios, pancakes, waffles, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, peas, apple slices, and baby food fruit medleys. We're mostly sticking with purees for now aside from a few table foods. It just seems easier to feed you a jar of baby food than find, prepare, and cut food into tiny pieces for you. You're hit and miss on how you eat, and I think part of it is that your mouth is hurting. Sometimes you'll chow down and eat a whole container of baby food, and sometimes you'll take two bites, and spit it out, bat it away with your hands and blow raspberries. I never know what I'm going to get when I sit down to feed you. You usually have oatmeal for breakfast, and a fruit or vegetable for lunch and the same for dinner. And you'll snack on puffs and cheerios too. Sometimes I'll give you waffles for breakfast and occasionally I'll feed you some table food from whatever we're eating.

You still get four six ounce bottles a day, and you just learned to hold your bottle, sort of. You still laugh and sometimes cry a little when I make your bottle. You can be impatient.

You love baths and speed crawl (and laugh) to the bathtub as soon as you hear the water running. It's adorable. You splash and chew on bath toys and never mind getting water dumped on your head.

On a perfect day, you'll take a two hour morning nap from 9:00-11:00 and a two hour afternoon nap from 1:30-3:30, but since you have three older siblings, the perfect day  happens maybe once a week. So you usually settle for a short or interrupted morning nap. I try harder to get a good afternoon nap for you or you'll be fussy in the evenings, but that doesn't always happen either. You usually go to bed around 7:30 and sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. You like to sleep with a pacifier in your mouth and one in your hand too. Occasionally, you'll wake up crying in the night and I just have to stick your pacifier back in your mouth. Every morning you greet me up on your knees at the end of your crib, staring at the door just waiting on me. It melts me every time.

You're mostly wearing 6-9 and 9month clothes, but some 6 month things still fit you. You wear a size 3 diaper.

You're not saying many words. I hear dada sometimes, and sometimes it sounds just like you're saying "hi" and it's so cute. You learned to clap this month too. You'll mimic us when we do it. You're learning so much! When you're excited you flail your arms in the air, like there's too much excitement to contain yourself. You're always a happy, laid back baby, but this new crawling stage is keeping us on our toes more than ever before.

We love you Sweet Girl, and I'm savoring every moment as you grow and learn. Sometimes it can seem inconvenient having a baby during the summer when the big kids want to swim and play and be out doing fun things. And while we do have to go at a slower and simpler pace, I'm treasuring having you tag along everywhere with us. I know that I'm going to blink and you'll be running off with the big kids, so even in the inconveniences, I am treasuring every moment with you. You bring such joy to our family.