9 Months Old

*** Can you believe that this post is up on time!  It is a miracle!

This little bit is 9 (!) months old.  I can barely stand it.

This past month has been a pretty big month for N.  She went from rolling everywhere to scooting to army crawling to ... drumroll, please... crawling!  Yes, we now have a full-on crawler.  For a while she would just go up on all fours and then lay back down and scoot.  Then, all of sudden (on March 27th), she figured out how to move those arms and legs and she's been on the move ever since.  She loves being able to crawl over to her toys.  Speaking of toys, these days she loves her music table, her baby doll, several brightly colored plastic toys, remote controls, iPhones, and plastic cups and spoons.  Nothing holds her attention for too long, so we try to scatter a lot of different options around her to keep her occupied.

Totally over this picture shoot and trying to crawl away

She has completely mastered sitting up and does well in a shopping cart or restaurant high chair - although she quickly tires of being confined in either of those two things.  We've learned that if we give her a piece of paper while wheeling through the grocery store we can usually finish the shopping trip with her in the buggy.  She loves paper, magazines, cards, etc.  What she doesn't like is to be still.  She flips over every time I try to change her diaper or her clothes, has developed a dislike of the exersaucer (at least at home), and will tolerate the highchair only while eating.  Of course, her favorite thing (by far) is still to be held or carried around.

She has a few funny quirks:  she likes to roll her tongue and she loves to cross one leg over the other (such a little lady).  She is becoming very verbal.  She still mostly says "dadadada," "babababa," "nananana," "yayayaya," and the like, but she says it a lot and with such determination.  She also really squeals with delight a lot now.  We were in Costco recently and Marc had walked to a different aisle.  She started shrieking and he quickly found us, saying "I know that sound!"  She also loves to laugh and giggles like crazy when you tickle her.  It is pretty cute.  

Nora loves to look at herself in the mirror and will just laugh and laugh.  She also likes to look at pictures of herself (maybe just a little vain?).  She's an equal opportunist though and will squeal with delight when looking at pictures of other babies.  We have an array of birth announcements on our fridge (from several years back - including one of Sinclair, who just turned 2!) and Nora loves to look at them and talk to them.  It is hilarious.

Now, my sweet baby isn't laughing and outgoing all the time.  In fact, she can be downright serious.  A lot.  She's prone to stare at people without cracking a smile.  And if you get out a camera, you can be sure that she will go stone-cold.  If you want to capture a smile, you have to be quick and it has to be genuine.  She's also developing a little stranger anxiety, especially if she can see me or Marc.  

The bunny did much better holding the sign

 We still don't have any teeth.  I keep thinking that they will come in soon.  It looks like there are some close to the surface and she bites her lip (one of the other moms at school asked if she was teething based on that lip biting).  We'll see if any break through this month.  I'm really not in a hurry for her to get them, but I think they might help with eating.  Right now, she's still eating oatmeal in the morning, a fruit for lunch, and a veggie or two for dinner.  She nurses/takes a bottle every three hours (4 oz).  She's had some table food and seems to like it.  So far, we've tried hummus, grits, biscuit, pancake, and eggs.  She has also developed a love of mum-mums and yogurt melts.  She can feed herself the mum-mum, but she hasn't mastered getting the yogurt melt into her mouth yet.  She'll get it into her fist, but then ends up just holding it or throwing it down.  Then she opens her mouth so that I can place one on her tongue.  She is pretty spoiled!  We keep working on getting her to feed herself, but she has no interest in that.  She also doesn't have any desire to hold her bottle or a sippy cup.  She loves to play with the sippy cup (banging it around) and will put it in her mouth, but she doesn't get the concept of turning it up and drinking from it.  Oh well.

We are having trouble with the lighting and the sign placement.  This is the best we could do on that score.

 She also doesn't get the concept of sleeping through the night.  She is still waking up at least one time at night to eat.  Usually it is around 2 or 3 a.m., but she started working it earlier and earlier and lately has started waking up around midnight and then again at 4 a.m.  Miserable.  We are trying to break that habit and get back to the one (or no) wake up.  We'll see how that goes.  Last night she woke up at 10:45 and screamed for 15 minutes before finally going back to sleep.  It is painful to hear her cry (well, painful for me.  Marc snored through most of it.), but we've got to get her to sleep at night.  She goes down between 6 and 7 and then gets up for the day between 6 and 7, so except for the middle of the night party, we are doing pretty well.  Her napping is hit or miss.  She naps really well at home (2 naps ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours each), but her napping at school leaves much to be desired (at most one 1 hour nap; sometimes her daily report says "no nap", sometimes it says it twice).  We think that she just gets too distracted at school to really get to sleep. 

She's getting bigger, but I don't know her exact measurements.  We'll find out next week when we go for her 9 month check-up.  She's still wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes.  Because it has been cold, she's been wearing her winter stuff a little longer and can still wear a couple of 3-6 month things.  She can even wear two 0-3 month outfits, but I think that is just because they run big.   She is so fun and we are really loving this age!