9 months [and a week]

January 13, 2013
as i’ve written before, these updates can be overwhelming.  so much to say — and way too much pressure to perfectly capture these moments before they are distant memories.  therefore, i’m continuing to settle for less than perfect — just snapshots, really, literally and figuratively.  
here’s 9 months.  my favorite age yet . . .
milestones:  the biggest change by far over the past month or so is that miss a is fully mobile.  she crawls like a champ and can be quite speedy when she spots something she finds interesting [which is pretty much everything that is potentially dangerous and not a toy, of course].  
however, just days after we were cheering her on for her newfound crawling abilities, she started pulling to stand!  as it turns out, the combination is — well, challenging.  but still so much fun.
with respect to her verbal development, she is doing lots of babbling to herself.  she also will repeat ‘uh oh’ after we say it, which pretty much melts my heart every single time.  it’s my absolute favorite.
our relationship: obviously, annabel has ‘known’ me for her entire life.  but i think she’s finally really starting to see me as more than just a milk spigot [perhaps since i no longer am a milk dispenser, other than her 2 breast feedings in the AM and PM].  she doesn’t have stranger anxiety, maybe because day care is all she’s ever known.  but she’s started to get a little bit of separation anxiety.  attempts to leave her in her [child-proofed] nursery for a few seconds to grab laundry baskets and such left her in tears that abated the second i walked back in.  
it’s a little inconvenient but i will admit it:  a tiny part of me loves it.  
eating:  girl loves to eat — unless it’s finger food.
she takes:
— 18 oz of formula daily
— 2 breast feedings daily
— 3 solid meals — breakfast [usually baby oatmeal + a fruit], lunch [1-2 jars/homemade purees], dinner [usually a homemade puree, plus a yo baby plain yogurt and potentially some fruit]
she loves almost everything.  even if she rejects something once [she did this with a kale/potato mix that i made], she often will take it at another offering. she is not, however, interested in picking up her own food and bringing it to her mouth.  she can do a pincer grasp but just doesn’t seem to get the concept of transferring hand –> mouth.   i’ve tried avocado pieces, cheerios [broken in half], cooked apple pieces, raspberry pieces, and baby puffs to no avail.  i’m guessing she’ll just do it when she’s ready.  i’m definitely looking forward to her figuring it out, though — i’m excited to just give her a cut-up version of what we eat!
favorite foods:  plain yogurt.  seriously, she’ll tolerate almost anything but yogurt seems to blow everything else away!

sleep:  of course, after i wrote this post things actually DID seem to improve!  and i have no idea why, although we have tried to be a bit firmer/consistent with letting her cry in the AM if she is up way too early.  [i was encouraged to do this by our pediatrician, and she typically does NOT all-out cry but just kind of persistently whines.  lately, it’s been lasting 10 minutes max and she’ll return to sleep.]
she’s currently taking a rather epic nap [going on 1.5 hours], but that’s not the norm.  usually she’ll do a shorter AM nap [45 minutes – 1 hr] and a slightly longer PM nap [1 – 1.5 hours].  at night she goes down at 7 – 7:30 and for the past few nights has been waking up at 6:30 or so, though she often has a short whining session at 5 AMish.  
most importantly, she has been waking up HAPPY and rested!  i love, love LOOOOOVE going to greet this little muffin in the morning — particularly when it’s 6AM or later.  hopefully things will continue on this path!
outings:  it’s been a big couple of months in terms of travel for miss a!  she’s now been to miami twice, and i was totally impressed [and relieved] with her behavior on the plane.  josh did have to resort to letting her rip up a skymall catalogue on the way back this week, but there was almost NO crying.  
out to brunch.  love that she can now hang out in the high chair!
she continues to love the grocery store and mall, and had her first fine dining experience at our favorite durham restaurant — revolution — last weekend.  i love this picture:

favorite things:  mommy’s hair.  the recycling bin.  the brest friend pillow [pleasant associations, i guess].  PAPER, which is clear evidence that she is my child.  
actual toys:  the shape sorter [still not sorting, but loves dumping it out!], an owl puzzle, cloth books, her puzzle bench

typical morning scene

stats:
height:  27.5 inches — 30%
weight: 19.5 lbs — 65%
weight-for-height:  90%
clothing size:  6-12 months, though due to the above [chunk!] some things are getting a little tight
diaper size:  3

LOVE this muffin.  i just can’t wait to see what’s up next!

 day-in-the-life, 9 month edition:  coming at you in a later post!  because this nap is bound to end soon . . .

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.