9 Months!

It’s that time again – time for a monthly Annie update!  Our big girl hit the 9 month mark on Thursday and this month has been full of fun, new, and exciting changes for her (and us).  She is growing and changing so rapidly now that I had to keep an actual list of her accomplishments so I wouldn’t forget any of them when the time came to write this post.

Crawling – As of Thursday, she has officially moved forward on her hands and knees.  Yes, we now have a crawler.  For a few weeks before that, she would hang out on her hands and knees a lot and she had figured out exactly how to use that position to get to toys that have rolled or been thrown (by her, I might add) out of her reach.  She was also sliding around a lot on her tummy and was spinning in circles on her belly quite a bit too. But it looks like we may have finally entered the realm of crawling.  Just over the last few days, she has gotten more and more confident and skilled in her crawling.  I know, I know, we better watch out!  This is very much one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations.  Here's some documented evidence of our girl on the move...

Cruising – I have mentioned on here before how very much Annie LOVES to stand up.  Seriously, if we would hold on to her hands she would stand up all day long, I think.  We got her one of those activity tables that kids can stand up around and sort of cruise along the edge to play with different toys.  It is her new best friend.  And she does just what it is designed to help her do – she holds on and takes little tiny baby steps along the side of it.  She does the same with the coffee table and, well, me.  The only problem is once she’s standing she can’t figure out how to get down when she’s ready.  You can see her little brain working as she looks at the floor, but she can’t quite connect the bend/sit method for getting back on the ground. 

Pulling up – It probably makes sense, with her love for being on her feet, that Annie has started pulling herself up from a sitting position.  She’s especially adept at it when I am sitting on the floor with her and she has my knee/leg as a starting point.

Imitation – It’s the greatest form of flattery, right?  Well, if that is the case, David and I should be feeling awfully good about ourselves right about now because Annie’s favorite pastime is mimicking Mama and Daddy.  Especially in the mouth noise department.  Months ago, we learned that Annie laughed when we made noises like clicking our tongues or making popping sounds with our mouths.  She found them entertaining and, apparently, has been secretly practicing those skills to be pulled out and put on display during her ninth month of life.  She tongue clicking like a champ now, and is starting to make kissy noises too (when she feels like it, of course).  Can you say “melts my heart?”

Talking – Annie is in full on babble mode now.  She says “dada, “mama,” “baba,” "dede" and other similar sounds.  I still don’t think she knows for sure that I am “mama” and David is “dada,” but she will frequently say “Da!” right after David leaves the room, so I think she might be catching on.  She also, on occasion, answers my questions to her with something that sounds an awful lot like “Yeah.”  We’ll work on growing that into “Yes, ma’am” like a good southern lady a little later on. 

Bath time – Annie’s appreciation of bath time grew even more this month when she graduated from the baby bathtub to the big person tub.  Our house is 90-plus years old and our only bathroom (a story for another time…) has an old, hard porcelain (or some other hard surface like that) bathtub.  Not the plastic-type tubs those of you with newer homes probably have.  So I stressed a little about her slipping and hitting her head before we made the switch.  But that was nothing a simple slip guard mat didn’t fix.  Now she has lots of room to move around, play with her bubble books and other toys, and, yes, get on her tummy to drink the bath water.  Yum.

Going from tummy or back to sitting – On the morning of her 9-month birthday, Annie revealed to us that she had perfected another skill.  When I went in to get her out of the crib in the morning, she wasn’t lying on her back or pushing herself up from her stomach like usual, she was sitting up.  Just as straight and tall as you please.  So she has figured out how to get from a horizontal position to a (halfway) vertical one.  I’m afraid this will lead in very short time to pulling up on the crib rails, so I think it’s time we lower the crib mattress before our wild woman figures out how to climb out.

We still don’t have any teeth – we’re starting to think she might be toothless until she’s six years old.  Seriously, she doesn’t act like being devoid of pearly whites is slowing her down at all.  She can mash puffs and table food with her gums like it’s her job.  We do, however, have more hair!  Blonde hair like her daddy’s (and like her mommy had as a little girl).  Enough hair, in fact, to start wearing little clips in it.  At least until she figures out they are there and pulls them out, which, most days, takes about three and a half seconds.

See?  Hair!  And a bow!

Just doing a little light reading.  Oh, did I not mention that?

I know I say this every month, but life with Annie just gets better and better as she grows.  Her personality is really coming out now and it is so fun to see the entertainer in her.  Our little summer baby still loves the warm weather and now that spring has officially arrived we have returned to the past-times she loved as a newborn of swinging on the porch in the evenings and taking walks in the stroller.  The time is really flying and I can’t believe we are only three months away from her first birthday.  It just doesn’t seem possible.

Oh, I almost forget her 9-month stats for the record books:
* Weight - 19 lbs, 4 oz. (58th percentile)
* Height - 28 inches (66th percentile) -- her doctor said her 6-month length of 27 inches was probably off
* Head - 44.5 cm (60th percentile)

Happy Sunday!  And Go Cats!!