Miss B, this month you are 9 months old! It's crazy for me to think that you have been in our lives for as long as I was pregnant with you! You are such a joy and blessing in our lives and each day you bring us laughter and amazement! This month you made your debut as a flowergirl in Aunt Laura and Uncle Dave's wedding...you were beautiful and an angel during the ceremony! You came down the aisle on Mommy's hip and you loved seeing everyone! You luckily have not been sick this month, other than the perpetual runny nose that goes along with being in school! You moved up into the next room at school and that has been an adjustment, as naps are more on a scheduled time. You have also started separation anxiety and cry (hard) almost every time I leave you at school. Once you are distracted with a toy you seem to settle right down and go about your day, but the second I walk in at lunch or the end of the day you are frantic to get to me. It's sweet but breaks my heart to hear to cry for me when I leave! You even have had your moments at home that you won't go to Daddy or cry until I come back in the room with you! We had your 9 month check up last week and you are doing great, growing and developing just as you should. You measurements were:

~Weight: 18 lb, 1 oz (50th %-ile)

~Length: 27 inches (75 %-ile)

~Head: 

Here's what you are doing...

~Feedings/food: You are totally a boob baby and love love love your milk and to nurse! I am convinced you would nurse on and off all day if I let you, and sometimes I feel like an all-you-can-nurse bar! You nurse before school, have a sippy with milk and snack around 9 am, nurse again at lunch, have a 6-7 oz bottle at 3:30, then usually want to nurse somewhere around 5:30 once we are home! Then it's dinner time, and then you nurse again at bedtime! We are working on solid foods with you...you used to like bananas and cereal (sort of) but now you don't. You do not like baby food at all, except the organic turkey-squash combo and chicken-tomato pasta. You are much more interested in what Mommy and Daddy are eating and I give you a little off my dinner plate each night. This week you loved banana bread...you will eat any type of bread, just like your Mommy! You had a few bites of chicken and hamburger meat this past month too. It will be a lot easier to feed you "real" food once you get some teeth in...for now you still just have the one and it is barely in! 

~Sleep: After our sleep retraining few nights, you are back to sleeping thru the night! It got pretty rough for a week or so after you were better from your illness and you were up waaaay to much! We decided to retrain you the week of your daddy's fall break and it took really only the one night to remind you that you can calm yourself down and go back to sleep without us! The longest you cried the first night was 7 minutes. We have had a few other nights where we have had to do the retraining method but for the most part you are back to sleeping great! You have 2 naps at school and those range from 30 mins- 2.5 hours! Every once in a while you will cat-nap on our way home from school too.

~Play/activity: You are a crawling machine and can move pretty fast throughout the house! We finally found a gate that works in the kitchen so you can't fall down the stairs! You have no fear whatsoever and that scares me! You have fallen off the ottoman (Mommy was right next to you) in an attempt to get Willie...you were startled for a second then started laughing and going to get him! You also crawl up into your rocking chair and I caught you standing in it the other day! Ah! You are pulling to stand like a pro and creeping around furniture and your toys...it won't be long before you are walking! You have stood on your own for 10 seconds or so before falling too! This past week you have started to crawl with one foot on the ground! You also have mastered putting food into your mouth all by yourself! You have started making a clicking sound with your tongue and love to do your machine-gun laugh! Sneezing also makes you laugh! You are so full of energy, you rarely slow down!

Things you love:

~Mary. In the past month you are more attached to mary and the paci then ever before...you even dug her out of your school bag the other morning! 

~Big Mary and your pink blanket: you love to curl up with these in the rocker with Mommy and drift to sleep!

~Willie

~Leaves and the grass: you will take big handfuls and try to eat it!

~Climbing and being on the move

~Seeing familiar faces

~Laughing

~Bath time: you love to splish splash in the tub and the floor is usually soaked when you are done!

~outside time/walks: you are still the most content outside or on a walk with Mommy, Daddy and Willie

Things you don't like:

~changing clothes and diapers (on occasion)

~mommy sucking your nose out

~anything coming near your face to wipe your nose, or try to see your tooth!

~shots, but you did great with your flu shot last week!

You are wearing:

~size 3 diapers

~size 6 month onesies and pants, a few 6-9 month onesies are a bit long on you still

~shoes: you refuse to wear them but when we measured you, you are still a size 1!