Nine Months

A nine month old baby is not as small as she should be. I mean, seriously. Nine of the fastest months ever. The nine months it take to grow her were the slowest and now here we are. I knew I would regret thinking that time would fast forward juuuuusssst a little bit at the beginning when we weren't yet sleeping through the night at some point. That point is now.

Nine month old Janie

HEIGHT: 28 1/4 inches

WEIGHT: 18 pounds, 13 ounces

When I hold Janie, I think about how little she is and how squishy she is and then I take a step back and I see that she is actually not as little as I think. She takes up half of her crib when she is all laid out. I can hardly carry her in her infant car seat these days. {Can I count it as working out please??} She has started to use her sign language. She creeps around on the furniture and seems WAY too interested in walking. Thankfully, she still likes to snuggle when she's in the "sleep zone" but I am starting to see that light at the end of the tunnel that is infant hood. AND I HATE IT!!!!!!! Ugh.

But there are good things about her getting older. {Okay, I said it.} And I do very much enjoy those things as well so on to that...

Happy Janie!

Janie is a happy, energetic, curious little girl. She is more easy going than the first born (naturally) and she is way less trustworthy when left alone. She will get into anything and everything she can and is especially interested in what big sister Nora is doing. Nora loves it and hates it at the same time. But don't worry, Nora is also laying down the law by saying things like, "Be nice, Jay-Jay," and "No throwing, Jay-Jay. Mommy will keep it." And then of course she tells her "No." A lot.

But Nora also INSISTS on hugging & kissing Janie before bed every night. And she will {sometimes} bring her toys and puzzles without being prompted. And she will encourage Janie and laugh with her. Janie LOVES her big sister and is trying very hard to keep up with her.

We don't like to lay down unless we're sleeping. 

Here are her updates:

Drinks four soy bottles each day Janie is drinking four bottles a day. She still insists that it is a warm bottle and usually wants 7-8 ounces. She looks for that bottle first thing when she wakes up and will fuss at you until you give it to her! We are still avoiding all dairy products until we go to the doctor for her one year well-check. 

Eats pureed veggies & fruits Even though we have tried many, many times to give her puffs and some finger foods, she has not been ready until just maybe the last week or so. She has finally started making a chewing motion when she eats them rather than a peanut butter stuck on the roof of my mouth kind of motion. She was gagging on the puffs but we are continuing to try them every so often to see if we can get her on those finger foods sometime soon. Until then, we will continue to puree! I have still been making Janie's food and even though I thought the last month's batch would be it, I'm working on another big batch today. Hopefully this time it will be closer to the actual last batch of food and we can move on to table foods! We have been giving her grains but plan on starting with protein this month, too!

Drinks water from a sippy cup (kind of) Janie needs to better her sippy cup skills. She is a champ with her bottle but not with her cup. 

Takes two or three naps a day When at home and napping well, Janie will only take 2 naps. While at school, she gets much shorter naps and ends up getting a little nap on the way home as well so it just depends on the day. She had a little bout of separation anxiety within the last few weeks which was especially bad at nap times. She did not want to be left in her crib and would scream when you left. Without thinking, we rushed quickly to see what was the "matter" but then came to our senses. Since we've gone back and let her self soothe, while reassuring her we are still there, she has gotten much better. We haven't had a big fit from her yet this weekend.

Sucks her thumb before sleeping This was the one question we didn't ask at her nine month well check. I'm not too concerned quite yet anyways, but she is still really big on sucking her thumb, mostly before bed time.

Can crawl but chooses army crawling We've had big improvements in crawling this month. Janie can crawl very well and has picked up a bit of speed. She doesn't usually cover a lot of distance because after a few "steps" she will stop, sit, and investigate something she's found or seen along the way. Janie is definitely loving the freedom that she has with moving around the house! She has even abandoned her bottle mid-feed to investigate.

Sits up on her own Janie moves freely from crawling to sitting and back to crawling. She is stable and we have even started letting her sit with Nora in the big tub when taking baths!

Pulls herself to standing Janie loves to stand and creep along furniture. I don't always trust her with this since I worry she will fall over and bump her face on something. But that hasn't really happened so maybe I just worry too much. We've started walking with Janie (holding her arms) and she really enjoys that, too! Nora thinks she can actually walk. She tries to grab her hand and walk with her.

We were playing peek-a-boo before this!

Has two teeth Janie still has just her two bottom teeth. As far as I can tell, there are still no more teeth on the way, or at least close to coming through. 

Babbles Janie has made lots of strides in her social development this month. We think she says "mamama" and "dadada" on purpose. She definitely says "more" along with a sign. She will also sign "all done". She waves and blows kisses and claps! Her best asset is her contagious smile, which lights up whenever she reads a book, sings a song, or sees mommy.

Janie saying MAMA

Carries toys around with her Janie also throws them.

She throws blocks like a champ!

Wears size 3 diapers No change on the diaper front.

Wears 6-12 month clothing Or with clothing. Nora's 6-12 month clothing was for months March-September (roughly) so if you're familiar with Texas weather, that's... summer. Well, it hasn't necessarily cooled off much yet even though we're into October so it's not a big issue yet but we're definitely going to have to beef up Janie's winter wardrobe in a few weeks.

Nine month snapshot:

Drinks 4 bottles of soy formula
Eats pureed fruits & veggies, and grains
Is working on using a sippy cup
Takes 2 long naps or 3 short naps a day
Sucks her thumb when sleepy 
Crawls on all fours
Moves from sitting to crawling easily
Stands and creeps along furniture
Has 2 teeth
Says "mamma" & "dadada"
Signs "all done" and "more"
Claps, waves, points, and blows kisses

Janie is such a sweetheart. We love that she's independent yet super sweet. We love our baby girl!