9 Months

My littlest is 3/4 of the way to her first birthday! (Which is why I'm now in full party-planning mode.  But that's clearly not important for this post.)  There are many "news" and "firsts" that have taken place this last month.

-She started eating breakfast this month, which means just one more thing for Mommy to do before we get out the door in the morning!  She's been eating an oatmeal puree each day and is now moving on to stealing some of Sissy's waffle.

-Her speech is improving this month.  I've been able to break her intense dependence on her pacis at all moments of the day.  She still sleeps with one (make that five) but it's not in her mouth all day long.  Notice the pictures from this month... you can actually see her face!  She has started doing some variegated babbling and officially using "mama" to label me.  Unfortunately, she won't go anywhere near her /d/ in order to say "Dada."  J doesn't appreciate this : (

-She learned how to drink from a sippy cup this month!  The poor kid just can't properly digest bananas no matter how I fix them or what they are mixed with.  Luckily, she decided for the first time that she would accept apple juice once it was presented in this fun new cup! 

sippy cups and Daddy snuggles

Lots of swing time has happened this month

We had a visit with some sweet friends who don't live here anymore

-With her increased mobility, she has definitely started exploring.  What is it with babies and dog food?  I have to stop her about 10 times a day!

Lilly doesn't appreciate this new interest!

-She has been pulling up since last month, but this month she has gotten much better at it.  Thankfully!  She had horrible sleep for a couple of weeks because she would pull herself up in bed and then she couldn't get out of that position and she would just scream until we freed her.  Now she can lower herself back down and has even started "walking" a bit around furniture.  However, she is pulling up on EVERYTHING, and it's not always sturdy or over carpeted areas.  My eyes must be on her at ALL times!

She's so proud of herself!

-She popped two teeth this month.  Her big sister averaged one tooth every two months with screaming and pain the entire time in between.  I definitely appreciated her growing these together!  Here's hoping the others grow in pairs.

-She finally started eating some table food- baby puffs for the win!  I also got her to eat some blueberries by the end of the month.  She really wanted nothing to do with anything that wasn't pureed before this.  I'm very sick of making baby food, so I'm excited about her new skill!

-We took an adventure to Austin one Friday and went to Zilker.  The girls got to ride the train and play on the playground.  It was quite ironic because the last time we went on this train, S was three days younger than K was here.  Clearly there was something about having 8 month-old babies that prompts us to go to Zilker!

My sweet girls! (Dang it she has a paci and ruined my point from above!)

-She truly wants to do EVERYTHING her big Sissy does and now that she's getting more mobile, she tries!  She succeeded at getting most of the way into the toy car by herself before I helped.  She LOOOVED it!

Wee!

Stats:

Weight: 15 lbs 8 oz (9%)

Height: 27.5" (40%)

Clothing: 6 months

Diapers: size 3

Samantha Updates:

-We had our first "date" without her Sissy.  We went to her first movie, Nut Job.  She enjoyed the popcorn, but got bored before the movie ended, thus the date continued at Walmart.

Donuts on our Austin adventure day

She put this on herself...

-The biggest update for her this month was starting preschool!  She was so excited to go and talked about it every day.  I had to make her a chain to countdown the days so that she would stop asking every day if she was going yet.  She has gone in each day without issue or tears, which she's never done anywhere else!  I'm so proud of her and excited for the fun things ahead for her.  People keep asking me if I'm sad to see her growing up, but truly the only emotion I've had about this change was excitement!  I know she will have so much fun this year, learn so much, grow in her relationship-skills and come out an even better version of herself.  When she starts Kindergarten, it might be a totally different story!

First day of preschool!