9 months old

Leah @ 9 months old:

* Measurements- At her dr.'s visit today, she weighed 17 lbs. 13 oz. and is 27 1/2 inches tall.

She is only in the 30th percentile for her weight, but average for height. In other words, she's a slim little girl (no doubt due to her high energy level).

* Sleeping- She's doing about the same-- sleeping from about 7:30pm to 7am or so. There have been a few nights where she woke up right around the time we were headed to bed, around 10 or so, screaming. I have learned to tell the difference between her "I'll eventually put myself back to sleep" cry and her "You better come get me now" cry. These were the latter, although we were really puzzled as to whether we should just let her work it out. A few minutes of rocking put her back to sleep, though, and it hasn't really happened much more. I speculate it may have been night terrors, or maybe just the fact that so much new is going on in her little life.

- Her naps are still so unpredictable in length. Up until this week, her morning naps were rarely longer than 45 minutes. This week she may be going through a growing spurt, because they've been 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This may change again next week when she starts her summer "school." Afternoons are anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. If they're shorter, she gets grumpy earlier in the evening and is impossible to deal with.

* Eating- It seems like she's eating as much as she did as a newborn now, except that half her feedings are solids & half are bottles. She eats her solids 3 times a day, at the same time I do. This month she has tried all sorts of new baby foods: Vegetable Beef Stew, Chicken Noodle Dinner, Pineapple Glazed Ham, Mac & Cheese with Vegetables, Turkey & Rice Dinner... She doesn't really show a preference to anything really. She'll usually eat the equivalent of a whole jar of Stage 2 (or 2 halves of 2 different kinds).

She's also really catching on to the chewing thing, so I try a lot more finger foods with her. I started with the Gerber Puffs & Yogurt Melts, just because they're great for practice, but they get pricey. So I steamed up some sweet potatoes & diced them. I gave her some pieces of bread, shredded cheese, and also some banana. The banana was her favorite. It's funny to watch, because she still hasn't quite mastered the pincer grasp, so she'll get the food in between her little fingers and then shove it into her mouth with her whole fist, like she's making sure it doesn't get away!

She has a 4 or 5 oz. bottle 1st thing in the morning, again around 10 before her nap, then another around 1, another 4:30 or so, and then a 7 oz. bottle before bed. (Usually about 12 oz. are breastmilk, and 12 oz. are formula.) I'd really like to get her away from being so dependent upon the bottle to get to sleep, and I'd like her to start having her bottles along with her mealtime. Our goal for the next few months is to get her to take a sippy cup (right now she just chews on it & throws it around), and to decrease her bottles. This may take work, but by age 1 I would like her meals to be much more like ours'. The dr. said by age 1 she should only be having about 16-18 oz. of milk a day. Now she takes around 24 or so. She also suggested giving her water in her bedtime bottle, because a) it may decrease her liking for that bedtime bottle, and b) it will prevent cavities from milk pooling up in her mouth.

* What She's Doing Now-

- Even though she can technically pull herself up on things, she doesn't really do it by herself, although she tries all the time. She is constantly pulling and grabbing at things to try to get herself up, but she can't quite make it without help. She especially loves climbing over my legs if I'm sitting on the floor, and when she can't do it, she reaches out to me to help her. She is very much a monkey and has no sense of danger. If we put her on her tummy on our bed, she'll crawl straight toward the edge and keep going if we don't stop her.

- She is finally sitting well on her own. She almost prefers it, even. She can sit and play with her toys 15 to 20 minutes before she's ready to move on. I still put a pillow behind her in case she falls straight back, but usually she tips sideways and just goes on playing.

- Her crawling technique is still like that of an army soldier. Her knees don't come off the floor.

- Leah & I will sometimes sit on the front porch and wait for Daddy when it's time for him to come home from work. As soon as she sees him, she starts clapping her hands & squealing with delight! He always runs up and kisses her all over & she remembers that. She is definately Daddy's girl.

- She sometimes will wave at appropriate times now. She waved at her daycare teacher when we walked past her in the hall the other day. She waved bye-bye to Daddy one morning, and she even waved bye-bye to me when I left her in the nursery Sunday morning (and that was almost like, "okay, shooo!"). Sometimes, though, I think she gets confused between clapping & waving.

- She seems to be hitting the separation anxiety phase, and it takes its toll! At home, the minute I step out of her sight, she starts to cry. Usually she'll scoot her way to wherever I went and continue to cry until I pick her up (which I try not to do all the time, but it sure is hard to get things done when I have a little sidekick screaming at me). Thankfully, she doesn't really have a hard time going to her teacher at school (although that has now ended for the year, and she'll have a different teacher for the summer & fall), mostly because a) the teacher always greets her very cheerfully and holds her while I leave, and b) there are a lot of other kids around & she thrives on being around people! She also still goes pretty well to a couple of the nursery workers at church, but sometimes she'll cling to me until they pull her away.

- She is very high energy. She has a short attention span, and only plays by herself maybe 15 or 20 minutes before she wants attention. Many days I'm only able to really get things done around the house while she naps. From the time she wakes up until the time she goes down for the night, she wants to explore, she wants me to help her pull up on things, she wants to see what I'm doing. She's fine in her Exersaucer while I shower, but once she sees me out, she's crying for my attention. She'll play on the kitchen floor while I cook if I keep giving her new & interesting things to play with. I keep reminding myself this is a phase, and that she'll grow up so fast I should enjoy spending this time with her while she's still little, but sometimes I just want to be able to step away one second to go to the bathroom in peace!

- She loves to be outside. If she gets really fussy during the day, I can either take her for a car ride or a ride in the stroller to calm her down. She's almost always quiet & curious when we're in public, and for a few minutes after we get home. Thankfully the weather seems to be getting warm, and we have a new kiddie pool that we're anxious to try out in the backyard!

- She also loves music & rhythm. Lately, she's taken to stopping what she's doing whenever a theme song to a show comes on TV (she esp. likes the Cosby Show) and she'll sit there mesmorized. She loves to shake rattles & other things in her hands & beat on things. She will also change her whole demeanor when I sing her "Jesus Loves Me" or any other song with "Jesus" in it. If she's fussy or wiggly, she'll stop & smile... Amazing what that Name can do!

And... We may have to discontinue the monthly bear pictures due to a VERY squirmy & nosy little girl. With Brett's help we were able to distract her long enough to get one good picture, but as you can see in the rest, Leah gave the bear a run for his money.... (Oh, and the fact that she's wearing a dress means nothing to this girl.)