Nine Months Old!

Happy (belated) 9 months, Evie Bea!

I'm really maxed out. I apologize to all of my bloggy buddies that I've been a poor commenter recently. About all I have time and energy for is reading blogs in Blog*lines before crashing into bed. Hopefully Evie will cut me a break and start napping and sleeping well again soon. This month has been one of the most difficult of my life. Evie has pushed J and I to the limits of our patience and beyond the limits of our skills as parents (since we're new at this). We're not done with this phase yet, so I'm not ready to look back on it with 20/20 hindsight and sum it up in a neat little package. The best I can do right now is this: I am not Mary Poppins. I am not my mom. I am doing my best.

The majority of what we've been dealing with is teething, compulsive movement (who can sit or lie still when there are so many awesome things to cruise on?!), separation anxiety (if you ain't Mommy you ain't nobody!) and sleep hades. A few days in the past week she hasn't napped at all (seriously) and frequently in the past month she's napped twice for 1/2 or 3/4 hour at a time. Neither she nor I is satisfied with that amount of daytime sleep, but when she wakes up in her crib without Mama there, she is inconsolable.

I just keep telling myself "It's a phase, it's a phase, it's a phase, it's a phase." Please, let it be a phase.

Anyhow, I hope that month 9 is like childbirth...I'll forget the pain in a few months and remember only the good stuff. Here's a quick rundown. (I'm embarrassed to admit that many of the following pics are from my mom's visit and her camera. This month has been so exhausting that I've even forgotten to keep my camera at the ready for K*odak moments. I'll try to do better next month.)

Her hair is long enough to put bows in without a headband! We got lots of compliments in this outfit:
Not an attractive pic of either of us, but the pics of Evie and I together are sparse, since I'm usually the photographer:

This is the beginning of month 9, still tentative with the push walker. Now, at the end of month 9, beginning of month 10, she is a pro at pushing it and loves to walk back and forth across the playroom or porch (we still have to help her steer and turn her around at the end):

Top teeth are coming in. Everything still goes into the mouth, just in case it makes the gums feel good:

I heard about giving frozen bagels as teething aids. She loved them until she almost choked on a piece recently, so this is a thing of the past:

She loves to swing in our hammock! Right now it's way too hot to be on the porch, but we had some pleasant days:

Her swim lessons are over and she graduated with honors (kidding). She got a certificate of participation, though...her first certificate besides her birth certificate. She still loves water and did great at lessons, but in the past few days has developed a fear of having her hair rinsed in the bath. We have tear-free wash, but something must have spooked her.

Her favorite finger foods these days are cheese cubes, cooked peas, 1/2 blueberries, 1/4 grapes, puffs and tofu chunks coated in crushed Kashi cereal. She's an enthusiastic eater, but is starting to show signs of pickiness. If she has food on her tray, she'll often reject spoon feeding attempts, and she's started showing preferences by spitting things out and "requesting" something else by banging on her tray and looking at the item she wants. We're following the "food is fun until she's 1" approach, so we're pretty much giving in to her whims at this point, since her nutrition is still mostly from formula. We did start at her 9 month birthday giving about 1 oz. of whole milk in a sippy cup with each meal, and she seems to like it but is still getting used to how cold it is.

More tidbits from this month:

*She's starting to say "Mama" and "Dada" to the correct parent, in appropriate context. It's still pretty rare, and it melts our hearts.

*for about a week we took her mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor so that we could lie down next to her and soothe her to sleep. It worked OK until J went out of town because he is the one who is a pro at soothing her that way. When I try to do it she just gets excited that Mama is in bed with her and starts pulling my hair, poking my eyes and pinching my skin. Which reminds me:

My baby is an abuser. She tries to control my movements and keep me close to her at all times. She is jealous of anything that takes my attention away from her. She watches me closely and monitors everything I do. If I leave the room without her permission, she screams at me. When she gets frustrated, she hits, kicks, pinches and scratches me. I can't leave her, though, because I love her and she loves me. And she always makes it up to me with kisses and cuddles.

*As I mentioned in a previous post, we are starting to introduce allergenic foods because I read that introducing them in tiny portions at an early age may help prevent allergies from developing, and certainly doesn't cause allergies. If Evie does have an allergic reaction (which again, wouldn't be caused by the early introduction of the foods), we live a very short drive (4 minutes or so) from an ER. Anyhow, so far, so good...we've tried shrimp, peanut butter, egg whites and berries. She loves it all.

*Evie is now a clapper and a dancer. She LOVES music. She isn't really picky (she was dancing to M*ichael J*ackson music playing on CNN tonight, but also dances to the silly songs that J makes up and sings to her)...she wiggles, bounces, shakes her head and claps for any and all music with a good rhythm. The very first claps were to Julie Andrews singing "Do, Re, Mi" and the second claps were to Julie Andrews' "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Let the love of musicals commence! (J sighs heavily.) (And no, I didn't have to look up the spelling of the second song. I learned to spell it in elementary school and still remember.)

*This month we went to a free trial class at G*ymboree play and music (the clothing store grew out of the play and music aspect originally, for those who don't know). Evie LOVED it, but we won't go back because it is way too $$$. But I did buy a few items while we were there, including a cage bell, maracas and the cool G*ymboree bubble maker. The white things on the porch carpet in Evie's 9 month video (below) are G*ymboree bubbles. I think they are great, and encourage anyone who has a baby or kid and a G*ymboree play & music location near them to go buy the bubbles (less than $10 for the solution and bubblemaker) because they rock.

*Physical milestones from this month: standing unsupported for a second or two, walking with only one hand on a support, squatting to retrieve an object and standing up again, sitting down carefully (slowly, with less "plop"), using her quads to get down instead of just gravity.

*We've had to deal with her wanting to stand up in the bathtub every night, but thank goodness it's a phase! In the past week she's been standing less and wanting to sit down more so that she can play with all of her cool bath toys. It was nice having her standing, though, because it was much easier to wash her! But sitting is safer.

*I've gotten some great yard sale stuff in the past couple of weeks. Evie now has a F*isher P*rice L*ittle P*eople castle ($5), a FP bounce and spin zebra ($3), many FP peek*a*blocks ($6) and much more. My super find today was a pair of brand new R*obeez for only $0.50. Too bad they are 0-6 month size, so they'll have to wait for the next baby. He's sure to be...a he...so they will probably end up at another yard sale, but for a much more lucrative price.

Finally, Evie's 9 month interview. I just love the 3rd clip, even though she's crying, because it cracks me up how she goes back and bites my knee in retribution! :)