9 Months
Saturday, January 19, 2008

My baby gal turned 9 months old today! It's hard to believe that she's been outside my belly for as long as she was inside. She has become quite the little character. She is crawling at the speed of light and is very good at pulling herself up to stand and cruise while holding onto the furniture. We're *pretty sure* she is waving bye-bye now. She's done it quite a few times and it is usually accompanied with "ba-ba", but I'm still not sure if I should count this as her first real word. She also says mama and dada, but never in the correct context. Pointing is something she enjoys doing as well. This morning, it seemed like she was pointing at things just so I would describe them to her. She would point at the dog, pictures on the wall, the microwave...and then promptly look at me so I could tell her what they are.

Her appetite for solid foods is insatiable. That happened overnight! Up until the last couple weeks, she has been content to skip solids some days and live on breastmilk alone. Now, she is eating 2 big meals of solid food a day and she's not happy unless she gets it. After she has nursed in the morning, she has some fruit and oatmeal. She nurses throughout the day and then at dinnertime, she has some organic chicken & wild rice baby food and some sort of fruit or vegetable. I usually put about half a teaspoon of probiotic powder in her food a day. It seems to keep her bowels nice and healthy - I've noticed less gas and tummy aches since we started doing that. She also snacks frequently on organic puffed brown rice. She loves that stuff!

It makes me a little sad that she is not satisfied with my breastmilk alone anymore, but it also evokes a sense of pride and gladness when I watch how happy she is as she is shovelling bite after bite of food in her mouth. She has never let me spoon-feed her. I have to hand her the spoon and she puts it in her own mouth. She looks like such a big girl when she's feeding herself and she's so good at it! After she spoons the food in, she hands (or throws) the spoon back to me and looks at me as if to say, "Okay, mom... reload!" She eats little bite-size pieces of food sometimes as well and her pincer grasp is great. Such a big girl!

She has 2 bottom teeth and one top front tooth just poked through last weekend. The one right beside it is just under the surface. That explains the rough nights she was having there for a while.

Scout has never really been all that fond of baths, but for the last few nights I have bathed her as part of a bedtime routine. She seems to enjoy it and it does wonders for relaxing her and helping her wind down. She doesn't like to have her hair washed, so my plan is to keep bathing her every night, but only use soap and wash her hair once a week or as needed. I just wet a washcloth and wiped her hair down instead of dumping water on her head, which seems to get it plenty clean and allowed her to actually enjoy the bath and relax. I put olive oil in the water and then rubbed her down with lotion before getting her dressed, so her skin will not dry out. I know that I thrived on consistency and routine as a child, so I'd like to start putting a little bit of structure into Scout's daily life.

She recently started doing this thing where she shakes her head as if she's saying "no", but I'm sure she doesn't know its meaning yet. If we shake our head at her, she usually mimicks us. It's so cute!

She hates diaper changes and having her clothes changed. I have to work hard at keeping her entertained and occupied long enough for me to get a diaper on her. Just the other day, she had a super messy poopy diaper and I didn't know it and she stuck her hands in it as soon as I unfastened her diaper! Ick! She was flailing all around and screaming and when it was all said and done, she had gotten poo on her hands, feet, thigh, and onesie. It was awful. I needed about 8 arms at that moment.

She's showing her attachment to DH a bit more lately. She's constantly making a bee-line for his office and when she gets there, she looks up at his computer chair for him. It's so adorable. When I'm holding her in his presence, she just about leaps out of my arms reaching for him too. It's no wonder. He is much more fun to play with than mommy!

Car rides are getting a bit better. She still fusses some, but she will normally go to sleep after just a little bout of crying. I'm very excited about this because for so long, I have found myself avoiding the 25-30 minute ride into "town" just so I don't have to put her (or myself) through that. Her happiness in the car still depends largely on how we time our outings, though. Tonight, we went to our friends' house, out to eat, and then shopping. She screamed for 20 minutes straight on the way home. Poor thing. It was all just too much for her.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. Scout is such a joy to be around. She has her cranky moments, but for the most part she is a happy little girl.

Labels: baby sleep, being sappy, birthdays, firsts, food, scout talking