9 months.

Wow!  9 months just seems so old to me.  She’s well on her way to being a year old!

At 9 months, Elna:

-is crawling everywhere—and fast!  She loves to try to open cracked doors (that she used to ignore), so I have to be better about shutting doors completely to rooms that I don’t want her in (like the bathroom…which happens to be her favorite.)

-likes to try to crawl off our bed when we set her there.  Within a second of being placed in the middle of the bed she bee-lines it to the edge.  We always catch her right as she crawls off.  She’s fearless.

-has stood a few times without holding on to anything, but pretty briefly and always next to something sturdy.

-was sick a lot of this last month.  It was not fun, but I think she’s mostly better.  We are still recovering from messed up sleep patterns. 

-is a vacuum!  She will put anything and everything in her mouth.  She prefers paper and bark (from fireplace wood)

-is still nursing 4-5 times a day/night. 

-when she thinks she is about to nurse she will spit out her paci in preparation. 

-loves eating solids too—oatmeal with applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, tomato soup, and anything else we are eating that she can eat too.

-hates diaper changes.

-loves watching/listening to the washer/dryer.

-loves baths and showers.

-babbles all day long—when she really gets going it’s hilarious to listen to and to watch.  She really gets into it.

-makes a “p” sound for things starting with the letter “b”—like book.  When I ask if she wants to read a book she starts saying “puh.”  Or if we are near her book case she says “puh.”  It’s adorable. 

-says “hi.”  (I think?)

-loves dogs and is not at all afraid of them.  Dogs have gotten close enough to lick her and maybe even have, but she doesn’t seem to mind.  She just laughs.  That’s amazing to me.  I mind if a dog is close enough to lick me.  And so does Brian I think.  I don’t know where she got this gene.

-thinks I am a jungle gym and loves playing on the ground while I am on my back and she is on my knees in the air.  We do some fun tricks.

-is probably going to say “dada” pretty soon.  She can say those sounds pretty well, but hasn’t said them with definitive purpose yet.  She LOVES her daddy!  We get so excited for him to come home every night.  When she sees him come in her body tenses with excitement and starts shaking a little bit. 

It was hard to choose between all of these pictures, so I mostly didn’t choose and just included most of them.  Her smile is a little bit deceiving.  I was making her laugh, but underneath that laugh is a very tired, slightly cranky girl.  Poor thing.

One of Elna’s favorite things is being chased (or chasing us) around her rocker.  She laughs really hard every time she thinks we’re about to get her. 

At 9 months, Elna weighs 21.8 lbs. (88%) is 28 3/4 in. tall (86%) with a head circumference of 45 cm (76%).   The doctor says she is advanced in her skills and behavior.  We’d have to agree!