9 Months Already!?!

Gracie was 9 months old yesterday. She is getting so big, it's hard to believe. We took her for her 9 month well-child appointment today (after two other doctor visits this week), and she is 20 lbs, 3 oz. and 28 inches long (75th percentile for both) and her head is 18" (over the 95th percentile). We're glad to hear she's only 1/3 off the charts these days. She didn't get any shots today, so that was a nice change. They did prick her finger to test for anemia, but she didn't mind at all. She's not anemic, but is on the lower end of the normal range. So hopefully starting to eat some meats this week will help that.

She's been quite sick lately. I was really hoping she'd get Ryan's immune system. But it seems as though she's cursed with mine. Thankfully in general she's very healthy, just hasn't gotten rid of pretty bad cold symptoms for two months straight now, literally.

I'm sure I don't have to explain what a joy it is to watch Gracie learn and grow. Every day she learns something new. To look at that little ah-ha face or the I'm-trying-to-figure-it-out face...is just so cool. She's still extremely independent, very happy, and oh so curious. I've never seen a baby that loved people as much as Gracie does. Every person she sees, she wants to get to know. She love, love, loves other kids. I can't wait until she can go play with them. Sometimes she'll sit at the door and watch the kids in the neighborhood play, and she just squeals and kicks her feet. She would so love to be playing with them.

Over the past month, Gracie has been completely focused on gross and fine motor skills. She went from using only fists to move things around last month to now she constantly picks up teeny tiny items off the floor (no more "good enough" cleaning jobs in this house). She's also able to pretty much feed herself. She can't quite use the spoon to scoop things up, but she can hold it and feed herself once the food is on it. She has tried to use the fork properly, stabbing wildly at her food, but enjoys eating off of the fork more than anything. She also loves to eat from chopsticks, but obviously can't hold those herself. She has pretty well perfected eating with her fingers too. There's nothing too slippery for her. She quickly learned that slippery foods require two hands to pick up and a fast swoop to the mouth.

At the beginning of last month, Gracie could only barely crawl. Now she's zooming all over the house. She's even able to crawl up the stairs (Thankfully we installed the gates a while ago). So we're working on how to do so safely, and then come back down as well. She's actually kind of scared of coming down backwards on her belly. But we're working on it. She's able to pull herself up on any object now. She thoroughly enjoys stooping down and standing up, over and over again while holding on to something. She also seems to love to jump, often. It's very tiring for us, but quite amusing to her. And she started cruising about a week ago. She's not too confident about it yet, but she's trying and getting faster everyday.

And finally, the most fun new thing for Ryan and I is her ever growing personality. I know, growing is a strange word, but that's the best way to describe it. She's growing a little personality. She's funny, and she gets our jokes. She purposely ignores us, and gives a sly grin when we call her on it. She is really starting to understand the world and enjoy interacting with everyone in it. She's also getting a tiny bit shy, but in a really cute way. She hasn't really entered that stranger or separation anxiety phase that we keep hearing about. But once in a while she will get a little shy look on her face and cuddle close to Ryan or I for just a second. In general too, she's been starting to cuddle a tiny bit more...for just a minute at a time and usually only when she's getting tired. But we'll take any cuddle time we can get in what seems to be an extremely busy time for her.

Over the next month, we're very interested to see what new things she;ll be able to do and be interested in doing. From what I've read, by 10 months, babies can understand everything you say and do.

This parent thing is a great adventure. It's so much better and more difficult than I ever, ever could have imagined! We wouldn't trade it for anything....and I promise more pictures soon!