The Best is Yet to Come: Nine Months Old

Caitlin,
You turned 9 months old last Saturday (February 26th). We had another great month with you!! We had your 9-month doctors appointment on Monday (Feb 28th) and here are your 9-month stats:

Weight: 15lbs 1oz (<3rd percentile)
Height: 28.5 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 43 cm or 16.9 inches

We were thrilled with your growth, and Dr. M is fine with your weight gain. You are gaining, and she has just concluded that you are a small baby. You have 4 teeth (2 middle on the top and 2 middle on the bottom). You are wearing size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night. We are transitioning to size 3 all the time. You are still wearing some of your 6-month clothes, but we are slowly making the transition to your 9-month clothes. I realized that the onesie I put on you today was a little small in length and in the sleeves, so we will be trying a 9-month outfit tomorrow! Every day that I look at you, I realize how much you really are starting to look like Daddy with your eye and hair color.

You are doing pretty well eating. You are getting 4-5 bottles of breastmilk, totaling 21 - 24 oz, and you are eating 2 meals of solids. Dr. M has recommended that we add in a third meal so that we can transition to breakfast, lunch and dinner and we will also be starting to give you more finger foods (as opposed to purees). You LOVE cheerios. Some days, you won't eat anything but them! You are doing ok with the foods that we've already given you, but when we introduce new things (chicken, turkey, soft apples, etc.), you start out being open to them, but then you shut your mouth and turn your head and want nothing to do with them. You also are currently opposed to touching anything that is soft and wet (i.e the fruit that we have given you for finger foods). We are still working on the sippy cup, but we're making progress.

What are you up to this month? You love inspecting things. When you picked things up in the past, most of the time, they'd go right into your mouth. Now, when you pick something up, you look at it, turn it over, look at it again, and you just keep turning it until you're satisfied that you've seen every angle. You have perfected blowing raspberries, and more often than not, you will blow raspberries in response to me or Daddy doing it. It is so cute. Daddy taught you how to bounce up and down when he says "jump jump jump", and you also learned how to do this in the exersaucer. We don't use the exersaucer very much anymore, but you love jumping in it! This month was a huge month for you becoming mobile because you have started crawling. You really aren't into doing the traditional hands and knees crawling. You prefer the army crawl most of the time. You have gotten up on your hands and knees and rocked a little, too. You started to learn how to pull yourself up and one of your favorite things to do when we are on the floor playing with you is to climb all over me or Daddy. You other favorite thing to do is walking around the house with us holding your hands. Unfortunately, one day we were doing this and you let go of one of my hands and lost your balance and faceplanted on the hardwood floor in the office. This resulted in your first fat lip. There was a little blood and your lip swelled and of course, you cried, but you seemed to forget that it had happened by the next day. You are also pretty good at finding Bunny. When you are playing and Bunny is nearby (but you aren't holding him), we say "Caitlin, where's Bunny?", and you will look around for him and generally go and get him. You LOVE Bunny! This month, you have also been really interested in your blocks. All we have to do is build a tower, and you come crawling over to knock it down. Sometimes, we can't get it built fast enough before you are there to knock it down! You also perfected walking forward in the walker this month! When we first got it, all you would do is walk backwards, but now that you can go forward, you are all over the place. You favorite place to explore in the walker is the office. You also just love the fact that you can be right near us if we are doing something in the kitchen. This has resulted in multiple scrapes on our ankles/feet from you running into us. You love books, and I truly hope you continue to love them. It's so exciting for us to see how interested you are in them given how much Daddy and I like to read. Your favorite book right now is the "Good Morning, Good Night" book. It is a lift the flap book with touch and feel animals, and you get so excited to lift the flap and feel the fur of the animals. Now that you are becoming more mobile, you also like to push your stroller. You also love roughhousing with Daddy! He tosses you all around, and does horsey with you and you just laugh and laugh. We have also figured out that you are ticklish under your chin, on your ribs (sometimes), the inside of your legs, and on your feet (so, basically everywhere, just like Daddy!). We love to hear you laugh! You also love bathtime - I think it's very relaxing for you, and you have learned how to splash this month. You also have been experiencing some separation anxiety this month. It takes you a while to warm up to new people, and sometimes, you'll cry when you feel like they are rushing you to get comfortable with them. You also get upset when we put you on the floor to play and walk away from you. When I leave for work in the morning, some days, you are fine, and then others, I feel like my heart is being ripped out because I am so sad to have to leave you when you're crying. As soon as you realize that Daddy is still there with you, you settle and are your usual happy self again. This month, you also seem to prefer me over Daddy. I really think it's just because you spend so much time with Daddy that you act like you want me more. If we were both with you all the time, I'd be willing to bet that you'd prefer Daddy! Sometimes when he tries to take you from me, you will hold on to my shirt and not let go. It makes me feel really good to know that you love me so much, but sometimes, I think Daddy's feelings get hurt (he'd never say it though). He knows you love him just as much though, and this is probably just a phase.

You are still doing really well sleeping, and go to bed between 6 and 7pm and wake up between 630 and 7am. You have started the transition from 3 naps to 2 during the day this month. You are still wearing your sleep sack at night, and you have also started to like listening to the music that the seahorse. We have been woken up a few nights when we hear the seahorse playing music on the monitor. We're not sure if you actually know how to turn it on by yourself or if it happens accidentally. I have seen you roll over it a few times, but who knows if that was intentional or not. You are also pretty entertaining to watch sleep. You like to wrestle with Bunny, and more often than not, if we look at the monitor, you will have Bunny right beside you. I'm so glad you have a lovie to give you comfort at night. You also still suck your thumb when you go to bed, and you will sometimes suck your thumb while you are playing too.

We are one month closer to your big first birthday, and I can't believe how quickly time is flying. We are enjoying every single minute with you, and feel so incredibly blessed to have you as our daughter. We are so proud of you, and we love you so much!! We can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Love you like no other,
Mommy

Here are your 9-month pictures with your bear (another challenging month because you have decided not to sit still anymore):