9 Months

Yesterday our little bear turned 9 months old.  She has officially been on the outside just as long as she was cooking in Ute.  Although it feels like she has been here forever, I have to say that it still feels like my pregnancy lasted longer than her life to date.  I mean, really though, when I finally gave birth it was like I couldn’t believe my body was MINE again.  But I digress.

Our baby is getting older and older every day.  She is crawling like gangbusters – she can seriously shoot across the room like nobody’s business if she sees something worth going after, like a cat…or cat food.  She hasn’t actually eaten any cat food (yet) but when I swatted her hand away the other day with a firm “no” she sat back, looked me right in the eye and just started crying.  Trust me, kid, those hard brown pellets are not worth the fuss.  Some day I will let you eat them when they are less of a choking hazard and you’ll see.

Lexi also seems to be laughing a lot more these days, and takes great joy in having books read to her over and over and over again.  Until I’m making up new places for “Duck and Goose” to look for a pumpkin, or why “Llama Llama” is starting llama drama.  We have these “touch me” books (the “that’s not my…” line) and every time I turn the page she yelps in delight.  Yeah, yelping is her #1 way to show joy, it’s hilarious.  If we aren’t reading a book, she will crawl over to her books and just start flipping them open and whining.  The subtlety is not strong with this one.

I don’t know what her stats are as our doctor’s appointment is on Friday, but she seems to be growing just fine – already in 9 month clothes right on schedule, and getting heavier every second.  She usually breastfeeds whenever she wakes up (about 3x a day and a night feeding) plus gets a bedtime bottle, and I’ll give her solids 2x a day (usually a yogurt or oatmeal and then some sort of fruit or veggie puree).  Yogurt is her favorite by far, but really the only thing she still seems to be adverse to is apples.  She also loves “puffs” like every other kid, and sucking on mango chunks via her mesh feeder.

Sleep is coming along.  She will still sometimes cry for 1-2 minutes when we put her down, but otherwise goes down really easily.  Lexi takes a longer 1-2 hour morning nap and then a shorter afternoon nap, usually not more than an hour.  As I mentioned, she is still doing a night feeding around 4am, although last night she slept for about 6:45pm to 6:20am.  It was so great, but I’m considering it an anomaly – don’t want to get my hopes up…again.

We had another milestone on Sunday when Lexi visited USC for the first time!  We had to pick up some gear for her to sport during football season and were able to snap a couple pics around campus to commemorate the occasion.  Hopefully we’ll be able to bring her tailgating a few times this fall, and maybe even to a game, but we’ll see.  We’re still working on her “V for victory.”  Fight on, little bear, you big ol 9-month-old, you!

August 2010 vs. September 2011