Nine Months Old

Today Abigail is 9mo old. I am in complete denial.

What's On The Menu
Although most of her nutrition and calories are still coming from nursing, the menu of solid foods keeps expanding. I've been enjoying making her food. Most days, she'll have a YoBaby (yogurt) snack. She absolutely loves the YoBaby and will "EH" at us if we don't feed her fast enough, it's hilarious. When she tells me "EH" I will tell her "more" and show her the baby sign (to see that sign click here). At dinner time she'll have a fruit/veg combination. She's had banana, squash, mango, avocado, pear, apple, spinach, broccoli, eggplant, peach, butternut squash, carrot...I feel like I'm forgetting something. Her dexterity is getting better, using 'the pincher grasp' of her pointer finger and thumb to pick up puffs (and sometimes lazily with her whole hand) and feed herself.

Sharing
Not only can Abigail feed herself, but she can feed Toby too. When she's in the highchair, she'll eat everything off the spoon but once she's done we'll give her puffs so she can snack and practice her hand-eye-mouth coordination. It's easy to tell when she's no longer hungry because she starts giving all the puffs to Toby. I've got to hand it to him, he's patient with her and gentle - well, as gentle as he can be licking her fingers open so the puff is released. Abigail also likes to share her pacifier with me, she takes it out of her mouth and extends it to me. If I take the pacifier she immediately gets it back, it's a fun game. She also loves to share her stinky feet. I smell her toesies and say 'peee-you'; she'll giggle pull her foot away only to offer it to me repeatedly. More fun.

The E.T. Finger
Abigail wants to touch everything, all objects must be examined. Not only touch (and get into) everything, but poke her finger into things too. (I would like to take this moment to speak directly to the grandparents - please get some electrical outlet covers before our next visit.) Abigail is a big fan of stealing the straw from your drink so she can stick her finger into one of the open ends. She likes playing with zippers and snaps (the circles and holes on them), she's not as amused with tags anymore. Abigail is a big fan of her daddy's belly button and today with finger inserted, tried to stand; daddy was not pleased. Also, while nursing today, managed to sneak her finger into mommy's nose before I completely realized what she was actually doing. And I just remembered, last night while I yawned, she tried to put her entire hand in my mouth.

Curious George
Unfortunately, her curiosity isn't contained to a finger or hand, Abigail is into everything. She wants to play with cords (usually from our laptops) and I've done my best trying to keep them out of site. During this last week, she has become independently adventurous and will just decide she's ready to move on to another room. I watch from a distance, I want her to have some independence (you know, baby independence). She's perfected the step between the kitchen and the sunroom. We have caught her playing with the first step of the staircase, but she's quickly greeted with NOs and proceeds elsewhere. Abigail can also use the refrigerator and any other flat surface to stand, luckily she has not figured out the cabinet doors open. I'm hoping the cabinets will just be off limits and I wont have to Abby-proof them. (I'm not being a slacker and just not wanting to Abby-proof the cabinets. If all cabinets are off limits, then I wont be worried when we visit family and friends.)

Noise Making
Abigail babbles more and more everyday. There's all types of sounds and letters. Occasionally, we think she knows what she's saying until daddy is called 'mamamama' and Toby is called 'tha-tha' (her da-da but her tongue touches her top lip she says it leading to the 'tha' instead of a
'da'). She's also squealing or screeching, whatever you want to call it, it's a little ear piercing at times and we have no rhyme or reason to it. We have been practicing clapping her hands during Pat-a-Cake and Boddagetta. Today was the first day she continuously clapped solo. She paused leaving the living room this morning, turned around at me and clapped. She clapped in the car while we drove to Joann's (we ventured out during the brief bit of no rain).

Sleeping
The few horrible weeks of horrible sleep ended about a week ago. While she was sleeping terrible, she was napping great - this lead me to believe it wasn't the teeth. Now she's been sleeping through the night again so my only guess is it was an early 9mo growth spurt. I'm sure the top teeth aren't too far away, so I better enjoy each wake-less night while they last.

Tomorrow
Abigail's 9mo well check-up is tomorrow. Luckily, since she's had all her immunizations so far on time - tomorrow will be shot-free! I'm anxious to get her official weight, on my scale she's been around 14lbs (and according to my baby book, I weighed 14lbs 2oz at 9mo - she's been following my growth patterns almost spot on!).