The Simple Life: Nine months

Abby is now nine months old! Nine months feels big to me, like we are over the hump and are rapidly speeding downhill towards 12 months. It's all gravy from here. I probably feel this way because Abby has hit huge developmental milestones this month. She can now crawl on all four legs but defaults to army crawling when she is really trying to get somewhere fast. And while crawling is good, she really loves is to be walked around the house. She is now really steady at walking with help and can even hold on with just one hand. She is pulling herself up and cruising along on furniture and just recently I noticed that she has also learned to sit back down. This makes my life easier because I'm not constantly being "called" over to help her get down. She can sit up on her own and pushes herself up from any position. All this movement has happened so quickly that even though I should have been prepared for it, she had her first inaugural fall of our bed. It was totally my fault and luckily she only had a small bump for a few days. Ellie mostly enjoys Abby's ability to move around. Sometime Ellie can get Abby to chase her around the house which is hilarious. It's mostly Ellie dashing from room to room while Abby struggles to keep up with her all the while cackling loudly from the other room. Sometimes Ellie gets upset when Abby follows her and tries to shut the door in her face. (!) Luckily we've only had one incident when the door actually made contact. Abby likes to practice walking whenever she can and is getting pretty sturdy on her legs. I wouldn't be surprised if she was walking by her first birthday.

Abby now has her four front teeth. She has started eating a lot of solid foods and is much happier now that she has mastered most finger foods. Keep in mind that 80% of what we feed her ends up mushed up in her high chair but her interest in food has definitely peaked. She eats everything we give her but is primarily interested in fruit. She is still primarily breast fed but it occurred to me the other day that she's not eating as frequently as before (maybe every 3-4 hours vs. every 2 hours). She is still waking up at night to eat but I know that is out of habit and no longer out of necessity. We have attempted to sleep train her twice before but it has always disintegrated due to the fact that we share a room with her and she can hear and smells us (I must smell like milk). We eventually give in because we are so tired ourselves. It was a lot easier with Ellie when she had her own room to toss and turn in. The plan was to eventually move them into the same room once Abby was sleeping through the night but that is seeming less and less likely right now. There always seems to be some reason why we shouldn't re-sleep train her but the reality is it's just easier for us to part-time co sleep with her. Especially when I'm still feeding her at night. With Ellie co-sleeping just didn't work for us and we were all happier when she was in her own room at night. With Abby it's turning out to be the opposite for a variety of reasons. Part of me is lingering because I know she's my last baby and I'm happy to get the snuggles while I can.

In addition to her developmental leaps, Abby is growing physically too. I swear every time we measure her height she measures differently so I'm not sure what he correct height is but she continues to get chunkier and chunkier. We lovingly refer to her as our Chub-a-lub. I have no idea where I got that from but it seems to suit her. Here are her stats for this month:

Head circumference: 45.70 cm
Height: 28 inches
Weight: 18lbs 10oz

She is still such a happy girl and continues to charm the pants off of everyone she meets. She is getting very vocal and is babbling a lot. She can clearly say "mama" (and means it) and "yeah" which cracks me up because I say yeah a lot. My mom sent me an old video of Ellie at 9 months and it blew me away because all I could see in the video was Abby. When they are together them seem so different to me, especially physically, but when I look back at photos of Ellie at this time they look identical. I am starting to notice that they have some of the same mannerisms, especially at the dinner table. Sometimes they will play together while eating and Abby will imitate Ellie or visa versa. Ellie loves it when Abby claps or imitates a sound she's made. It's all terribly adorable (and scary for the noise that is yet to come).

It is October and that means it's pumpkin month! Ellie is really excited for Halloween this year and we've been reading a lot of Halloween books and talking about trick or treating in preparation. I think she's really going to enjoy it this year. I was determined to make their Halloween costumes this year, and it was painstaking, but I did it. As if I didn't appreciate her before, I have a new found admiration for my mother and the countless homemade Halloween costumes that she has made me over the years. There was even one that involved sewing a stuffed horse that I stepped inside so to look as if I was riding it. I mean, common! If that woman isn't already on a fast track to heaven, there should be a special spot for mothers who endure that kind of labor of love. My costumes don't come anywhere close to that, but I am really pleased with how they turned out. Ellie is going to be a chocolate chip cookie and Abby is going to be milk (scream). Pictures forthcoming!