9 months old

C is nine months old today. People often describe her as mellow, which is what we have called her from day 1, but she is definitely opinionated and has no trouble voicing her desires and frustrations through loud screaming, squeaking, and rapid babbling.

She can make the ASL sign for "more" and the sign for "puffs" ( one that A made up) and has been trying to say "puff", "ah da" (all done), and "cap" (clap). She loves clapping her hands, especially during the song "If you're happy and you know it". She really seems to love looking at books and listening to music of all kinds and will bounce and flap excitedly during most songs. Much like her older sister she can make crazy beats and songs on the keyboard. Click here to watch a demonstration!

She has been "roomba-ing" around rooms on her belly, army crawl style, picking up tiny pieces of stuff and putting them in her mouth. She especially loves tags, paper, and grass. She has started to get up on her knees and rock back and forth, but for the most part travels with her belly down. Yesterday she did pull herself up to standing while holding onto the coffee table.

She loves playing peek-a-boo and will hide behind a book or cloth. I'll say "where's Calla?" and she will pull the cloth down and say "Ahh?".

She has been self-feeding milled and finely cut up food that we are eating. I was pureeing and making my own baby food, but she doesn't really like to be fed all the time and would frequently grab the spoon, try to feed herself and then fling the spoon across the room often spraying yogurt or broccoli slop everywhere. So it was a natural progression to just put all the food on the tray and let her go to town sans spoon. It's not any less messy, but she enjoys it more and I have my hands free to feed myself. Apparently this kind of feeding follows a style called Baby led weaning, which I found out about after we were already doing it.

She has been sleeping much better during naps and at night, although our two vacations definitely messed up the sleeping routines a bit. But we're slowly getting back into the swing of things.

I cannot believe that 9 months have gone by.  Time seemed go by so slowly during A's first year, but I think that is a common experience for first time moms especially when dealing with nursing trouble like we did. But this time around, nursing has been a breeze (despite a very difficult first 6 weeks) and somehow having 2 almost seems easier to manage. I guess because I have a fabulous little 3.5 year old helper who loves her sister so much and is finally reaping the benefits of her loving devotion by receiving laughs and smiles and unconditional love from C.