9 months old

Brynlee is 9 months old today. Just yesterday I was noticing that her face had changed – she looks more like a toddler to me, and less like a baby. She really is growing up and changing. In some ways it is sad to me – I miss my cuddly little baby. But, I’m excited too for the toddler stage (I think - someday I may regret saying that). Here she is at 9 months old:

Bryn is such a strong and physical little girl. She crawls like a champ and pulls up without any effort. The other day, I caught her trying to stand up alone in the middle of the floor, and she almost did it. She cruises along the furniture and even lets go to try and take a step or two. She also loves it if I hold her fingers and let her walk. I still think she’ll be walking by Christmas.

All this physical activity has thinned her down quite a bit. Her latest nickname is Squish or Squishy, so you can tell she’s still nice and cuddly. But, she’s quickly losing the baby fat and replacing it with toddler lean. I’m not sure how much she weighs (her 9 month well baby check isn’t until next week due to Thanksgiving). Her hair is growing in thick and redder every day, and I still can’t tell what color her eyes are going to be – they range from blue to green to grey on any given day. Regardless, her peaches-and-cream complexion, big eyes, and long eyelashes make for a beautiful girl.

Last week was quite an eventful week for Bryn. On Tuesday she got tubes in her ears because of frequent infections. Although she should have been feeling better, she was still really grumpy and sleeping poorly. We figured it out a couple of days later when 4 teeth came in all at once. Poor girl really wasn’t “that” grumpy all things considering. Generally she is a sweet and happy baby. She’ll hold her arms out to anyone that will cuddle her (although mommy is her first choice). She loves to smile and squeal. But, she does have a temper. Luckily, she usually doesn’t get too mad, unless she’s tired or not feeling well. But, she’ll hold her breath until even her tongue is blue, and then wail and scream like she’s dying. A quick hug from mommy does the trick though, and calms her every time.

She’s been sleeping terribly lately. We let her get into some bad habits being sick lately, and she averages 2 night wakings a night. Sometimes its more, sometimes less, but its been weeks since she’s actually slept through the entire night. Usually she just needs to nurse for a few minutes then she’ll go right back to sleep, but its making for a very tired mommy.

She’s become good at communication. I’m pretty sure she understands almost everything we say. For example, in the bath if we tell her to splash, she’ll kick her feet and flail her arms. She also understands “no, no, no”, and although won’t always stop what she’s doing, she’ll give me an evil baby grin to show she knows that she’s been caught. And if I ask her to play “Pat-a-cake” she claps her hands and squeals. She does call her big sister “Deedee” and calls for “Dada” as well. Occasionally when she’s really grumpy, she’ll kind of moan “Mamamama”. I also think that she tries to sing, as she’ll sit and melodically “talk”. My favorite thing that she does is that she’ll sit in my lap and “talk” to me. She will make a sound, and I’ll repeat it, then she’ll repeat it again – and on and on and on the game will go. It makes her so happy when I repeat her. She and I will sit and have conversations like this for hours.

Food wise she’s become quite finicky. Mainly, I think she’s just tired of pureed food, but isn’t quite ready for solids. I tried to give her some peas last night, but they kept gagging her. She loves really soft finger foods. Lately if I put her old favorite (oatmeal with bananas) in her mouth, she’ll promptly blow raspberries until all the food is spattered onto mommy. She thinks its really funny.

Her favorite toys right now are G’s babydolls and the TV remote. The other night her daddy was watching her, and she pitched such a fit when he tried to take away the remote that he put her into bed with it. She curled right up with it and fell asleep. We’ve tried to give her an old remote that no longer works, but she wants the silver Dish remote. She also LOVES any book, and will sit on my lap for the longest time if I read to her. I’m glad that she loves to read.

Bryn is such a joy and a blessing. She is a bright little girl that makes everyone smile.