Nine months old!  I wish I had posted more this month but it turns out that solids in the morning mean more juggling for C and me and less time to sit in front of the computer… and by the evening, I just want to spend time with C or read a book or play addictive games on my phone. So here we are.

Food

• Describe what and how your child eats: K continues to be a wonderful eater.  She loves oatmeal, fruit (especially bananas), and many vegetables (especially spinach and peas).  Unless she really likes a food or is really hungry, she prefers feeding herself and gets frustrated with anything super watery that requires her to be fed.  Outside of breakfast, which is usually oatmeal + some mix-in, we have taken to coarsely chopping her food in the food processor or using a knife to cut it into teeny pieces.  She has a great pincer grasp (see below) and enjoys using it to its fullest extent, meaning she also enjoys eating her puffs.  We are up to three meals a day which she readily consumes.

    K continues to nurse regularly multiple times a day, often in conjunction with meals as well as in between.  While my daycare provider was on the solids train long before I was ready, saying that I would have to pump less because she’d intake less, I have not found this to be true.  K consumes just as much milk as ever and I pump just as frequently as ever.  Nursing is definitely not the chore it once was and I definitely enjoy our nursing relationship but pumping seems to be more of a chore than ever as I try to find time during a busy workday or at home with a moving baby.

Sleep

• Where and how much does your child sleep? In the crib, on her stomach.  She continues to go down around 8 or 8:30 and continues to be up for the day by 7 or 7:30.

• Does your child have any sleep problems?  She’s up at least once a night, which isn’t a problem in and of itself except I wish I was getting more sleep.  Over the past several nights, she’s been up multiple times a night and today she decided at 5 am that she had had enough sleeping but not enough of us, so despite our best efforts, we were all up for the day soon after.  We think she’s teething (the gnawing of fingers, pacifiers, and wash cloths on one side of her mouth would indicate that this is the case) and we are hopeful that it passes soon.

Physical Development and Health

• What is your child’s current size/weight:  28″ long and 18 3/4 lbs.  We just had her 9 month check-up and she’s 50% for each.

• What about pee and poop? No problems to report!  Diapers are sometimes a challenge as we’ve had a couple instances where they’ve have not been absorbing and have needed to be stripped.

• How many teeth?  Three, based on recent nighttime complaints and constant gnawing on various items, we think more are on their way.  We have started brushing them at night after bathtime to get her used to the toothbrush.

• What, if any, health issues are apparent: Still some occassional congestion, but nothing major.

Activity and Motor Development

• Describe your child’s gross and fine motor skills (how she moves around, grabs things, etc.): We finally have a crawler!  She started army crawling about two weeks ago and graduated to a full crawl a week later.  Since then, she has practiced crawling over things, kneeling, balancing herself in a sitting position after she almost falls over, and pulling herself up.  We have purchased a “baby jail” (baby gate play yard) because she was following us around the house and picking up random bits of lint and dirt along the way.  She can get to a sitting position from laying down and we often find her in her crib sitting up and staring at the door (very helpful in the middle of the night when she does it as the crib is much lower than it used to be).  She seems to have pretty good balance when she is standing and she has taken a (very) few hesitant steps when we’ve held her hands.  K is uses a pincer grasp frequently and well, can clap her hands, sign milk and her own version of “more,” can bang toys together.  She has just figured out the concept of “in” and “out” and figured out how to turn her farm animals sideways so she could easily slide them into her shape sorter barn without finding the proper shape.  She also has some five-sided blocks that stack and she enjoys putting the smaller ones inside the larger ones.  She is learning how to give items to us and 80% of the time lets go and actually gives us things we ask for.  She has been waving more frequently and is getting much better at mimicking the behaviors of others (ie, we wave and she waves back; we put our hands in the air, she does the same, etc.).  She helps us when we dress her, putting hands in the air for “so big” and pushing her arms through the arm holes with help.

• What can your child do for herself? Feed herself, grab items that she wants, physically move to items that she wants, sit from a laying position, pull herself up (beginning to, anyway).

Language and Communication

• Describe your child’s language abilities: She definitely understands more than ever and is getting better and better at responding.  She just recently started saying “mamamammama” in a directed fashion and seems to connect “ma” to C and I as she spent all day Sunday saying it to me but said it very rarely to my mother all day yesterday.  She also says “ma” with a slightly different pronunciation to mean “more.”  She understands the signs and spoken words for “milk” “more” “eat” and seems to understand “all done.”  She responds to verbal cues for “so big” and “peek-a-boo.”  She will give us a toy from her hand if we ask for it and gesture toward the toy.

Social Development and Environment

• Can your child follow simple directions? She responds to her name, to the words “so big” when getting dressed, to requests for toys from her hand.  She is also hearing more redirections as well as the word “no” but generally just shoves whatever she has in her hands into her mouth.

• How does your child react to family outings and visitors? She has been more shy this month, right on target.  She has cried occasionally (with full boo lip) at waiters in restaurants or at her grandfather.  When she does cry in response to a new person, which rarely occurs, that person is usually a man.  She has shied away from women.  Paradoxically, at the same time, she is very eager to have everyone’s attention and will stare people down in restaurants until they look at her, sometimes responding with a smile and sometimes turning away shyly.

• Does your child play with other children?  Yes, to the extent she is able.  She loves watching other kids and seems to have picked up on a cute head tilt from another child at daycare.

• In what ways, if any, does your child behave aggressively toward you, his siblings, his playmates, or others?  Not yet.  But I imagine it’s coming.

• Does your child have a strong preference for one parent? I’m preferred at milk time (or at times in the middle of the night) but this continues to even out and C often has better luck at getting K to sleep.  K lights up when she sees either of us and looks for attention from both of us.

Toys and Play

• List your child’s favorite toys and describe how she plays with them: One of her favorite toys is the farmer from her wooden farm set.  She lights up when she sees him.  She likes her stacking rings, her stacking blocks (both the hollow ones and the cloth set), a metal bowl I’ve given her (and putting whatever inside of it), her shape sorters.  She wants cell phones and remote controls and all the off-limits items but doesn’t get to play with them.  She still likes her exersaucer and mostly enjoys bouncing around it it to make it move.  She likes banging the toys together, putting toys “in” and “out” of other items, and chewing on them.

• What are your child’s favorite games?  Almost anything where she is interacting with us is a good game for her.  She likes peek-a-boo and so big, Thumpkin and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  She likes when I stack her blocks and she can knock them over, though she is also pretty nervous when she knocks them over.  She seems to enjoy items being set up across the room for her to crawl to (or I enjoy it because I get to see her crawl around).  She likes clapping games, and “pony boy” where she is on our knees in the air, and games where we make her jump.

• Does your child have a lovey? Still nothing particular.  Monkey rattle and tag puppy are her favorites still but she doesn’t need them.

Feelings and Moods

• Describe your child’s range of feelings (comfort, discomfort, pleasure, joy, anger, affection, fear, hostility, depression/sadness) and how she expresses them: How do you qualify all of them?  When she is excited or very happy, she kicks her legs and smiles and squeals and boucnes.  When she is scared or hurt, she lets out the most pathetic wail, sometimes accompanied by the saddest boo lip.  When she angry, she yells.  When she is bored, she talks or moans.  When she is shy, she snuggles into the person who is holding her (assuming that is a well-known person) or looks for someone she does know well.

• What is likely to upset your child? When we leave the room, though she is getting much better at entertaining herself for a few minutes.  When she wants to eat and we have to make a pit stop (diaper change, etc.).  When she calls for us in the middle of the night and we do not respond quickly enough.

• Describe how your child copes with discomfort, frustration, or other distress: Crying, moaning, nursing, humming, sucking on a pacifier (usually only a night / nap times).  She also has started to say MAMAMAMAMAMAMA to get our attention and get the support she needs.

• What makes her feel better? Nursing; being talked to; being played with; distractions; food; being moved somewhere new.

Books

What books does your child enjoy? She really really really likes her touch and feel animals this month – so much so, that she gnawed on the cover and made the first animal less “soft and downy” and more “matted and stringy.”  She also likes the Br.own Be.ar book that has the slide and see animals.  And any book where she can flip the pages.

Highlight of the Month

Watching her get the hang of movement and finally start crawling.  I expected she would look proud of herself but she looked more indifferent and like she was thinking “yeah, this is what I’ve been meaning to do.”  Seeing her sitting up in her crib in the morning and knowing that she is just a bit more independent than she was the day before.  Visiting her family (and spending time with her on the beach and taking long naps together).  All of the eating and enjoying food and watching her get better and better at feeding herself.  All of the chatting with random strangers (and the stare downs to get their attention).  Nursing.  Hearing Mama… and then knowing she was directing it toward us… and watching her beam as it got results.  Trips out of town, out of state, to C’s work event.  The bittersweet sensation of watching her grow and develop, never to be the little newborn again but becoming the person she is meant to be.