9 month well-baby visit

Vital stats:
9 months, 1 day old
18 lbs, 7 oz
27.5 inches

Anna is now in the 50th percentile for height and weight. A little less than last time, but pretty much exactly average. She’s mostly out of 6-9 month clothes, and some 9-12 month clothes are getting a little short…

She only had one shot today, and she wasn’t entirely pleased about it. Poor baby was having fun playing with the paper on the exam table and charming the pants off of everyone in the office, showing off her clapping and standing abilities…and then she got stuck! Much howling commenced.

Oh, and we pretty much have the green light to give her any foods we want at this point. Not that we have much choice in the matter – if it goes in someone’s mouth, she must share too. I think I’m still going to wait until she’s a bit older before we try peanut butter or shellfish, though. There’s plenty of other things to try before then, anyway!

Eight Months Old!

Dear Anna,

Yesterday you turned eight months old. Time is just flying by around here! I think it’s just that you’re learning or trying new things every day now and you’re changing so quickly that I can barely keep up.

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You are now quite proficient at crawling – you went from commando crawling to hands and knees in a couple of weeks, and now here a couple of weeks later you’re crawling after your sister like you’ve been doing it your whole life!

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You also started babbling. We’re treated to endless streams of “ma-ma-ma-ma”, “da-da-da-da” and “ba-ba-ba-ba”. You’re also definitely signing “milk” and “more”, though you prefer to screech and bang your tray for more food.

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Speaking of food… You’ve tried so many new ones this month, and most of them are table foods: wheat (puffed wheat and cheerios), apricots, yogurt, black beans, cherries, cheese and (white) potatoes. The challenge now is that you’re eating like a much older baby, but you’re still not allowed to eat certain foods – if you were older I’d be able to give you a bite of a muffin in a restaurant, or some plain pasta off my plate, but since there could potentially be eggs in those things I can’t. One of these days I’m going to slip up and give you something with eggs without realizing it, so I think we’ll have to do it intentionally sometime soon!

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Just like with your sister, whichever age you’re at is my favorite so far. You are so much fun to be around right now, giggling over the simplest things (like grabbing my nose) and it’s just wonderful to watch you learn and experience new things. It’s just that I wish some days would slow down a bit so I could enjoy them more…

Love, Mommy

Bathing Baby

When Carrie was too big for the baby bathtub, we switched to an inflatable duck tub. But now the girls get baths together, and that’s just not going to work with a giant inflatable tub taking up most of the bathtub. So we went out and bought a bath ring so Anna could safely sit up in the big tub and still have the freedom to splash and play. She adores baths now!

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Just Another Lazy Thursday

Thursdays are the only day of the week where we have no morning plans – Carrie has dance at 4:30, but I avoid scheduling anything else for Thursdays. So we have our Thursday morning tradition: pancakes! It’s gotten so I can make pancakes without a recipe. Unfortunately, Anna is not quite old enough to eat pancakes, since they have eggs in them. And sometimes she gets up earlier than Carrie, and is just about ready for a nap while I’m making pancakes…

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There’s a lot more time to fill up on Thursdays, so we do things like color, play with Little People, and play in boxes:

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Next year, when Carrie’s in Kindergarten and riding the bus, we’re not going to have our lazy Thursday mornings, so we make sure to enjoy each one thoroughly! (Every now and then we do get dressed before lunch…)

Bumbo Baby

I found a used Bumbo seat on craigslist a week or so ago. Anna seems to like it, and it’s especially useful when we take Carrie to dance class – I don’t have to either carry a stroller down to the basement or juggle holding Anna while changing Carrie into her dance things. I just carry this very light seat down with us and plop Anna in it.

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Somehow I can’t see it lasting for too long – she can already lean all the way over and get at stuff on the floor – but if it gets us through to when Anna can stay on her feet when put down for a bit that will be good enough.

Anna’s First Valentine’s Day!

(I’m aware that it’s technically the day after Valentine’s Day…)

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Yes, that is a shirt with a sheep that says “I (heart) ewe”. A Christmas gift from Uncle Dan and Aunt Genevra. Though I would totally have bought it myself if I had seen it! After all, that’s what mommy knitters do!

Would you believe this little girl has been mistaken for a boy every. single. time. she’s worn this shirt?!? What, only boys can wear green?