9 Months

 9 Month Stats



28.5" Tall (90th%)
18lbs 13 oz (70%)
Six teeth (no more vampire grin to show off)
She can squeeze into some 6-12 month clothes,
but wears mostly 12 month (some 18 month clothes).

Charlotte. 

To Samantha you are "Sharlie".

 

Oh, what a month it has been.  You learned to crawl, but quickly decided you liked bear crawling better.  You're pulling up on anything you can, but still have difficulty as you think it is an effort of the arms rather than legs.  When you are standing up you are slowing starting to shuffle around.  You've also mastered walking while hanging on my fingers for dear life.

You love paper. And keys.  And BabyMums, Puffs, cups with straws, my coffee cup, baths, oatmeal, and your sister.  But not in that order.  But it all goes in your mouth. Well, not your sister, but I'm sure you'd try if she'd stop long enough. 



I think you already have allergies, my poor baby.  Within seconds of going outside your nose is running and your eyes tear up.  You've mastered the allergy salute.  It's lucky that you get so excited to take a bath every night.  And I plan on nursing you as long as you'd like, as I know that will help as well.

Mom!  This has a TAG on it!!!

 

You've got two solid and predictable naps now.  It's heavenly.  Just under 2 hours in the morning and 30-45 minutes in the afternoon.  It's wonderful, but it dictates our schedule this summer and we miss a lot of activities scheduled for 10am.  With your naps you are a dream baby.  However, recently you've started screaming and protesting after I lay you down.  One day you actually tricked me and I thought you really weren't tired.  You little stinker.  By the time I realized my mistake it was too late to put you down for a nap.  I'm sorry dear, but 6pm is not going to work for a bedtime, so you will just have to come to grips with a second nap for a while longer. 



The Grin

We also discovered that you are allergic to amoxicillin.  Hopefully you'll outgrow it, but we're not going to try again for another decade or so. As far as my diet, I'm still avoiding egg and most corn.  I'm not brave enough to try any of it yet.  It's funny, though, I keep forgetting that I can have dairy!  Oh, how I do love dairy.



I just can't help myself and end up making her food every week. 
Slowly but surely she's just eating what we eat, but we're holding off on things with soy, dairy and corn for her.   

After teaching Amanda, Lucy and Samantha sign-language I was fairly confident in my abilities to get babies to sign around 6 months.  It turns out it wasn't me, but the fact that they were all "performers".  You are anything but.  I've caught you signing and you will occasionally say a word in context when you don't realize anyone is listening/watching.  But as soon as I praise you or try to "show off" the trick you freeze or hide your face. 

So, although I can't prove it, you do know how to sign "all-done", "more", "milk", "bye bye", "bath-time" and "down".  I've even heard you say "all-done", "bye" and "bath-time". 

Tricks?  What tricks.  You have the camera, I ain't showin' you NUTTIN'. 
 

And your legs.  They talk.  When strangers talk to you, you give them a blank stare, but I know you are excited to see them as your legs go wild.  And when your smile doesn't suffice to show how pleased you are, your legs join in to make sure we know.  Whoever is holding has to hold on tight- you still make no effort to hang on because your legs must be free to kick at the speed that correlates to your level of excitement. 



You are melting your Daddy's heart.
 He was hoping you'd be his side-kick, considering Samantha still remains glued to me 80% of the day.
He looooves how much your legs kick and your Grin when you see him!