Nine Months – 2/11/2012
Dear Ellen,
Is it possible? Three-fourths of a year old? I can’t believe I will need to start planning for your first birthday party fairly soon! Ellen, your development seems to be increasing drastically over the past month. You are crawling like a mad woman – I’ve never seen a baby move so fast! It is really more of a bear crawl, and you practically run. This first year is flying by and I am loving every minute of it.
My Favorite Thing: Dancing! Anytime you hear music or any kind of beat, your face lights up and you start bouncing up and down in a little baby dance. You can “play” the maraca or any other shaky toy, and you also love to stand and play the toy piano in the playroom.
Daily Activities and Playing: In the beginning of the month you started pulling up and had better success on lower things, like the toy piano, but as the month progressed you started pulling up on anything and everything, including our legs. As a result, we had to start lowering the crib mattress, and by the end of the month it was on the lowest setting! Some mornings when I go to get you, you are standing in your crib looking at the door, smiling. (What a wonderful start to my day.) I love watching you play and learn about the world around you. You are starting to play more independently, going into the playroom to explore on your own while we are cooking dinner or cleaning the kitchen. You are starting to experiment with taking things out of tubs and putting them back in, and you are becoming quite proficient at closing the pop-up-peek-a-boo toy (although Ian has to open them for you right now). You also started waving bye-bye this month! It is fun to watch you start communicating.
Sibling: The interaction between you and Ian puts a big smile on my face. He is alternately extremely sweet to you (“You ok, Ellen?” while he pats your back) and extremely rough, though I believe he generally means well. You just take it all in, and just when I am afraid he is going to hurt you by jumping crazily around, you start screaming with joy and crawling after him for more. The best is when you two play on his bed, crawling on and off, wrestling, laughing. It is also fun to watch you two play at bath time. He likes to fetch you toys and show you how to do things (“Not in your mouth Ellen, like this!” while rolling the car on the ground.) You are always watching him and are starting to imitate whatever he is doing (both good and bad!). I think the next few months/years will give us a run for our money!
Eating: Nothing has changed in your daily schedule - nurse in the morning, have two bottles of formula or breastmilk (6 oz) during the day, and either nurse or have a bottle in the evenings before eating dinner. You have been consistently eating 4-5 meals of solid food each day as well (sometimes breakfast 1 at home, breakfast 2 at school, lunch, snack, and dinner). 2012 has shown you to have a voracious appetite, and right now you are a bottomless pit (like mother like daughter, I am sorry to inform you). Your favorite foods are green and orange: avocado, sweet peas, green beans, broccoli, sweet potato, and carrots. You also like to chow down on rice/quinoa and black or pinto beans if we are having those for dinner. We started expanding into dairy and other protein sources with yogurt, egg yolks, cottage cheese, and tender, slow cooked chicken thighs. I don’t think we have introduced a food yet that you haven’t liked (at least starting on the second introduction).
Sleeping: Night time sleep continues to be very good. The only times you have woken up in the middle of the night since December have been when you ate your dinner before your evening bottle. You ate so much food that you didn’t want to finish the bottle, but then were hungry for milk again around 11 or 12 at night. At day care, you only take one long nap per day, right after lunch, and then again on both the morning and evening commutes. Every once in a while you are asleep when I come pick you up. On the weekends, you still consistently take a mid morning nap and a late evening nap. You are generally very easy to put down. I know that if I see you rubbing your eyes I just have to change you and lay you down in your crib and you will be out like a light in a few moments. You typically go to bed between 7:45 and 8:15. Every once in a while you stay up until 8:30, but that is not the norm.
Special Events: You got your first tooth!! Teeth, actually. I noticed the first one breaking through on 1/28 when I happened to stick my finger in your mouth. When I looked the next day, it was apparent that there were two coming up at the same time. You never showed any signs of being uncomfortable or unhappy before your teeth showed up. I didn’t even notice you biting or chewing anything more than normal. Another easy teether (I hope)!
Dear Ellen,
Is it possible? Three-fourths of a year old? I can’t believe I will need to start planning for your first birthday party fairly soon! Ellen, your development seems to be increasing drastically over the past month. You are crawling like a mad woman – I’ve never seen a baby move so fast! It is really more of a bear crawl, and you practically run. This first year is flying by and I am loving every minute of it.
My Favorite Thing: Dancing! Anytime you hear music or any kind of beat, your face lights up and you start bouncing up and down in a little baby dance. You can “play” the maraca or any other shaky toy, and you also love to stand and play the toy piano in the playroom.
Daily Activities and Playing: In the beginning of the month you started pulling up and had better success on lower things, like the toy piano, but as the month progressed you started pulling up on anything and everything, including our legs. As a result, we had to start lowering the crib mattress, and by the end of the month it was on the lowest setting! Some mornings when I go to get you, you are standing in your crib looking at the door, smiling. (What a wonderful start to my day.) I love watching you play and learn about the world around you. You are starting to play more independently, going into the playroom to explore on your own while we are cooking dinner or cleaning the kitchen. You are starting to experiment with taking things out of tubs and putting them back in, and you are becoming quite proficient at closing the pop-up-peek-a-boo toy (although Ian has to open them for you right now). You also started waving bye-bye this month! It is fun to watch you start communicating.
Sibling: The interaction between you and Ian puts a big smile on my face. He is alternately extremely sweet to you (“You ok, Ellen?” while he pats your back) and extremely rough, though I believe he generally means well. You just take it all in, and just when I am afraid he is going to hurt you by jumping crazily around, you start screaming with joy and crawling after him for more. The best is when you two play on his bed, crawling on and off, wrestling, laughing. It is also fun to watch you two play at bath time. He likes to fetch you toys and show you how to do things (“Not in your mouth Ellen, like this!” while rolling the car on the ground.) You are always watching him and are starting to imitate whatever he is doing (both good and bad!). I think the next few months/years will give us a run for our money!
Eating: Nothing has changed in your daily schedule - nurse in the morning, have two bottles of formula or breastmilk (6 oz) during the day, and either nurse or have a bottle in the evenings before eating dinner. You have been consistently eating 4-5 meals of solid food each day as well (sometimes breakfast 1 at home, breakfast 2 at school, lunch, snack, and dinner). 2012 has shown you to have a voracious appetite, and right now you are a bottomless pit (like mother like daughter, I am sorry to inform you). Your favorite foods are green and orange: avocado, sweet peas, green beans, broccoli, sweet potato, and carrots. You also like to chow down on rice/quinoa and black or pinto beans if we are having those for dinner. We started expanding into dairy and other protein sources with yogurt, egg yolks, cottage cheese, and tender, slow cooked chicken thighs. I don’t think we have introduced a food yet that you haven’t liked (at least starting on the second introduction).
Sleeping: Night time sleep continues to be very good. The only times you have woken up in the middle of the night since December have been when you ate your dinner before your evening bottle. You ate so much food that you didn’t want to finish the bottle, but then were hungry for milk again around 11 or 12 at night. At day care, you only take one long nap per day, right after lunch, and then again on both the morning and evening commutes. Every once in a while you are asleep when I come pick you up. On the weekends, you still consistently take a mid morning nap and a late evening nap. You are generally very easy to put down. I know that if I see you rubbing your eyes I just have to change you and lay you down in your crib and you will be out like a light in a few moments. You typically go to bed between 7:45 and 8:15. Every once in a while you stay up until 8:30, but that is not the norm.
Special Events: You got your first tooth!! Teeth, actually. I noticed the first one breaking through on 1/28 when I happened to stick my finger in your mouth. When I looked the next day, it was apparent that there were two coming up at the same time. You never showed any signs of being uncomfortable or unhappy before your teeth showed up. I didn’t even notice you biting or chewing anything more than normal. Another easy teether (I hope)!
So here are photos of Ellen at 9 months... She was diagnosed with a double ear infection 2 days later, so please excuse the watery eyes, tears, chapped cheeks, and snotty nose. I vow to do better at month 10.
{Ellen @ 2/11/2012}
{Completely distressed mere minutes before... a fragile day}
{Self portrait, Mom and Baby}
{Ellen Distracted... Love those eyes and lashes}
{The goofiest smile I have ever seen. You're welcome, Ellen}
{Staring intently at the mysterious camera...}
I love this series of sibling shots... you can see how fragile Ellen was that day as you get to the third picture.
{Ian and Ellen @ 2/11/2012}
{"This is how you use the measuring tape, Ellen!"}
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