Elizabeth 9 months

Elizabeth,

Happy 9 months to you!  9 months is a great age.  On one hand, you seem so little still - definitely still a baby.  Yet.  On the other hand, you are getting bigger and stronger and more interactive every day.  Your personality is shining through now and it makes you seem older.  Then, when I remember that 9 months is only 12 weeks away from you turning 1...I always recount it in my head -Wait, that can't be right - 12 weeks? 3 months? and she's one?  Let me count again.


But it's true.

So here are your stats at this juncture in your little life. At 9 months, you are 18 lbs and 29.25 inches long.    You wear size 3 diapers and mostly 9-12 month clothing. You have enough hair to spike up and tousle, but not enough to put in a bow or anything.  You have two teeth - front and center, on the bottom. Your eyes are still a little hard to describe, but they are a kind of brown and green combo.  They look grey in some lights and have flecks of blue in other lights.  It's odd, and neat.

You started crawling at 8 months, and 1 month later you are very quick.  You can climb stairs, pull up, and cruise furniture.  On occasion, you pull-up and let go and stand your ground for several seconds unassisted, until, like a cartoon who has run off a cliff, you fall once you realize that you're no longer holding on.  You love to follow your big sister around, it's adorably cliche of you.  Abby will crawl on all fours to be on your level, and you will happily follow her lead, grinning with your eyes closed and laughing all the while.

You really are pretty happy.  When you smile, your whole face squints.  Your eyes close, your nose wrinkles, your smile spans your entire face.  It is utterly heart melting.  In church on Sunday, daddy was holding you and you were watching people go by for communion.  You were content and just watching the world around you.  I was walking toward you, surrounded by other people, and you didn't see me right away. Then, you did see me, but you didn't immediately notice it was me, but after about 2 seconds you did and you broke out into this huge smile.  Just because you were happy to see me. Keep that up kid, and you may just get spoiled.

You like to play.  You have learned to clap, and are very proud of that. At night, when I put you in your crib to slip your sleep-sack on before feeding you a bottle, you clap.  I lay you down and you look up at me and say "aaaaaaay" and clap.  Because you're excited about the bottle.  It's pretty cute.  When you laugh, you first smile, and then you smile bigger, and then you smile with your whole face, and your whole body, and when you can not physically contain the smile any more, it slips out in a stifled laugh - but once that happens, you lose it and you just laugh and laugh and giggle.  I tickle you a lot.

You love to knock over blocks.  You love to knock over anything.  You like to undo puzzles that your sister had worked so hard on and destroy train tracks that she has meticulously put together. I see this being the theme in your relationship.  Abby takes it in stride.  She usually complains about your recent destruction, but then we all laugh and say "she's just playing Destructo!"  And Abby thinks playing destructo is pretty fun, so then she will encourage you to continue to destroy things while she calls you "destructo-E"  Of course, at that point, you usually just want to go find a penny to chew on or something. It's fun seeing you explore your world.

Of course, you already know that mom and dad's iphones are the cool toys and will take any chance you can get to douse one in slobber.  Gotta watch you there.

You babble now.  Most of the time, you say "da-da-da" but you also use that appropriately when your daddy is around.  You will climb into his lap and say "da-da!"  You only say mama when you're crying - but it's at least consistent!  If I hold you close to my face and say "E, say 'ma-ma' "  You will look at me and whisper "da-da-da" and then you sqint-smile and laugh to yourself.  Abby has been trying to teach you how to say her name, she's hoping that you will call her "bab-bab" or "Babby"  She thinks the B will be easier than the A sound, and she's probably right.  You are starting to catch on to some signs.  We've taught you "up" "all-done" and "please"  You seem to recognize them, but you are not mimicking them yet.  Well, you are kind of mimicking "all-done"  You are not yet waving yet, but you haven't had very much modeling for that either, so we'll work on it. :)

Food.  You have not met a food you don't like yet.  Your sister used to clamp her lips shut and turn her head and sit there if she didn't like something.  You've yet to do that.  There are things you like more than others - but you've eaten everything we've offered to you.  You've had: oatmeal, yogurt, sweet potatoes, squash, edamame, broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach, carrots, pears, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pasta, ravioli, olives, chicken curry, rice, beans, fish, tuna, crackers, cheerios, ....and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting.  You love anything mixed with yogurt.  You like trying to feed yourself, and you're getting better at it with small finger foods.  You really like berries.  Chicken curry was your newest adventure and you liked it a lot.  You're starting to get the hang of your sippy cup, but you also just like to shake it...and drop it.

Your sleep is pretty good.  90% of the time.  You nap well.  You take 2 naps a day and they range from 1-2 hours usually. You go to bed around 7, sometimes earlier.  You wake up between 5 and 6 most days.  Now, I don't really mind, because I'm usually up then anyway and I like seeing you before I go to work.  But, I'm not going to tell you that because I think you should learn to sleep until 6 or later.  Emphasis on later.  Think about it, ok?  You might like it if you try it.

We call you "E" 95% of the time.  We still call you E-train as well.  On occasion, we call you Elizabeth, but a lot of the time you're just getting a random word out of the nickname generator.  Some of our common ones are E-biscuit, E-trade, Munchkinette, Little miss mae, E-mae, E-monkey, Liza-mae, Lizzy-mae.  Abby calls you "chicka" all the time...usually in the context of "Hey miss chicka chicka, what do you think you're doing?"  It will be interesting to see how your name, the most nicknameable of names, evolves as you grow.

You, my dear, are a joy.  It brings me joy to watch you grow and learn and explore and love.  Your sister loves you more than anything and I'm so happy that you love her back.  Your daddy and I feel like you were always meant to be part of our family and these last 9 months have just felt "right" in a lot of ways.  We love you, so much.  As your sister would say, we love you "more than pickles and more than biscuits"  And that's her way of saying - there is nothing bigger than that kind of love.