9 Months!

Look who's 9 months old!! She's been on the outside as long as she was on the inside now (longer, in fact, at this point).  How did this happen?!

She is "crawling" up a storm these days and has a very hard time holding still for ANYTHING.  I say "crawling" because it's more of an army crawl.  She doesn't have time to invite her legs to the party.

The first step is to dismount from sitting.  She's getting very good at this, especially when I try to put her in a sitting pose for pictures.

Once she's on her belly, she's in full concentration mode.

and, as her grandma (my mom), and my brother would tell you, REALLY serious concentration means your tongue has to be free from the confines of your mouth.

Success!!

She loves her new ring stacking toy.  The old school toys are classics for a reason! Her favorite thing to do is pull all the rings off, so for her it's more of a "de-stacking" toy.

She also loves hanging out with dad.  And I'm going to call it.  She's saying "dada" now and she means him.  She hasn't even said "mama" accidentally yet.

She LOVES the cats though. They are a major motivator to getting her to crawl around.  It makes sense that her first word is "CAT."  This morning she crawled in circles around the kitchen after Zeus and when she couldn't catch him, she said "CAT!!" really loudly.  Maybe it's like a swear word to her?

I got this look after the 245th picture of her with the bunny.  Fast forward 16 years when I won't let her borrow the car.  Mo-EM...you are so uncool!

So I call it...this was the best one...she's holding still and you can see the bunny's size by comparison. Success!

We went to the doctor this afternoon for her 9 month check up and got all the stats.  She's 17 lb, 13.5 oz, which is 45th percentile! So good!! It's really nice to have the days of worrying about her weight behind us.  She is 29 and 1/4" tall, which is 95th percentile and I think this means she's almost grown out of her bucket carseat.  Finally, her head is 47.5 cm in circumference which is off the charts (100th+ percentile).  Full of brains I think! 

She loves eating finger foods and purees.  The obsession this month has been string cheese and pretty much nothing else (she has this in common with Ripley).  She also has five teeth, with two more cutting in right now, and as I mentioned before, she said her first word (CAT!).  In April we're looking forward to flying down to Oregon to visit grandma and grandpa while I present in a conference and attend a bridal shower, and we start swimming lessons, too.  A big month!!

Time flies! Happy April!