My sweet girl, you emanate happiness and joy. At this point, you have been alive in the outside world for as long as you lived inside of me. It's so incredible just how much you've grown in that time!
You bring so much laughter to our lives. And as you have grown, your personality has too. We can see so much about what kind of person you will be. You are happy, funny, clever, engaging, and you love to interact with people.
You are an explorer of the world around you, and you love to see, feel, and even taste what you find.
You are really enjoying your classroom, which has a lot of different "centers" in different areas of the room and even outdoor space. You are given so much freedom to explore, and you make the most of it!
You have become much steadier in motion, whether you're crawling, "cruising", or squatting. You can twist, turn, reach, dance, and laugh with grace — most of the time! You love to crawl up to me or Daddy and stand up by pulling on our pant legs. Sometimes you also "speed-crawl" to come and get us, and you giggle the whole way!
You are very attentive, and you seem to be aware of every noise and motion that happens nearby. When you're watching something that interests you, your eyes get wide and your mouth opens up a little bit. We think it's pretty cute!
You love to laugh, Katy! You have the sweetest giggles, and the three of us have so much fun laughing together. Your sense of humor already seems apparent, as you laugh at funny things that Daddy or I will do or say. Your teachers say that you also laugh when they are making a joke with other teachers — you just seem to be tuned in to what's going on! You've also learned how to "fake laugh", where you will make a fake giggle towards someone to get them to look at you or laugh. It's so funny!
Sleeping: Oh how you are a great sleeper! Like your parents, you seem to really love getting a solid night's sleep, and you rarely wake up in the middle of the night. For the most part, you are usually asleep by 7:30pm, and we wake you up on weekdays around 6:30am. On the weekends, you wake up anywhere between 6:45am and 8am. Usually you wake up as soon as Daddy or I make noise/wake up.
You still nap at home pretty well, but at school you are more distracted by noises and your friends. Your teachers say that it is common for kids your age to start to struggle with naps until you transition into the older infant classroom. There, nap time is more universal and therefore more successful! For now, you are taking about one 30 minute to 1 hour nap...and that's it! This means that you're really tired by the time we pick you up in the evenings.
Eating: You love to eat too! You eat three meals a day — two of them at school. You've been having cereal/fruit for breakfast and cereal/veggie for lunch. In addition, your teachers continue to give you portions of the school lunch, which means you are trying a lot of new flavors and textures at school. You've had things like turkey noodle soup, grilled cheese, turkey sloppy joes, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, chicken marsala, whole wheat french bread pizza, broccoli, peas, green beans, brown rice, pasta primavera, cod, and so on. We love that you are able to try this variety!
In addition to the new foods at daycare, this month you also had scrambled eggs (with a little shredded cheese sometimes), watermelon, strawberries, tuna, broccoli, meatballs (both turkey and beef), and chicken. You prefer to have at least some sort of finger food that you can feed yourself, so even if you're being fed by one of us, we try to keep something on your tray for you to eat on your own. We've started to give you a sippy cup of water to have with dinner as well, but so far this is more so something that you like to gnaw on, bang on your tray, or drop from your highchair to the floor.
Some of your favorites are plain yogurt (sometimes mixed with fruit), avocado, scrambled eggs (with or without cheese), bananas, and meatballs. And every now and then you have a guest feeder! Grandpa has tried lots of goofy things to get your attention.
Stats: At your 9-month check-up, you weighed in at 19 pounds, 13 ounces. And you are 28 inches tall! You are still in size 3 diapers. As for clothes, you mostly wear 9 months or 6-12 months (for Baby Gap, Old Navy). Your shirts that are 6-12 months still fit but are short in the sleeves. And many of your 6-12 months or 9 months pants are getting short on you too. It is a constant process to weed out clothes from your drawers that have become too small!
Milestones/Firsts: You went to your first Phillies game this month, and you made so many friends! There was a group of girls sitting behind us, and they were laughing and chatting the whole game. You kept standing up backwards in the empty seat next to us, and you would look at the girls and fake laugh right at them ("ha ha ha!") to get their attention. They loved it, which only made you do it more and more!
(You are clapping in the picture above — you're so aware of what is going on!)
This month you took your first trip (with many more to follow) to the park this month. You love the swings! And for us, it's pretty rewarding to push you because we get to hear you giggle! What a sweet sound.
You've started cruising along low surfaces. You're pretty steady on your feet when you're holding on! The coffee table and sofa are a perfect height for you to hold on.
We found a new toy that you really like, and it allows you to stand to play. Not to mention that it plays "beat-boppin" music that makes you dance! Before you start to dance, you usually look at Daddy or me to see if we're boogieing too. Family dance party!
You got your first tooth in (lower center)! It's amazing how much it changes your smile. I can tell that you have another one that will be coming through right next to it soon. We've started brushing your tooth during bath time — for now this just means running a soft toothbrush around your new tooth and rubbing your gums with a damp washcloth. You love your toothbrush! And you hold it and use it correctly.
Likes/Dislikes: I'll say it again: You love to laugh! You laugh at yourself and your friends, teachers, grandparents, Mommy and Daddy, and even strangers. It's like you're on a mission to make people smile, and I love this about you.
You love to play, and you are very tactile. You like to touch and feel everything, and you love pushing buttons. One of your favorite things to hold is the remote control...we have relinquished the remote for our DVD player (which we rarely use) and added it to your toy collection. Of all things!
You like your freedom, and you spend a lot of time on the floor exploring your space. We put up the baby gates this month so that you can explore freely.
You play the silliest games and you crack yourself up. You'll throw your hands in the air and slap them down on the floor and giggle like crazy. You'll fake cough and make yourself laugh — and if someone joins you, you're even more amused!
You like to read books together, but we rarely get to the end before you pick up the next book to be read. It cracks me up! You love to look at pictures in some of your picture books too. In particular, you seem to recognize pictures of other children and babies, and you point to them and laugh/smile.
We like to say that you really "get into your books"...see below. :)
You love (love!) sitting on Daddy's shoulders, and he loves having you laughing and bouncing and patting his head! When you get especially squirmy, it calms you and makes you more content with sitting still.
You love to play with Daddy, and riding on his shoulders almost always makes you bounce up and down and giggle.
We love you so much, Katy, and we are having the time of our lives watching you grow and learn. You will never know how much joy you bring to us each day. Thank you, little girl!
