9 Months

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How she grows! This one snuck up on me and I found myself getting confused whether she was 9 months or older.

This girl loves to greet whichever parent has been gone from home. It so joyful to be greeted by a tiny tot who has nothing but smiles and giggles for you.

That being said, this past month has been kind of rough (after the Disney trip). Hylan got sick. I got sick. And Naomi's nap/sleeping schedule was thrown for a loop. I think teething, traveling, and our sicknesses all factored in.Thankfully, for us, Daylight Savings helped get her back going to bed in the 8:00 hour instead of 9, or 10, or waking up at midnight, or whatever it was. I don't really remember because I haven't had much sleep in the past few weeks. I've been coughing for two weeks straight--so much that I've hurt my ribs. But enough about me.

I also think she may be experiencing a growth spurt. Solid 12 hours of sleep/rest at night, good naps, and lots of eating are my clues. But then, when isn't she growing? I love that she is sleeping again, knock on wood.  

Her personality comes through more and more each day. She really loves her parents and wants us to play with her and engage her.  Her little toy bin of toys doesn't impress her for very long anymore. She'd rather chase Kingo around the house (she giggles at his tail and it's the cutest!), or lift up mats and rugs to find tags. She loves tags. Tags are more interesting than actual toys. If she could chew on tags all day, she might.

Haha, Kingo giving her a stare down. She hasn't shown interest in cat food yet, that I know of.  

Speaking of chewing, she sure has eaten everything in the house, including the book shelves!  It's like having a chipmunk gnawing on the furniture. Mostly, she chews on things less harmful like toys or food. She loves gnawing on celery or carrot sticks, or apple slices. I like it because it keeps her occupied and happy for a few extra minutes while I eat or cook or just decompress! (I still keep my eye on her in case of choking).

Look at that hair! I keep forgetting her hair is long enough for styling. But then, I also keep forgetting that most of the time we're just chillin' at home, so she doesn't need  pants. Those just become a burden when crawling, or they make diaper changing take twice as long. So, pants-less it is from now on, unless we go out. Ha ha. Wait, just to be clear, that only applies to babies!

But yeah, so my hair was actually that color as a baby (maybe slightly redder). Here's proof (not that you can tell all that well in a picture of a picture on a computer):

And I can't believe I'm sharing this because I really think I was not a cute baby at this stage (2 months). Oh my gosh, it just makes me laugh. Baby Emily. Sorry, I'm having a moment here. Can we just focus on the hair?  Man, I was hairy baby.  And pale. Laughably not cute (aww, sorry Mom, I'm sure you thought I was cute).

But here is a cuter picture of me at 9 months(?)! I wish it were clearer. That's me with my Gram (Naomi's namesake) and two of my brothers. Aww, they used to be cute too. And you can't tell, but the brother on the left is hugging a toy snake.  lol. "Man, can we go back to the decor of the early 80's?" said no one ever. HA! We still had that furniture when I was in high school!

So, maybe Naomi and I are slightly related. Slightly! (referring to the hair).

Nome is an expert Cheerio eater. She likes to try to feed herself, but it's hard for me to allow her to make a mess (Cheerios and other Gerber cereal treats aren't messy, so she gets to eat those a lot). I know, I know, she needs to learn, blah blah blah. Textures, blah.  But I hate cleaning up the mess! I let her get sticky rice everywhere (what was I thinking?) Don't worry, she won't experience developmental delays, or exposure to obsessive compulsive behaviors like the need to have everything clean all the time.  She still eats fantastically (from the spoon I feed her) and then she gets to play/chew on a plastic spoon that makes her feel like she's helping. It's a win-win! She also screams every time her face is wiped. Every. Time. What the heck?

Speaking of wiping, um, yeah...we've had some interesting experiences in that regard. She doesn't love her changing table like she used to and mostly just wants to turn over and crawl off the thing. It makes for terribly frustrating experiences when the diaper is ahem yucky, if you know what I mean. I think I tried strapping her down once, but she still managed to flip over, or I felt bad because she was being restrained like a common criminal...

Whew, boy am I on one today? Anyway, I still let her watch Disney Jr. lots. And I still enjoy it more than her. Don't worry, this child will not be a couch potato. She will have no trouble being active. She loves to get out of the house for any reason, as long as she isn't tired. I take her with me when I play b-ball at the church on Wednesday mornings.  She used to like other babies, until they started touching her. Ha ha. She only likes people if she's safe in my or Hylan's arms, I guess. She does really well with many people, especially her grandparents though, so she's going to be just fine.

I'm just thankful she hasn't learned how to open cabinets yet. Maybe she never will? Yeah, right! Ha. It's terribly fun to be her Mom, though sometimes it just seems terrible and I get mad when Hylan takes forever to get home at night and maybe I might slightly celebrate on the nights I leave at 4 to go teach. Maybe. But I always come home happy to see her (unless she has already gone to bed like last night. But yay, for early bedtimes!). Oh my. Now, can we all be healthy again?! We've got a real east coast Thanksgiving to look forward to!

Let's just pretend she is always this deliriously happy! I love pretend!!