9 months have FLOWN by

I seriously need a pause button for my life right now. Can anyone else relate? I hate doing these posts so late, and try as I might, I just can’t seem to find time to blog during the day. Pretty much my only free time is when Dallas is napping, and I have oodles of other activities that need to be done during that time, and blogging falls low on the list of priorities. Maybe some day I’ll be able to blog regularly again, but for now I think I need to stop beating myself up over it.

I cannot believe that Dallas is already 9 months old. I remember when she was born saying something about how it’ll be neat when she is older than how long I’ve known she existed. I didn’t think that time would come, but that time is now. It’s incredible. There is no way on earth that Dallas could ever be classified as an infant any more. She is a full blown BABY. I don’t think that I ever knew there was a difference before, but since she is now feeding herself regularly, says a few words, and can crawl faster than Baggie would like, it’s hard to deny that she’s really growing up….WAY too fast. Without further ado, let’s move on to what’s new with Dallas this month. I’m a week late, and I’m just going to include everything up until today.

This month, Dallas…

• weighed 18 lbs. 8 oz. and was 28.75 inches long at her 9 month doctor’s appointment. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight and the 90th percentile for her height.
• wears 6-9 month and 9-12 month clothes and has a few 12 month shirts that fit her.
• has shoes in both sizes 2 and 3 that fit her. It just depends on the type of shoe.
• wears size 3 diapers. I have decided that Luvs are my favorite diapers because they almost never leak, they’re WHITE so they don’t show through her clothes when she wears something light colored, and they're CHEAP.
• is still sleeping really well. She’s normally in bed by 7:30pm and will sleep until about 7-7:15am when Dustin wakes up for work.
• eats three meals every day, and feeds herself at least one thing at every meal. She’ll normally eat half of a banana and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, but the rest of her food really varies according to what I have cooked for her.
• eats a lot of new things this month, including peaches (HATES – either pureed or whole), Mandarin oranges, whole green beans (would never eat them pureed), chick peas, bread, crackers, mashed potatoes, and jello.
  

• nurses 4-5 times a day.
• has 5 teeth – two on top, and three on the bottom. I miss her gummy smile, but I must say that she is awfully cute with her little snaggle-tooth grin. And for the record (because I know some people will want to know), yes, she has bitten me, and yes it hurt. I dread the next time it’ll happen. I don’t think she does it on purpose, so of course I can’t be mad at her for it.
• takes two naps every day. For her morning nap, she’ll usually go down around 9am and will only sleep for about an hour. Her afternoon nap always varies a little depending on our schedule, but on days that we’re home she’ll normally go down around 1pm and sleep for about two hours. Every once in a while she’ll surprise me and sleep longer, and that’s always a bonus.

• sleeps pretty much exclusively on her stomach and still LOVES her Jaguar toy. I’m going to say it again to all you other new mommies out there – if you’re having trouble getting your baby to sleep, GIVE HIM/HER A SLEEP TOY. It has worked WONDERS for Dallas. She really, really loves her Jaguar, and she 100% knows that when I give her the Jaguar, it’s time to go to sleep. It’s like magic. Seriously.
• is now taking baths in the big bath tub, and really enjoys it. She has so much room now to play with all of her toys, and she likes to crawl around in the bathtub. It’s super cute.
  

• will wave when we say “hi” or “bye-bye.”
• LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Baggie, and thankfully, Baggie is pretty tolerant of Dallas. Dallas has managed to pull Baggie’s tail a couple of times and has even grabbed handfuls of her fur, but so far Baggie has not retaliated. She’s a good kitty :)
  

• claps on command when we say, “Dallas, clap!” or when we say, “Yay!” She’ll also clap whenever we get onto her for something. {Example scenario: Dallas crawls towards Baggie’s food. We say, “No, Dallas!” Dallas stops, considers crawling closer to the food, and eventually decides to obey. She’ll sit down, turn and look at us, and clap as if to say, “Yay for me! I’m a good girl!” This cracks us up every. single. time. Even better is as soon as she’s done clapping, she’ll turn and head straight for Baggie’s food again, and we’ll do the whole thing over and over.}
  

• has mastered “Mama” and “Dada” and is now trying to say other words. I talked to her doctor about this because I know it’s a little early for her to really be talking, but the doctor was happy to say that it is quite possible. She said that they really don’t expect most babies to know the difference between “Mama” and “Dada” until they’re a year old, but if she’s got those two down, she may just be an early talker. So far, the only word we’re sure of is “Nie-nie” for night night. Dallas actually TELLS me when she’s ready for her naps. It’s a wonderful thing. Other words we’re hearing are “Bee-bee” (we’ve heard this one several times when she looks at herself in the mirror), “Ba” (we’re thinking maybe “Baggie”?) and “Geee” (again, maybe “Baggie”). Her favorite word of all is, “bookum.” She says this all. the. time. She also says a few variations of this word, like “hockum.” Not sure what the meaning of this word is. :) She makes a lot of other noises, too. Just yesterday she learned how to make a snorting sound….like a pig. So weird.
• is learning baby sign language. We’ve only been working on it for about a week and a half, but Dallas already recognizes the sign for “milk.” She’s done it a couple times, but she hasn’t quite figured out that she can do it to tell me that that’s what she wants. Of course, milk means nurse to Dallas…not that she wants a sippy cup. It’s my goal for Dallas to eventually know the signs for milk, eat, more, and drink.
  

• crawls everywhere and is pulling up on pretty much everything. It is amazing how much this has changed my life. She can get from one room to another in a second without my even knowing she was on the move. I love to watch her crawl. It’s hilarious and cute.
  

• never sits in her swing any more. We finally put it up a couple of weeks ago.
• still loves her exersaucer, and I am SOOOOO GLAD because it’s about the only place I can put her when I absolutely have to get something done while she’s awake.
  

• went to the zoo for the first time on Memorial Day. It was very hot and that was hard on her, but I think she enjoyed looking at some of the animals.
• is showing signs of separation anxiety, making it hard to leave her anywhere....like the nursery at church. We dealt with this a while back while I was working, but it had gotten a lot better in the last few months. I hope it will be a short phase again.
  
• watches Sesame Street every morning and loves Elmo’s World.
  

• has eaten 2 and 1/2 pieces of Baggie’s food and a bloody band aide (this happened on our way home from the doctor’s office after she had her toe pricked and got a shot).
  

• has learned to chase us when we crawl away from her. We’re trying to teach her to play hide-n-seek.
• left Florida for the first time a few weeks ago to visit her great-Nana in Georgia.
• got her first real boo-boo this month. She fell when she was standing by the side of the couch, and she scratched her face. I think it was waaaaay more traumatizing for me than it was for her.
  

Last but not least, we had our first real family photo shoot a few weeks ago. There were so many good pictures, that I seriously could post like 100 more pictures, but I won’t…. Here are just a few of my favorites…

(Photos taken by Sarah Orgunov of Moments by Sarah)