Dear Raye,
A few days ago you turned nine months old. This has been a fun month. Well, let's face it: all months are fun these days!
This month you started crawling for real. You still don't do it often, as you get in a hurry to go somewhere and drop to your belly to army crawl there quickly. You actually crawl most often to just go a foot or two, or when you're about ready to pull up on something or crawl over it. You really love to crawl up onto Noel's bed, probably because it's hidden most of the time. You have started pulling up onto things...the couch, chairs, the step stool, using our knees and shirts and hair to pull yourself to standing. It's pretty cute. You don't like to stand for very long unless you're on the rug, usually because your feet start slipping out from under you, I think. But you're getting more mobile and it's fun.
You went to the doctor this month and got your 6-month immunizations. Actually maybe it was your 4-month immunizations. At any rate, you got some shots. You were not a fan, of course, but you only cried for about a minute afterwards and then were happy as a clam again. You weigh 8.4 kilos and are 71 centimeters long. You're completely in 9-month clothing.
You got another tooth this month, but you apparently like to do things differently. So instead of getting one of your top teeth like is "normal," you got another tooth on the bottom. So now you have three teeth on bottom and none on top. We keep thinking you're going to get some of those top teeth because you're a little grumpy sometimes, but they're still not coming in.
You love to dance and bounce, to knock over block towers, and to crawl into the bathroom and get into the basket that has the bath toys in it. You love, love, LOVE your sisters. You love to smack us on the head or in the face and practically bang your face into ours in excitement to give us kisses. You love the refrigerator and anything loud: if you hear the vacuum cleaner or the blender or blow dryer you will come crawling into that room to listen to it. If it's the vacuum cleaner making all the noise you will crawl to it and wrap yourself all over it, smacking it and pulling on the cord and hitting the buttons. It's so funny that most babies are scared to death of these things, but you love them. You also love to take a bath, although honestly you usually just get a really quick one. You like to flip over onto your belly and try to crawl around, and it's just a lot of work to keep a slippery wet baby still in the tub, so you don't usually get to play for long. You started clapping this month and babbling... Usually you babble, "dadadadada" or "bababababa." I'm just waiting on you to say "mama," but you just haven't yet.
You tried some new foods this month and pretty much like them all: kiwi, cheese, bread, pasta, crackers, even a little chicken. Honestly I'm losing track of what you've tried because I'm just letting you eat what we're eating or just giving you the few staples that I keep in the fridge for you. You really like wheat products and love noodles with parmesan cheese on them. You also really like oatmeal mixed with applesauce and you like plain yogurt. Those seem to be your favorites these days, I think because your gums are bothering you. Your pincer grasp is getting better and sometimes all you want to do is feed yourself while other times all you want is someone to feed you. You're funny like that. You're also still nursing about four times in a 24-hour period, sometimes more but never less.
You're a pretty good sleeper for us, although you've had a rough time the past few nights. You're a little congested so you've been waking up at least once, if not twice a night. But generally you take two naps a day, usually around 11:30-1 and 3:30-5. You wake up in the morning anytime between 6 and 9, and your nap schedule kind of flexes around that, and you go to bed between 7-8, depending on how the rest of the day went. I'm so grateful that you seem to be able to roll with the schedule changes and as long as you're not up for more than 3-3.5 hours, you'll sleep just fine without it throwing you off too much.
Raye, you're such a joy and bring so many smiles to our faces every day! I love you so much.
Mommy
