9 months old

Time is sure going by quickly now. 9 Months old today. People have already started referring to her BIRTHDAY! Yikes. I am so not ready for these baby days to be over.

At her 9mo well baby check up, she weighed 19 lbs (ish)! Then they weighed her naked.... and she was down to 17lbs, 8oz and she is 27 inches long. Man...she seems much heavier than that! Geesh! She is eating probably 2 cups of oatmeal in the morning (her favorite by far) and then nurses before naptime. Then she eats lunch with us, probably 2 #2 jars of baby food - at least. Then nurses again before nap. Then she eats dinner with us. Again, 2 #2 size jars or maybe even 2 #3 size jars. Then she nurses before bedtime. Every once in a while, we may catch an extra nursing here or there. She also eats a ton of 'snacks' - finger foods we put out for her after we cut her off the baby food, as we like to call it. She'll get Cheerios or Gerber Puffs to keep her busy while we eat. Otherwise, she is very demanding when she wants her food! And recently, we've started laying out small bites of squishy foods like pears, rice, pineapple, peas, etc. She'd still rather have her Cheerios though. I think that's her favorite. :)

She has two bottom teeth still growing in and the doctor says he say the first sproutings of her top teeth as well. I wouldn't even had known! I hope the teething thing stays easy on us like this.

She goes to sleep at night usually about 8p and will sleep till I wake her up to take Brooke to school (about 8a). On the weekends, she may sleep till 8:30-9 on her own. She takes 2 naps a day. Usually her morning nap is at about 10ish and she'll sleep again till I have to wake her to pick up Brooke (about 11:15) or till I wake her for lunchtime (on non-school days) at 11:45/12. Then she'll take another nap in the afternoon, usually around 1:30/2 and will usually sleep till 4:30? Yea...we've finally got this sleep thing down. :)

(We had to start pulling up her crib rail when she sleeps instead of leaving it down since she started using it to her advantage. This was how she fell asleep the other day.)

She is not crawling....yet. We are not pushing it by any means! I am definitely in NO HURRY for her to crawl. I remember pushing Brooke to crawl and then wishing I hadn't. Anything to keep them stationary - haha! Anyway, she will get up and turn herself around, but hasn't yet figured out that if she moves her arms and legs simultaneously she can actually go forward!

Our little girl is so precious. We say often that we are so glad to have her in our family now. And it is so true. She makes us laugh often. She does the funniest things. Brooke was a pleasant baby, but Brenna really does do some funny things!

She likes to have her space clean. Tables, high chair trays, changing table, you name it. She will clean it off for you. Laying on the changing table, she will clear off everything in site. Too bad she hasn't quite learned to put things up yet - she just throws everything onto the floor. And she has this look on her face like....."I need this out of my way." You can put it right back on and she'll take it right back off. When we go out to eat, we have to make sure there is at least a 2 ft radius around her of cleared off table. :)

She loves peek-a-boo, 'chasing' people, being outside, looking at books, banging things, and rolling the ball with Brooke. She likes to do anything with Brooke though. Brooke gets a smile from her all the time without doing anything! Sometimes, though, when we are trying to make her smile or laugh, she will get this stoic look on her face like...."I'm not going to laugh." "You're going to have to do better than that." Which in turn, makes us laugh.

She loves animals....both our dog and our cat...she thinks they are pretty funny and they don't have to do anything. She talks.....a lot! None of it makes sense anyway...but a lot of Nana, and Dada, and all that. No Mama yet though. <.<

She waves a lot now and signs "more". We keep waiting ..any day now...for the signing to really take off. Brooke was around 10 months when she really started exploding with signs. We'll see....

She is also really getting into her LeapFrog table. She didn't much care for her excersaucer - she doesn't like to be left alone. Again, another lesson - to each his own. Brooke loved the excersaucer. Oh well.

Anyway, I suppose I could gush on and on. But I'll stop now. She is such a joy to our lives and such a happy happy baby. Hmmm...interesting that her first four months were so hard, but now, she has done a complete 180. She rarely cries or fusses and is always full of smiles and happiness, even if she's tired or sick or hungry. We are so glad she joined us 9 months ago!

PS - I almost forgot - here's a video I took the other night of her 'gurgling'. You'll see her favorite toy - a stuffed brown bear she just loves! Anyway, I don't know how she does the gurgly thing...she's been doing it since about 4 mos old. Brooke did it too I remember, so maybe it's just a baby thing. Anyway, too funny!