9 Months!

Dear Charis,

Today you turned 9 months old! I can hardly believe that 9 months has passed by so quickly. I can hardly keep from holding you and kissing your sweet little face - I just love you so much! You are so beautiful and have the sweetest smile. You warm my heart and make me smile. Sometimes seeing you and your brother so happy together brings tears to my eyes. I am so thankful to my sweet Lord for knowing that I needed a little girl in my life. His timing is always perfect, and YOU are proof of that! You and your brother continue to teach me about unconditional love, patience, understanding, compassion, tenderness, discipline, and joy. Your name will forever remind us of the grace poured out for lives on Calvary's hill - a gift so undeserved by a sinner like me. But it will always remind me of the grace God showed to our family by blessing us with you - such a special little gift in our lives! We love you, baby girl!

At 9 months old:

You have turned a corner with foods. You refuse baby food and LOVE eating all by yourself. It is so hard to feed you with a utensil these days. You love bread, Chick-fil-A chicken, some veggies and some fruits. You like grapes (but Mommy lacks the time and patience to peel each grape for you and cut it up tiny enough for you to eat.) :) You seem to like a lot of what I put on your tray - which is pretty much whatever we're eating! Lasagna, great northern beans, sweet peas, chicken, corn, carrots, pears, pancakes, bananas etc. You have definitely broadened your horizon when it comes to meal times.

You are officially on the move! You began crawling a few days ago. And you can find THE tiniest things on the ground which, of course, go straight to your mouth. Forgive me for all the things you will find to eat in the next month as I get used to vacuuming/sweeping/mopping daily.

You pull up on thing whenever you're able. We have these coffee tables with a glass top that hangs over the wooden table base. I wish I had started a tally sheet on how many times you bump your head on the underneath part of the glass because you're constantly trying to pull up to stand at the coffee table. Sometimes you accomplish it...most often you just hit your head.

You are completely a formula fed baby. :( and :) (Mommy has mixed emotions about this, can you tell?)

You are napping once in the morning, and normally one longer nap in the afternoon, but sometimes it ends up being 2 shorter naps in the afternoon. And then you usually sleep 12-13 hours at night.

You have two bottom teeth.

You still adore your big brother.

You sign "all done" sometimes. (No one really believes me that you're telling me you're "all done" because while you're sitting in your high chair, you beg for food by waving your hands beside your head, almost as if you're directing a choir. Cayman did the exact same thing! But I can tell the difference between you waving your hands-begging for food and you signing you're all done-also by waving your hands...but in a different way and with a smile on your face. :))

You're mainly wearing 12-18 month clothes, but you still can wear some 6-9 month stuff. I THINK all the 3-6 month stuff has been cleaned out of your wardrobe.

You do get a little upset sometimes when your big brother takes toys from you.

We will go to the doctor later this week to find out all your statistics from the doctor. I think you've gained a bit of weight since your last check-up!

Here is what you look like at 9 months old!





A big change from this!