Richly Blessed: Emery {9 Months}

NINE months old!! What in the world?!? We are going to be celebrating her first birthday before we know it.

This has been such a fun month with our sweet baby. It seems like she's doing something new every single day.

One Month Update

Two Month Update
Three Month Update
Four Month Update
Five Month Update
Six Month Update
Seven Month Update
Eight Month Update

Here's what's been going on with Emery the last month.

- We went to the doctor for her 9 month check up on the 17th. She's a perfectly healthy baby and we're so thankful!! She weighs 19 pounds, 8.5 ounces (75th percentile) and is 28.75 inches long (95th percentile). Her head circumference is 18 inches (75th percentile).

- I feel like she's grown a *lot* in the past month. She's grown out of a lot of her 6 month clothes and is mostly in 9 month and 6-12/9-12 month. There are still a few 6 month and 6-9 month things she can wear, though. She's still wearing a size 2 diaper, but we'll switch her to size 3 as soon as we run out of size 2.

- We changed her schedule right after she turned 8 months and it is working *so* well!!! We dropped her third nap {it was the shortest one} and started putting her to bed a little earlier. She gets up around 7:00 most mornings, takes her naps around 9:30 and 1:00 {usually about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes}, and goes to bed at 7:00. Most of the time she falls right to sleep! This is so much better because when she was taking her third nap, it took her a while to go to sleep at night and she would wake up earlier in the morning. It was a little rough at first when we switched to this schedule because she got super cranky that last hour and a half before bedtime, but I think she's gotten used to it now.

- I'm so thankful that she's still a good eater and I'm hoping that continues!! She has four bottles a day {usually about 7 ounces each} at 7:00, 11:00, 3:00, and 6:30. She has her fruits and veggies three times a day around 8:00, 12:00, and 5:00. This month she tried raspberries, cherries, white beans, black beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, kiwi, teething cookies, a dinner roll, a pancake, chicken, and ham. She pretty much loved all of it and says "mmmmm" for every single bite. :) She usually gets special treats when she's at my parents' house. They gave her a ginger cookie and oh my goodness, she couldn't get enough!!!

First pancake!

- She still *loves* Puffs and gets so excited when she sees us get the container. She'll smile and bounce up and down. :)

- Emery now has two cute little bottom teeth. She got her second tooth about a week before Thanksgiving, but I don't think she'll stop teething for a long time. She's a little drool machine and every single thing she gets her hands on goes straight in her mouth.

- She decided to CRAWL on Thanksgiving morning. She had backed herself up into this little corner where she always plays, and then crawled her little self right out. It was such a sweet time because Daniel and I were both home and got to see it together. We both looked at each other and were like, "Did you just see that?" Let me tell you, she hasn't stopped crawling. She *loves* it and is typically happy as long as I let her crawl around the house.

- As if crawling wasn't enough of a change, Emery started pulling herself up on furniture, and really just about anything, just a couple of days later. She likes to pull up on her exersaucer and play with the toys on it without actually being in it. She hasn't quite mastered yet how to sit back down once she's pulled up.

- She sits up in her crib now and will play with the little stuffed animals we put in there. Sometimes, she'll be sitting there playing and get so tired that she just falls over to the side asleep. Once, she fell completely forward, face planted, and slept like that for almost an hour! We had to move her crib down lower because she would sit up and pull on her mobile.

- I got to hear "mama" this past month!! We thought we heard it on Thanksgiving, but weren't completely sure, but a couple of days later there was no doubt. I don't think she associates it with me yet. She also tries to say "uh oh" but it comes out like "uh uh" or just "uh". We also hear "bababa" a lot but it doesn't seem like it means anything just yet.

- She really likes to be sung to. It even seems to calm her down sometimes if she's upset. Other times, I just hold her in my lap and sing to her because she'll actually sit still in my lap. She *loves* "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Old McDonald" gets some smiles sometimes.

- She loves the necklace that I wear almost all the time. I love it when she sits in my lap, and usually I can show her my necklace and she'll play with it for a few minutes. Lucky for me, it's a really strong chain. ;)

- Books are another favorite thing of hers. It's one of my favorites, too, because I love snuggling her in my lap. She's a pro at flap books and most of the time, she'll turn the page when I tell her too. She also makes it clear when she's not interested in a book by vigorously closing it! :)

- The newest thing she's doing is waving! She started it just a couple of days before she turned 9 months. I was leaving her with my sister one morning and I was waving and saying bye to her and she waved back to me! It was that adorable backwards wave and I never want her to learn how to wave the right way! Sometimes she'll just wave her arm, too.

- I think she's starting to pose when she sees us with the camera! She'll either pose or stop what she was doing and immediately start crawling away!

- Most of the time Emery doesn't mind car rides at all, but if she's tired, she'll usually cry. I'll reach my hand to the back of the car and she'll reach up and hold my hand with her sweet little fingers. It absolutely melts my heart every time.

- She dances! Sometimes, when music comes on, she'll shake her head back and forth and sometimes her legs will start going, too. She did it when she rode a carousel for the first time! She does it a lot when she plays in her exersaucer because there are a lot of musical toys on it. Usually, if we ask her to dance she'll do it. We ask her a lot. ;)

- I know I've mentioned peekaboo before, and I didn't think she could like it any better, but she just goes *crazy* for it!! She'll squeal, belly laugh, bounce up and down, bury her face in our shoulders... She just goes nuts and we absolutely love it!

- Emery is getting to be a pro at imitating us. She copies us when we cough, stick out our tongues, blow raspberries, click our tongues, shake our head side to side. Basically we look like fools all day long trying to get her to do all of that stuff. It's just so unbelievably cute!

Here are a few other favorite moments from this month: