Samantha 9 months!

Samantha seems like she is literally getting bigger before our eyes. At her 9 month well child check she weighed 19 pounds and 6 ounces and measured 28 inches long, both 50%ile.

She is crawling ALL over the house and is becoming quite independent. She no longer likes to be spoon fed but prefers to finger feed herself. Her favorite foods are bananas (a Popsy girl!), watermelon, zucchini, apples, peaches, carrots, potatoes and pancakes. She still takes 4 6oz bottles a day and is starting to be more interested in water. She is plus/minus on the sippy cup and doesn't really like to hold her bottle. She likes to play with our watches or pat our arms as she drinks.

She is staying up for longer periods of time, 2.5 to 4 hours and we have been taking more trips to the beach, park and pool. She loves to explore and is quite content to crumple dried leaves and dig in the sand with her hands. She is pulling herself up on everything and has learned to take a step back before sitting down (smart!). I recently put a crib tent up to keep her from falling out. We were getting her up from naps an she was standing at the front rail jumping with excitement. When I asked my Dad if we had ever fallen out his reply was "Sure, you use to get out all the time." So up the crib tent went. We have seen too many pediatric head traumas in the ER an she has many more months in her crib.

She is still sleeping 8:30p until 6:30a and naps 2-3 times a day for 1.5 to 2 hours. We recently started using a fan in her room while she is napping and it has really helped her transition from play to sleep and helps to block noise in our house. We have watched Marty do this with both of her children with success, why it has taken us so long to try it, pure idiocity!

Samantha loves to interact with other children and we are going to start swim classes and music classes this month so that she can meet other little ones on a more regular basis.

She loves books! One of her favorite activities is to pull books down from the shelf and hand them to you. Her current favorites are Pat the Bunny, The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, Mirror Me and I Am a Bunny, a gift from our friend Autumn. She loves to help turn the pages and giggles when we make the animal sounds.

We are feeling more like parents these days as we begin to work on discipline and rule setting. We are focusing on what is safe to touch, lying flat on the changing table and not throwing food. We are so lucky to have watched Marty and Wendy discipline their children with love and we are applying similar principles in our home. When we tell Samantha No we try to give her an acceptable alternative activity to do so that she doesn't feel her whole world is a No. It has worked well so far. We are also working on Baby Signs to help us communicate. She already does More and we are working on Eat, Milk and All Done.

Amazing what can happen in a month!