ktg: 9 months

Nine months. Longer outside than she was in! It's hard to believe, but our Kater Potater is just growing, growing, growing like a weed. 

She's worn quite a few hats this month. A winter carnival hat, a cowgirl hat, a sick and snot-nosed hat, a smiley hat and more. We kept postponing her 9 month photo shoot because she was sick and there was no sunshine...she sort of got better and the sun never shone, so we settled for sub-par lighting and a pretty sad girl. You win some, you lose some.

Kate is perfecting her cruising {and getting fast!} and has even pulled away from the furniture a time or two to stand for a few seconds on her own. She still loves holding my fingers and walking through the house. She just started to use her walker to get across the living room. I expect it will get good use in her upcoming 10th month.

Kate's best friend is moi. And I'm eating it up. Her second best friend is that chubby baby in the mirror. She could give herself kisses all day long! Speaking of kisses, they're the best. Open mouth, slobber filled with an "aaaaah" sound kisses. Sigh. 

She is exploring all sorts of sounds with her low and raspy voice. Ga, Da, Ma, Ba, Gra, Bla, Fa, Sss, Va and Wa are some favorites. She's beginning to say "da da" and "ma ma" a little more regularly when Ryan and I are around, but I'm not convinced they have specific meaning just yet. 

When not fighting a cold this month, her grins could melt anyone's heart. She has started to squint her eyes and spread her smile out a mile wide and it makes me laugh every time.  

She sleeps from 7-7:30 each night until 6:30-7:00 every morning. I prefer a later sleeper, but I'll deal. She still takes two naps a day, for 1-3 hours each time. Except on Sundays. Oh, Sundays.

Kate is officially done nursing. Sigh and hallelujah in the same breath. Sigh because again, I had hoped to go for a year. But hallelujah because she was having none of it and is just fine with her bottle. Those working hands still amaze me. In other eating news, Kate loves to eat. Anything and everything. All. The. Time. She has started to eat everything we eat at the table except shell fish. She loves grilled cheese sandwiches, pancakes, oatmeal, pasta, rice, curry, vegetables, fruits, yogurt, you name it. On the menu this month is milk. Hopefully it will decrease our grocery bill a bit. Formula is pricey!

She is learning to love books a little more and will stay still for about 10 seconds when I read them to her now {this is a great improvement from her previous three seconds}. She loves playing in the tupperware drawer, unloading the dishwasher whenever the door is open {her favs are the knives, of course}, sucking on Leah's toes when Leah is on the couch {so gross}, and pulling my earrings while they are connected to my ears. 

She pulls her bows out and her shoes off whenever she gets a chance. I keep putting them back on. I love watching her discover new things, squish new foods, grin when she gets in trouble, bounce her right leg up and down when she's drinking her bottle, sing to herself as she cruises along the furniture, play peek a boo, chase and be chased by dad, squeal with delight when she sees someone she recognizes, try and hit me when she's mad {seriously hilarious}, pick up all the food that Leah drops on the floor at meal times, and dance! The girl can shake it.

I can't believe she's three quarters already. Part of me wants time to stop, and the other part of me can't wait to see what her future holds. I think we'll stick with the latter.

9 month stats:

Weight: 18 lbs. 5 oz.

Height: 28"

Head Circumference: 45 cm

Diaper size: 2

Clothing size: 6-12 months {getting snug}

Longest stretch of sleep: 13 hours??

NEW Nicknames: Not sure. She has about 378 already. 

p.s. Before she was born, Ryan and I joked that we wanted her to be average. Nothing special. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just average. {We had had enough excitement already.} I had to laugh when the doctor announced at her appointment, "She's 50th percentile in weight. And in height! And in head circumference! And she's right on track with development!" Average feels pretty awesome.