Nine Months

Elizabeth is...nine months old.  Can you believe it?  Doesn't it seem like just yesterday, I was complaining of swollen ankles and contemplating naming her Gertrude?

Side note:  Yes.  I realize that I'm ten days late on this, but we'll just pretend that I'm not. 

Our Sweet Princess (or Dimpled Dictator, whichever is appropriate for the moment) is getting so big!  She's weighing in at 20 lbs. 11 oz. and is 28 inches long.

Her first word was not "mama" or "dada" or even "Joe".  No, her first word was "hi".  She follows it with a twisty-wrist wave and big smile.  "Hi," she grins at me when I pick her up from her aunty's house.  "Hi," she cries when Chad walks in the door.  "Hi,"  she smiles, coyly ducking her head and looking up through her lashes at the checkout clerk.  And we're all compelled to smile, wave and say "hi" right back.  It's so sweet it'll give you cavities.

Speaking of teeth...(nice segue, no?)

She has two.  Two little toothers that sit on her bottom gum and gleam white when she smiles.  Which is really quite often.  As much as she can play the tyrant, she really is a sweet little baby.  She's snuggly, loving and happy.  We can't stop kissing her which is why she's starting to kiss us back.  Her little nails dig into my cheeks as she brings my face to hers and plants a wet kiss on my mouth.

She's not crawling yet, but she does do a butt scoot and a backwards Army crawl.  Her favorite is standing up and holding on to a table, a chair, a mommy, a daddy, Maggie...pretty much any stable item.  Today, for the first time, she pulled herself up all on her own.  She can also do a little twist to a crawl position, but then decides that it's all just too much work.

I wonder when Joseph...

Hmmm...The good thing about blogging is that it gives you instant access to all the little things that have occurred in your world.  It seems that Joseph was furniture cruising and crawling at nine months.

We're going to take a quick break while I freak out a little.  I'll probably add a bit of panic that I'm not reading to Elizabeth enough, playing enough games with her and...how about...engaging both children in challenging activities for good measure?

(Pause while I run to my moms' forum and LJ to express said panic and get rapid reassurance.  I love those women.)

Okay!  I'm back.  Fragile Mommy Ego reassured.  Moving onward...

We've noticed that our Miss E loves music.  I know.  I know.  Most, if not all, babies love music.  But this girl Loves music.  Capital "L".  I hum a quick tune and she starts dancing, swaying back and forth.  We put on the radio and she squeals in delight, clapping her hands and kicking her feet.  She listens to music to get to sleep at night.  She sings along with Joseph and I in the car.  She dances to the sound of Boppa hammering a nail in the fence.  She bangs on her drums, she pounds on her piano and she shakes her bells.  Oh the bells!  Just a little handful of jingle bells, but she gets so excited I think she's going to explode.  I shake them at her and she goes ballistic.  I hand them to her and she shakes and shakes and shakes, her feet tapping, her face wreathed with smiles.  The only thing as much fun as music is...

Water.  Our Leo loves the water.  She sits in her tub, tilting her head back so we can pour water over her. Our floor is mopped on a daily basis courtesy Miss Splashy McSplash.  She pouts when we take her out of the tub, disappointed that water time is over.  She giggles when Joseph brings her cups of water - which promptly gets dumped.  She applauds when I take her in the shower with me.

Between the the dancing and the water, she will obviously be a synchronized swimmer.

What else can I say?  We're madly in love with our Little Love. Who wouldn't be?  Only a big, cold-hearted meanie with squinty eyes.