Month 9 (or The Month Everything Happened)

 So much was happening leading up to Clara turning 9 months I kept a running list of her accomplishments in the kitchen. Of course, I've lost the list now but I'm sure it will pop up some day and make me smile. Or cry. This girl is growing up so fast. 

Let's start with the 9 month stats:

Length: 28.5 inches - 75%

Weight: 18 lbs 11 oz - 42%

Head Circ 17.8 inches - 79%

So Clara is growing well. We are wearing some 12 month clothes now. Clara has been eating more food lately, soft solids and has really gotten into the Cheerios. It seems like the more she tries the more she wants! We are about 50/50 regular food and baby food. She likes to try anything Cedric has, we have to watch carefully that she doesn't get anything she can choke on!

And she finally has some teeth! This was the first photo I was able to get as she is very protective of her mouth. 

The week after Clara turned 8 months she started crawling and never looked back. Here she was practicing at the Lawrence Sports Pavilion while Cedric was at gymnastics. She really seems to enjoy the freedom crawling gives and doesn't sit still anymore. The worst is outside, I can't have her happily sit on our beach mat anymore. She immediately crawls to the grass to find something to stick in her mouth. 

With crawling came sitting up on her own and pulling up on everything. It was all of a sudden she could do everything and it really messed up bedtime. She was sitting up if she was awake and she seemed to be awake a lot more. And then came the standing. So for a week or so I was in her room a lot putting her back down to sleep until I felt she had learned to sit down and lay down by herself. Then we tried some sleep training to get her to fall asleep on her own. It helped her night wake ups but the naps have a lot of crying.

Since Clara started crawling and pulling up on everything I figured she needed some shoes. So these are her first real pair of little shoes and so far she's done a good job of keeping them on - when we use them. They are really just for when we head out of the house incase she wants to crawl around or stand. 

Here is Clara in a cute shirt I bought before she was born. I seemed to think she'd be a big girl by 9 months :). 

I feel like I'm forgetting things. Crawling, standing, eating, sitting from standing, sitting from laying, and generally all over the place. Clara loves Siena and Siena does a good job letting Clara pet her. Clara found Siena's water bowl and loves to try to splash the water. She also likes to try to splash the water in the toilet bowl. She's busy. 

We are moving up to new toys. She can't push herself on the little car but she enjoys going for a ride. She isn't interested in the walker feature. With all the standing I thought she'd start cruising around the furniture already but she is perfectly happy to sit down and crawl to what she wants. Fine by me, I do not need a walker yet!

After she did so well on the little car (and been doing well in shopping carts) I figured she would be strong enough for the wagon. Here she is on 5/24. We were just going to go down to the mailbox but she was having such a great time we ended up walking around the long block. This picture was taken after the 20 min walk and she was still so excited. She loved sitting and grabbing at things. She loved interacting with Cedric. All in all, she is enjoying growing up.