9 Months

9 months in, 9 months out. I looked at the pictures of her on the rug today and couldn't believe how BIG she is now. She is growing up so fast. Her personality is really starting to show. 

She randomly screams throughout the day. She's not upset or sad or anything. She just likes to hear herself. 

Every time she gets ahold of a blanket or item of clothing, she will put it over her head and hide her face. Kind of like she's playing peek-a-boo, but she doesn't know it.

She started clapping. But doesn't do it on demand. 

When she is finished eating, she will not let you put anything anywhere near her face. She will shove it out of the way. Sassy.

She stands up unassisted all the time now, and for long periods of time. Still a little scared to take steps on her own, but I think it'll happen soon. 

Her favorite food is anything I'm eating. She'll hear my wrapper, or see me go to the fridge, then climb up on me until I give her some of whatever it is. 

She loves to climb climb climb, and this week, she stepped up into the refrigerator. And this week at the beach, I'm pretty sure she was crawling down into little holes just so she could climb out of them.

When it comes to water, this girl is fearless. She voluntarily puts her face in the water whether it's a pool, the ocean, or the bath. Even now when we put her face underwater, she doesn't seem phased or bothered at all. 

In the last month, she has started loving tv or videos. Especially Baby Signing Time. She is mesmerized. 

Up until this month, she has been kind of a serious baby, and she has to be tired or the entertainer has to be super dramatic to get her to laugh. But now it seems like she smiles and laughs all the time. These cheese ball smiles above crack me up. Those two little teeth make it so much better. 

We discovered that she is terrified of this pink fuzzy monkey we have. She was just looking at it one day, then started getting really scared. And if you push the stomach, it makes a super creepy monkey noise, and that just takes her over the top into tears. I video taped her reaction, then threw that poor monkey away. 

Her hearing is impeccable. Almost to the point of being annoying. If I'm trying to put her to sleep, and she hears something as light as Spencer's ankle popping, she will whip her head around and try to figure out what it was.

She refuses to go to sleep if we have someone else at our house. I have a feeling she gets this from me. As a kid, I used to just sit on our stairs, listening in on conversations when my parents had friends over, and I was supposed to be sleeping.

She had a top tooth break through this month. I have a feeling there's a few more coming soon.

She would be amused all day if she could just sit at a busy intersection and watch the cars drive by. 

She has become such a wiggle worm when you try to hold her. She'll stiff arm you, and try to climb up your entire body. And it just makes it really awkward.

She has started to show pure excitement when she sees me in the morning or after I've been away for a while. It is the best feeling in the world.