Nine Months Old

It is hard to believe how much this little person has changed and grown in nine months. She is so curious and capable. I love how she sometimes tilts her head to one side when she's especially interested in something. She loves looking at books, sometimes turning the pages, but always daintily tracing the words and pictures with her finger.

She has mastered her army crawl, and scoots around the house quite well. She is getting up on all fours and rocking more each day, so I'm guessing she'll be doing a traditional crawl before too long. We have installed a hinged baby gate at the top of the stairs leading to the basement so we don't have to worry about her falling down the stairs.





If I leave the room for a few minutes while she is playing on the floor, it sometimes takes me a minute to figure out where she scooted off to, especially if she is being quiet and playing with something she knows is "no touch." It still surprises me how well she understands what I say to her, especially "no touch." The floor lamp in the living room, for example, is a no touch. Sometimes she'll have her chubby little finger stretched out, within millimeters of the lamp, while she decides if touching the shiny lamp is worth the consequences.

She is also learning how to balance by holding on to furniture when she stands. She's such a squirmy little thing that she often wiggles or bounces herself out of balance. Which really, is fine with me. I'm in no hurry to see her walking. She's already growing up way too fast.



Chloë had her nine month doctor's appointment last week, and so we got an accurate height, weight and head circumference. The impressive measurement this month is her head, which at 18 inches in circumference, puts her brain in the 92nd percentile. She is now 28 inches tall, putting her in the 70th percentile for height, but only weighs 18.1 pounds, which has dropped her into the 39th percentile for weight. (Yikes. She was a chubby 72nd percentile when she was two months old.) She is such an active baby that she's just a calorie burnin' machine, I guess. She still eats every 2 or 3 hours, and I try to give her two "meals" of solids every day (usually a homemade carrot-potato-chicken mash mixed with the applesauce I made last Fall), as well as Cheerios throughout the day. She loves them, and often flashes me a huge, cheesy smile while she's eating them.



She loves toys, particularly ones she can chew on and drool all over. She scoots around all day, finding things to slobber and suck on: my slippers, the floor, the legs of furniture, and of course any little crumb that might have escaped my floor cleaning rituals. She really enjoys playing with dominoes, especially with her daddy.


She still enjoys her Johnny Jump Up and bouncy chair immensely, and usually spends about an hour between the two every day. She has recently figured out how to flip over in her bouncy chair and slowly work her body onto the floor. She also still loves taking baths, and seems a bit intrigued by the water coming from the faucet. I think she might be big enough for the real bathtub now. She's a lot bigger than she used to be.



She really enjoys interacting with us and playing little games. She loves kisses and tickles and bumping foreheads and "lip-strumming." I don't know what else to call it.


Her daddy has come up with all sorts of nicknames for her, including Smush and Smushy, Sweeticus Prime, Sweeticus Bunicus, and we still call her Pea Pod, Chub Nugget, Sweety Buns and Fuss Bucket, among other things.

She recently discovered that she can make spit-bubbles. It's hilarious to watch.


She's a happy little person most of the time, but is discovering more and more ways to express her displeasure in things. She is an extremely loud baby, especially when upset. She hasn't started saying words yet, but it very jabbery making every sound imaginable, including lots of "mamama"s and "dadada"s. We sure do love our little Smushy.