Well, Miss B is 3/4 of the way to her first birthday! The way time is flying by, I feel like I should go ahead and start planning her birthday party! It will be here before I know it :) This has been a fun month overall. Brooklyn is constantly changing and learning new things, which has been really neat to watch.
We got her official stats today at her 9 month check-up, and Brooklyn weighs 19 pounds (65th percentile) and is 28 1/2 inches long (75th percentile). She’s a growing girl and a great eater! She is still nursing 4 times a day…around 7 AM, 12 PM, 4-5 PM, and 8 PM (rough estimates). I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to get sad at the idea of her not nursing anymore before too long. After we got past those horrible first 3 or 4 months, it’s been really enjoyable.
Brooklyn is also eating “real” food 3 times a day. She usually eats oatmeal with some kind of fruit for breakfast, a fruit or veggie for lunch, and a fruit or veggie for supper. She usually eats 5-6 oz of purees at a time. New foods she’s tried this month include avocado, pumpkin pie (hehe), Cheerios, and a bite of catfish. Her favorite foods are definitely sweet potatoes and carrots. She is really interested in table foods and wants to feed herself instead of eating from a spoon. She has gotten really good at picking up Cheerios just in the last couple of weeks. She has also tried picking up blueberries and eating those. Before long, I guess I won’t need to be making all of those purees!
Sleeping at night, on the other hand, is very unpredictable. Brooklyn usually goes to bed at 8 or 8:30 PM, and wakes up around 7 AM. She slept through the night for several weeks after having a rough time around 8 months old, but the past 4 or 5 nights this week, she’s woken up screaming at least once or twice. Who knows what’s going on. Sometimes, Travis will hop out of bed when she starts screaming and go to her room and pick her up or pat her, and he won’t remember any of it the next morning…haha. C’mon B—let’s get back to your old sleeping habits, please?
Knock on wood, she has started to take longer naps lately after being a cat napper for a long time. She will usually take 2 good naps a day (sometimes a third if she’s really tired) that last 1 to 1 1/2 hours. She’s even taken a couple of 2 hours naps this month…wow! Sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself when I have that much “free” time :)
Brooklyn is still sporting that cute, gummy smile. No teeth at 9 months old! I’ve gotten so used to see her without teeth that I might be sad when that first one pops up :) She is able to gum her Cheerios and other foods pretty well in the meantime…
Our big challenge this month has been supervising our increasingly mobile baby. She is into everything, and she isn’t even truly crawling yet! She can roll from one side of the room to the other, and here lately she has started army crawling. That’s her new preferred method of getting around. She can get up on her hands and knees, but she just doesn’t know how to go anywhere like that yet. Once she learns how to crawl with her belly off the ground, watch out! I’ll never be able to keep up with her. I can’t leave her for more than a few seconds before she’s touching something or chewing on something that she shouldn’t be. Whew! It’s definitely a full time job. She can also push herself up into a sitting position from her belly, although she hasn’t done that too many times yet. She isn’t pulling up yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s doing that before long…
Apparently, Santa Claus needs to come early because Brooklyn is bored with all of her toys. If she could talk, I’m sure she’d been telling me “Those toys are for babies, Mom!” She basically loves to play with anything that’s not a toy: TV remotes, phones, spoons, etc. She is also really into puppets right now. We have a pink elephant bath mitt that we use to bathe her with sometimes, and she loves when it ‘talks’ to her :) She also loves to watch the animal puppets on the Baby Einstein DVDs…she hoots and giggles when she sees them. It’s pretty cute! She has seemed more interested in books lately too, so I’ve been trying to read more to her these days.
Brooklyn’s latest “trick” is shaking her head “no”. We don’t think she really knows what she’s doing, but she’s obviously imitating us. We’ll shake our heads when we tell her “no”, and she’ll shake hers right back. If she was being defiant, it would be different, but right now it’s just funny. She looks like a little bobble head doll. We just need to teach her how to shake her head “yes” instead :)
Brooklyn still loves to “talk”, although sadly, I think she’s moved on from the “ma-ma” stage. She doesn’t really say that anymore. I guess she’s busy practicing other sounds instead. Basically, it sounds like gibberish to us, but I guess one day it will turn into real words! She has also learned how to making popping sounds with her lips, so that’s pretty funny too.
Brooklyn continues to be very social and happy around other people. Mainly, she just loves attention! Sometimes, she will get upset when other people hold her, but she usually doesn’t care who it is. She loves to smile and talk to other shoppers at Publix, and she usually gets lots of smiles and comments in return.
Things that make Brooklyn happy: exploring the house, taking baths in the real bathtub, reading books, being tickled, riding in the car, sucking her thumb, snuggling with Daddy, and watching Baby Einstein DVDs.
Things that make Brooklyn unhappy: being left in the crib too long after she wakes up, being laid on her back for diaper changes, getting dressed and undressed, waiting on her food to be heated at mealtime, and getting a “toy” taken away from her.
Brooklyn still wears size 3 diapers and is mainly wearing 12 month clothes. 9 month clothes are getting really snug! Her hair has also really grown a lot this month, so headbands aren’t working as well as they used to. (She also loves to pull them off!). Her hair isn’t quite long enough for bows yet though.
What a fun month this has been, Brooklyn! We love you so much!!
