Happy Nine Months Old Baby Josie!
Happy First Mother's Day Mama Carri!
And now, onto the "9 month milestone" update. It sounds so cliche to say, but it really is totally unbelievable to us that Josephine is already nine months old. But, when we think about the differences between Josie today and Josie on August 11th, it is astonishing that she has learned so much in just nine short months. I think back to that first day when all she really did was sleep and nurse, and now all she wants to do is talk, sing, move, and play!
As of late, she has started many new things. Here are some of the highlights:
- Eating - Although she still loves her pureed fruits & veggies, she has now moved on to feeding herself finger foods. Her new absolute favorite is squares of tofu - which she picks up and fills her mouth full of before swallowing. She's also started to eat a lot of things off of our plates just to get a feel for them and really loved Grandma's biscuits and scrambled eggs this morning. We've also started to introduce her to more complex flavors like vanilla in her pears and cinnamon in her apples. She's a great eater and is now up to three meals plus an afternoon snack each day. Getting her to nurse during the day is a bit like wrestling a greased pig, but she still enjoys a nice, snuggly breastfed meal in the quiet of the dark night.
- Drinking - She's quite proficient with her sippy cup now and loves to drink water, pear juice, and white grape juice. (We have to keep her on juice to keep things moving if you know what I mean.) She also (finally) takes a bottle without protest now. We always laugh because she totally prefers that you hold it for her, but if you just sit it in her lap she will eventually just pick it up and do it herself.
- Moving - Our little bouncer has rediscovered the "jumperoo" but not treats it more like a marathon now than a sprint. She used to jump like crazy for these short bursts & then take those little breaks, but now she gets into this steady rhythm and just goes for like 20-30 minutes at a time. It's hilarious. All the jumping must really be paying off, because she has very strong little legs that she uses to pull up on everything. She's very close to being able to stand on her own and already does so when she has something to hold onto like the couch, chair, your leg, etc. We really won't be the least bit surprised if she skips crawling altogether and goes straight to walking, although she's getting pretty close to being a full-scale crawler. She's pretty good at going backwards and sideways, but hasn't mastered moving forward just yet. In fact, when she wants something in front of her that's out of her reach, she flips herself onto her back, arches her back and inches like a worm across the floor toward it, then flips back over to play with it. Hey - it works for her - and she definitely gets points for creativity. And, speaking of moving, sleep has definitely gotten interesting because she regularly performs "crib gymnastics" by flipping herself all over the place instead of sleeping. We think she's getting up to practice crawling and pulling herself up in the middle of the night. Just in the last couple of days, she's gotten used to the idea of just sleeping on her belly, so we're hoping the late night gymnastics will come to a stop soon.
- Talking - We've got quite the little babbler on our hands. And when she's not babbling, she's letting out her "rockstar yell" that rivals the work of any 80s hairband. I mean she can really squeal and let's it rip when she gets really excited about something. The coolest thing is that we can mimic her & she'll match us. So, if we do a really high-pitch yell, then she'll repeat with a high-pitch yell, then if we make a low tone, she'll make a low tone. It's so funny to have a "conversation" with her like this. And, although we won't count them as first words until she uses them in the right context, she babbles words like mama and dadda when she's busy chatting away. Oh and she also "sings" which is pretty hysterical. Her best performances are when she's trying to put herself to sleep and when she first wakes up in the morning.
- Signing - I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog before, but we've been doing sign language with Josie since she was about 6 months old. The signs we use regularly are milk, eat, drink, cat, mama, and daddy. And I'm excited to report that she definitely understands at least three of them - milk, eat, and cat (that shows you were Louie & I rank on her list, huh?). We know she recognizes these signs because of her responses to them. For example, if I sign "milk" she will dive toward my chest with her mouth wide open, when I sign "cat" she will look for the cat, etc. Now that she is learning these signs we will start to introduce even more of them. It's very cool to be able to communicate with Josie at such a young age.
- Just being Josie - There's no doubt that the best thing about Josie is that her personality is really developing. She constantly smiling and laughs all the time, even when just sitting alone and playing. She's very curious and detail-oriented, and she loves to intently "study" things to learn more about them and how they work. We even had to go buy her "big girl" toys that she could actively manipulate because she was getting bored with things that she just sat and shook. Right now she's way into these wooden balls that she rolls across the floor and knocks together, these buckets that she likes to "fill, then spill" with her toys, "touch and feel" books, etc. It's just amazing that she is developing so quickly. She just soaks in so much from the world around her and is slowly but surely starting to mimic what she sees. Another example of this that just started last week is the fact that she now gives "kisses" when you pick her up. (You'll know if you've just been kissed if you realize you have a puddle of baby drool on your cheek, since she's got the "I stick my mouth on their face" part down but not the "I use my lips and not my whole mouth" part.)
There is NO way that I would wish for Josie's little life to fly by any faster, but it's just so cool to watch her grow up in front of our eyes. Today, on this, my first mother's day, I am just eternally grateful for every cell of Josephine. She is perfect in every way and I am just so fortunate to be her mother. With that, it's not yet 9:30 and I'm going to turn in early tonight. Good night.
And, just to tempt you... Josie's 9 month photo shoot taken last week by a pro at Ault Park are coming soon! :)
