Happy 9th Month

I think we might just survive this first year of parenting. Lucy is officially 9 months old as of today.  She is crawling, but really wants to be walking.  She is babbling (mostly nonsense, but we talk back and she seems to like it.)

We have the two cute teeth, the top two teeth should be next but could arrive in up to 3 months from now.

Lucy is happy to be standing and will play with her activity cube for long periods of time.

She is somewhat uninterested in the Christmas tree, it helps that we've given her some great things to keep her busy and when she finds herself at the tree she is greeted with a calm, but firm "that is not for Lucy".

Her sleep patterns of late have been more of a challenge and I'm not sure if it's the cold we've been passing around to each other, or her growing pains or our failure to keep the pacifier out of the crib.  Either way, she has brief wake-ups during the night and is still having a light feeding about 6 hours into the night.  The last week or so she's been waking up at 5:45 or earlier and that is not fun.  We take turns with who gets up in the middle of the night and then who gets the morning, but the morning is pretty easy in that she generally just comes back to bed with us.  I do love that morning time before we start our day, but with Lucy's new mobility it is a far more active time than it use to be. We do get parent specific snuggles which is awesome and she's very vocal about wanting us both around.

Trips to the grocery store or any store where shopping carts are the norm are super fun.  Lucy loves the visuals and the movement.  To her it's a giant roller coaster.  She flirts with all the people and the entire experience is far more social than it ever was as a single person or as a twosome.  Since there's no requirements to become a parent (other than some kind of child procurement) I wonder what it is that makes you think that people with kids are more accessible? I don't mind the interaction with strangers, but it is remarkably different than before.

Lucy has not started the "grabs" or the "I wants", but we will not be immune from such behavior.  There was a sweet little being at Target the other day whose dialog sounded like this:

"Grandma, I want this"
"Grandma, and this is what I need."
"Oh and I want this"
"This too, Grandma"

Grandma looked beat and was not throwing the "needed" items into her cart, but it was clear that shopping with her Angel was getting on her last nerve.  My hope is that we are able to cure Lucy of the "I wants" pretty early on and that she learns the difference between need vs. want and not to pester sweet Grandma for "things."

We do think that dinners out with Lucy are over for a long while.  It is not that Lucy is ill-behaved, it is that she doesn't have command of her voice just yet and any attempt at communication is frustrating and LOUD.  Even at a rock n' roll place like Red Robin, we were uncomfortable with her squawking.  In spite of the fact that we had come prepared with food, activities and anything else she might need it was not a pleasant meal.   This is not a horrific development, we were expecting it and know that eating at home is better for us anyway.

 Today is Lucy's 9 month pediatric appointment and we're looking forward to the check in on her height and weight.  She seems fuller in the face, but I don't think we've got a chunky baby on our hands.  We'll see what Dr. Robin has to say.

My other pediatrician questions are related to food.  We're not supposed to give Lucy milk until 1 year, but the books say that introducing cheese and yogurt is ok.  I want to confirm this before the joy that is yogurt passes her lips.

Lucy has been eating more finger foods lately.  She has nibbled on Cheerios (a staple), rice, well cooked carrots, edemame, fish, bananas and broccoli.  The ladies at school gave her green beans and peas.

I opened a can of black beans to add to my salad today and will give her a few of the sweet beans to try this evening.  Anything she can pick up, and gum that is healthy is a good thing.   My fear of transitioning to solid foods is waning and I am confident we'll do just fine.  Lucy will take the goopy baby food up to a point and then push the spoon away as if she is full, but will nibble on the finger food treats as long as we will dole them out.  My guess is that we're going to have to transition sooner rather than later to more 'real' food vs. goop for nutrition purposes.  Since we're not loading her up with cookies we should be just fine.