Nine months

Another month has come and gone and my little baby has gotten a little bigger. I see her starting to lose bits of her babyhood as she inches closer to being a toddler. Sometimes I watch her in amazement. Amazement that she is mine, that she is growing and learning and exploring life and amazement that it is all going much faster than I would like :) Somedays I convince myself that I want a third baby and then there are moments that make me realize that I'm busy enough with two. We are definitely busy around our house, but oh how we are happy. Gracen brings complete joy to our family and I am so thankful for her and all the busyness she brings.

Measurements:
Height: 28.5 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 21.6 lbs (90th percentile)
Head: 44 cm (50th percentile)

Eating
We are officially a bottle only household. Gracen has been fully weaned for about two weeks now. I thought I would be much sadder this time around but it just felt right for both of us. She is so active that getting her to sit still long enough to nurse was becoming such a task. She hates to stop moving so unless we were in a dark, quiet place with no distractions nursing was pretty much impossible. She was ready and so was I. I just feel blessed that we were able to nurse as long as we did.

Now she takes between 20-22 ounces of formula a day. She has lost some interest in bottles lately but I think it's because all four of her top teeth are coming in at once :( Most days she gets a 6 ounce bottle in the morning when she wakes up, a four ounce bottle after her morning nap, another four ounce bottle after her afternoon nap and between 6-8 ounces at bedtime. I decided to break up her daytime bottles because she was never finishing them and I felt like I was wasting formula. I keep thinking she will be ready to up the daytime bottles but she always seems content after finishing the four ounces and I think we can all tell she isn't starving ;)

After her morning bottle she has a breakfast, usually a fruit mixed with oatmeal. We have tried some finger foods like toast, pancakes, waffles and cereal bars but most mornings it's just oatmeal. She has lunch shortly after she finishes her first 4 ounce bottle. We've been doing lots of cheese (she loves cheese!), shredded turkey, yogurt and babyfood. Dinner comes after her second four ounce bottle and is usually a veggie babyfood, some cheese (again) and bits of whatever we are eating for dinner. She has tried mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, tiny pieces of hamburger and chicken, pasta and cottage cheese. She likes to feed herself but somedays you can tell she just wants to eat babyfood. She loves her babyfood lol.

We also do a couple of snacks during the day; cereal bars, puffs, yogurt melts, crackers and cheerios. She tried mandarin oranges yesterday and loved them.

Sleeping
She is a wonderful sleeper. She takes a morning and afternoon nap (both range from 45 minutes to 1.5 hrs). For both I just quickly rock her and then lay her down and usually she falls right asleep. She's been doing a lot of standing in her crib and walking back and forth holding onto the rail so sometimes she gets distracted trying to fall asleep but eventually she lays down on her sweet little belly with her bottom in the air and sleeps peacefully.

I've tried to push her bedtime back 30 minutes to 8pm to help with her early rising ;) Somedays it works great and on others she is grumpy as a bear by 7pm. On those days I usually just go ahead and put her down. A grumpy Gracen is definitely no fun! She gets a bath every other night unless we've been playing outside a lot or she is particularly dirty. She loves splashing in the water and playing with her bath toys. I do still rock her while she eats her bedtime bottle and I soak in every second of those cuddles. Those are some of my favorite moments of my day with her. I love her so. She wakes up between 7:30 and 8:00 and is always so playful and happy in the morning.

Temperament
She is BUSY! She crawls so fast and can maneuver herself around, over, under and between any object that gets in her way. She can climb stairs as we witnessed when staying with my parents (she climbed two flights) but so far hasn't seemed interested in ours (Thank the good Lord!). She pulls up on furniture, toys, the dishwasher, stools, pretty much anything she can pull up on. In the last week she has started to coast around the couch and coffee table, taking little steps. Once she is standing she will sometimes let go of one hand. She always looks at us so proud :)

In the mornings and after naps I always find her standing in her crib with a big grin on her face. She loves to be around people and is always observing strangers when we are out in public and smiling at them. She is a little shy at first but seems to warm up quickly. She had no fear sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap. She is definitely still a Mama's girl but loves her sissy and Daddy so much too. Leighton can always get her to laugh and smile. She also loves to hang out with Daddy while he watches sports and eat snacks :) Daddy is generous with the puffs!

She is even tempered for the most part but isn't afraid to use her voice to get what she wants! It's funny because this is how she has been since the day we brought her home! She would throw a fit until we figured out what she wanted and then she would stop crying immediately. Nine months later that is still her personality. Lately she has been crawling to the back door, banging on the window and crying to go out and swing. If I pick her up without taking her outside she arches her back and shows her temper! She is definitely not a wallflower :)

Details
She is so independent and loves to do or play with anything Big Sissy likes. She has started to love on baby dolls and crawls to the toy chest to pick it out on her own. She also loves the play kitchen in the playroom and will stand and open all the doors and put food in and out of the refrigerator and just keeps herself quite entertained. It is getting difficult to keep her contained in our living room. We have a makeshift barrier on one side of the room and a gate on the other, all in an attempt to keep her contained. But, somehow she manages to still escape (either by crawling under her exersaucer or through the end table). Keeping up with her is a full time job and a sure way to burn some calories :)

She loves to sit on my lap and look at books. We've started reading all the Baby's First Words picture books and she loves touching the pages and opening and closing the books. I've started doing some baby signs with her. So far we are just using "all gone" and "no." We used signs with Leighton and they helped so much especially because Leighton was so quiet as a baby. Gracen, on the other hand, is a talker. She babbles all the time and has a really loud voice haha. She says, "Dada" , "Baba" and "Mama" consistently but also throws other syllables in from time to time. We call it "Gracentalk."

Her hair is growing so fast and has curl to it when wet. I love that I can clip in bows but Gracen isn't as tolerable with bows as Big Sis. Leighton would wear a bow 24/7 if she had too...Gracen's usually last an hour tops :) At home we just let her go au natural with her hair because she always rips her bows out and I spend way too much time searching the house for the bow casualty.

Gracen is such a loving baby. She smiles all the time and makes all of our lives brighter. We are so lucky to have this baby sister in our lives.

Sister Stats
Gracen's still the bigger baby of the two but there's no denying it, they have the same rolls! I have taught my babies to eat well :)

Here are Leighton's nine months measurements:
Height: 28 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 20.6 lbs (80th percentile)

These two girls are so in love with each other. Well, until Gracen steals Baby Cinderella or knocks over Leighton's perfectly constructed block tower haha. Leighton gets a little annoyed with her in those moments. Just wait, before I know it, they will be fighting over clothes and shoes! At this rate, I feel like I could blink too long and they will both be packing up for college. I can't even think about those days! Sigh. Today I am soaking up my sweet sisters.

Love my little girls so much!