9 Month Appointment

Lilly Catherine had her 9 month appointment this morning and everything went great. She has been a little stuffy the last couple of days, but no fever, so we went ahead with her vaccines. They are actually the ones from her 7 month appointment that we never got because she has had a pretty constant ear infection since November. She was not a happy camper and had to have a toe prick to check for anemia, but she is snoozing away in her crib now:

• 28 inches (75%)
• 18 pounds (25%)
• her head was 50%...RJ said this was good because it is right in between her height and weight. That way her head isn't disproportionate :)

The doctor also commented that she has a "very healthy tummy and thighs!" It is so funny, although she is only in the 25% for weight, she has quite the buddha belly and rolly thighs :) She is also doing great developmentally, despite her lack of interest in crawling. She was also showing off her lung capacity, squealing and screaming (happily!) pretty much the entire visit. So cute! Some things that she is doing at 9 months:

• starting to like tummy time more. She will spin around on the floor in a circle, looking for things within her reach. She seems to prefer the open floor as opposed to being in her play mat. The other day she pushed herself backwards under the sofa...it was so funny! She looked at me like, "mommy, this was not my plan!"
• eating a lot! She is still getting lots of formula and food, but we will be switching to 3 meals a day instead of just 2. She is eating little bites of puffs (yes, I actually break up the puffs because I am afraid she will choke. I did this with Caroline as well. One of my top 3 biggest fears as a parent!), playing with food, grabbing at our plates, etc.
• clapping and waving. These are my favorite!
• dancing. Well, I call it dancing. She loves to move her head around and wave like she is dancing, and usually does this while Caroline and I are dancing around acting crazy. I assume that is her version for now!
• aforementioned squealing/screaming/talking. If we are not paying her attention, she will just get louder and louder until you stop whatever you are doing and focus on her. Little princess.
• getting very upset if you do something she does not like. Such as putting her in the exersaucer to have a free hand to make dinner. Not happy! She acts incredibly insulted and offended, and will yell in bursts at you (we call it the pterodactyl) until you pick her up. Or, taking a toy away that she is not quite finished with.
  dealing with separation anxiety. We had our first date night out since December 2008 on Friday. She did pretty well, although she had to be held and walked around the whole time and refused to stay in the infant room. But when she saw us it was like she realized we were gone and got pissed and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Another example: last Tuesday was the first MOPS meeting I left her in the nursery. She made it about 30 minutes and when I went to pick her up she was practically purple from screaming so much. Yikes!
• loving Caroline. She just absolutely adores her big sister and lights up when she walks in the room...clapping, waving, screaming, etc. Love it!