Amelia Jane - nine months old

Well. This post is a month late. I have a good excuse! Kind of. The background fabric for this month is a tablecloth that belongs to my mom. I didn't have the foresight to get it from her until after Amelia was nine months old, and she couldn't get it to me until she another week after that, so these pictures were taken quite late. And then I had to edit them, which was challenging, and I didn't have much motivation because Christmas, and then this post needed to be written. So basically, you will get two posts almost back to back. One of them will be shorter. Disclaimer done.

This month has been so great! Amelia is blossoming. Truly, she is hardly recognizable from the baby she was a few months ago. I attribute it to a few things. One, she's just getting older, more comfortable with this world and the life going on around her. Two, she's sitting up and scooting around a lot so she isn't as limited. Three, she's eating real foods and loving it. Four, she's learned that she doesn't need to be with Mom every single second of the day. Can you believe there are other things and people out there that aren't scary? She can, now. :)

Nursing is great. I don't keep track of exactly when I feed her, but I do believe we've dropped one feeding, maybe two, now that she's eating a lot of food. That's not saying much since she nursed so very much before, but I can see that we are on the decline with nursing and it is kind of fascinating to see how that works. I've never gotten to this point before. With the other two, I found myself losing production and desperately wanting to stop that. This time, it's natural because it's what happens as she transitions to food providing the calories and nutrients she needs. We still have a few more months of milk being her main source, but the end is in sight.

She eats great and doesn't seem picky about anything. I've experimented with giving her food in it's whole form and she is amazing at taking bites. For example, I give her a piece of buttered bread, broken into quarters, and she picks up each piece and takes bites instead of stuffing the whole thing in her mouth (ah hem, Audrey). I hover over her when I do this, waiting for her to try to do that, but so far she's been very sensible about it. It's entertaining to see other people's reactions to this because they always want to leap in and rescue her from danger but then are pleasantly surprised when she takes dainty little bites.

She also uses a straw like a champ (there was basically no "learning" this, she just knew how. amazing.) and has a sippy cup in the diaper bag and one at each meal that she can kind of man handle. Sometimes she is lazy and will try to drink without using her hands, ending with us all laughing hysterically as she fishes for it, kind of like bobbing for apples. The diaper bag also has her beloved puffs and animal crackers. Man, they really save the day. I don't even care that it's boring and not creative, having those as fall backs has worked fabulously.

Sleep has been okay. She's still great at going to bed awake and falling asleep happily. She just needs her pacifier, sound machine, and a blanket. No problem. I just wish she'd sleep through the night! She still wakes up to eat at 10:30, 1:30, 4 or 5:30, and then is up for the day way too early at 6:15. We are working on sleep training so hopefully next month I will have a better report.

One other thing to mention with her sleep is that she can go from napping in the car (a quick 5 minute nap or a longer one) to waking up, nursing or eating, and then back to bed with hardly any problems. Almost all of the other kids in my life have not been able to do this so car naps have always been terrible. I don't take this for granted; Amelia rocks at this!

Charming as always, now she adds a happy wave with her big grin and everyone is immediately smitten. Hide and seek is a favorite, and we've been singing "Open Shut Them" which always gets her grinning or at least distracted when needed.

I've been working on her jabbering, because suddenly she's becoming a lot more verbal. If I say "mamamama" she repeats back to me "papapapapa." She thinks she's hilarious when she does it, too. She also loves when we sing back and forth to each other. I match what she sings, then she changes it a little and we do it over and over. She jabbers in her crib when she's supposed to be sleeping and sometimes does it so loud I'm not sure if she's trying to yell at or for me or what. It's fun to hear her sweet voice, though. She was quiet for so long.

She still loves grabbing at my face or hubby's beard. I'm constantly pulling her fingers out of  my mouth or nose. Thankfully, she's gotten a little gentler now that she has a lot more hand control.

At her nine month appointment, we learned that she's 16 lb 9 oz. At just under ten months, that puts her at 16% which is a small jump up from her last measurement. I'm not surprised by this, since she's obviously been growing and is looking a bit more filled out, but I was pleased to see it and have the doctor affirm all of this. She's still just a peanut, but she's growing at a good rate and it's just the way she's meant to be, I guess. Genetics are crazy.

Our doctor spent a while watching her stand and move around. Millie spends a lot of her standing time on her heels, which is kind of opposite of most babies. It's more common that they'd stand on their tip toes. She also positions herself with her ankles turning out a lot, making her toes point to the sides more than forward. It's not a problem necessarily, but she does want to keep an eye on it. I personally think that she hasn't crawled or stood on her own yet because those two things make it a lot harder for her balance. She's getting better all the time, so more than likely it will correct itself, but like the doctor said, we'll keep watching it. Also, it should be noted that they checked her hips and knees and they seemed fine.

Here are the sisters all together! I think it's my favorite part of each photo shoot. The coloring was rough but the expressions and sweet little faces shine through. Oh, these three. They just get me every time.

Isn't this the greatest?? All three, hardly ever happens

Never a shortage on kisses around here.

And the comparison collage. Her legs and feet are just looking teeny tiny this month. Both Audrey and Josie had plumped up more when eating real food, but I guess since Amelia started from a smaller weight at six months, she has more catching up to do. I remember Josie being so wiggly during this little photo shoot, and Audrey laid perfectly and gave me this winning shot right away. Amelia was more random, sneaking in great smiles here and there. Each girl is so different. I love those differences as much as I love seeing how they are similar. Each characteristic they have is so fun to discover.

 I can't believe she's already this close to being a year old. Yikes! It's going so fast. Love this baby lady and her sweet, smiley, ever loving heart!