Nine Months

Three-quarters of a year already. Yowza.

The peanuts are growing and changing every day at this point.  They’re well into 3-6 month clothes now, and Emma’s starting to outgrow the size 2 diapers.  And the newborn shoes are now officially too small, although we can still make the open-toed sandals work.  Otherwise, we’re in size 1 shoes.

New developmental skills: 

Sitting independently, for 5-10 seconds or more at a time. 

Creeping/commando-crawling around in the living room, using their arms.  Emma’s much better at this and can go 4-6 feet over 10 minutes or so.   I see baby-proofing in the very near future. 

Eating all manner of fruits and vegetables, if mashed, pureed or diced finely.  Gerber puffs, cheerios and baby mum-mums are their current drug of choice, and are guaranteed to produce at least temporary silence while they gum them into submission.  Current foods: applesauce, pears, plums, peaches, blueberries, cherries, watermelon, bananas, squash (acorn & butternut), green beans, sweet potatoes, peas, avocados, oatmeal and rice cereal.  And bits of scone offered by Auntie Starbuck at their baptism party.  They’ve also enjoyed occasional french fries and tortilla chips when out at restaurants, and devour those.  They have solids three times a day (at the traditional mealtimes) plus snacks whenever they seem hungry/interested.

Both babies are still boobaholics, and are often up once at night to eat these days (growth spurt much?) and I can’t say that I mind.  During the day they nurse around 4 times, so 5 times total per 24 hours.  My life as a perpetual dairy animal continues. 

The tooth count remains stalled at Chloe 2, Emma 0.  Presumably they’ll sprout more teeth before college.  If not, I’m thinking about some tiny sets of dentures, and of all the money I’d save on orthodontia.

They’ve learned to give kisses, both spontaneously and on request.  Who knew that baby slobber was such a treat? 

Both girls know their names now, and look around when they hear them. 

Chloe especially is infatuated with Grandpa’s mustache, and although it’s been a sad month with Great-Grandma’s recent passing, they’ve had more opportunity to see Grandpa than usual, which is nice for all three of them.

Likes:

Chloe – pears, Jamberry, playing with the clean diaper during changes,

Emma – cherries, Quackers the ducky wubbanub, being barefoot

Dislikes:

Chloe – peaches, anything involving poo

Emma – sweet potatoes, being restrained in any way from her Very Important Business