9 Months!

Hope is 9 months old, as of July 24! How?! How can it be that in 3 short months she will be a whole year old?!!?! I just can't.

We had her 9 month check-up on Monday, and she is doing great! I was reminiscing about J's 9 month appointment- where he vomited all over the place AND had an ear infection. Good times. Hope's  appointment was much less eventful, and we are so thankful that she is such a healthy little girl! She is weighing 19 lbs 11.5 oz which is 75th percentile. And she's 27 and 3/4 inches long, which is the 54th percentile. I forget which percentile she's in for head circumference, but she continues to have a big head. Which is accentuated by the mop of hair on her head! By comparison, at 9 months J was 22 lbs 13 oz and 29.5 inches long (90th percentile for both). Even though Hope sports some amazingly chunky thighs and chubby cheeks, she's really pretty average sized! :)

She brings so much joy to our lives!

Hope is doing SO much lately! I swear it's like every day she does something new. I'd say her first official word was "bye-bye", which she says all the time with the backwards wave (and started saying at about 8 months). She pretty consistently refers to me as "ma ma ma ma" and Adam as "da da." She also seems to say "ba" in reference to J (apparently I call him "brother" a lot). She also just added "hi" to her repertoire, and it is THEE CUTEST thing! Click HERE to see a video! She is also really close with "grampa" (sorry to all other family members). Click HERE for a video of that. She also claps like a champ, and of course does her "so big." She is making lots of different sounds (including high-pitched squealing, yikes) and often sounds like she is having a one-sided conversation. Click HERE for a video of that! Sorry for all the videos. Actually, I'm not. She's cute!!!

H can often be heard making the "bbbbmmmm bbbbmmmm" truck sound just like big brother used to do, too! And usually she does it while pushing around one of J's cars or trucks or tractors.

Hope is pulling up on everything and wants to go everywhere! 

She has scraped up knees and toesies from crawling around the driveway and the cement at the splash park! And yes, of course I make sure the pavement is not too hot! She wouldn't care anyway, she'd just move quicker. But I still do.

 

My attempt to give her a place to crawl around worked really well.

Hope is a baby food eating champ, and likes pretty much any kind I give her. The only one she's kind of iffy on is peas, and that's perfectly understandable! She also loves puffs and yogurt melts, and has tried Cheerios, too. But that's about where the table food ends for her- she is so gaggy just like her brother! I've tried a bit of cooked carrot (which she chewed and kept on her tongue for like 10 minutes before gagging) and also bits of banana (which she repeatedly gagged on). So that's what we will keep working on! And the sippy cup, too. Oh, and she has also had her first tastes of sand, dirt, grass, rocks, and dog food. Right, but it's bananas and carrots that make her gag?!?!?! Seriously.

Saving that puff for later.

She is also MAJORLY starting to get into J's stuff, which drives him crazy! She is extremely fast when she is going for something she is not supposed to have. She is such a little firecracker, and definitely knows what she wants (and quickly lets us know what she doesn't want.... with that high-pitched squeal). She seriously makes us laugh every day, and we love her so much!!