Nine Months

Audrey is nine months old today (which happens to also be Aunt Niki's 31st birthday... happy birthday!) and I thought it was high time that I caught everyone up with the latest on Little Miss A.

As you can tell by the photo, in addition to one of many outfits given her by her generous, zebra-print-loving Aunt Angie, she is also rocking two teeth, with more to come any day now if drooling is any sign. She is on the brink of holding her own bottle or sippy cup, eats lumpy purees, and will hold and chew on teething biscuits and crackers. The other day I read something about kids developing a pincher grasp at about her age (who knew?), and thought, hmm, wonder if Audrey could do that. So I put her in her high chair and gave her a few cheerios, and sure enough, pincher grasp. Man, those developmental milestones come so easy for typical kids!

Speaking of being surprised by a typically developing child, a couple of months ago I met my mom and my sister for dinner. As usual, I was holding Fletcher for the meal and asked my mom if she would hold Audrey, as she was getting too big for her infant carrier. She just looked at me with a puzzled look and said, "you know, she could sit in the restaurant high chair." Um, no, I hadn't even considered that! Fletcher does not have enough trunk strength to sit in restaurant high chairs, or shopping carts, or things of that nature, so it never even dawned on me to put Audrey in one! In fact, Trevor just got back from a trip to Lowe's with Audrey (he is attempting a DIY plumbing project, be very afraid) and mentioned how much easier shopping with a kid is when you can just plop them in the cart.

When not moving around via cart, or double stroller (which was worth every penny of it's overpriced price tag), Audrey is doing a pretty good job of getting around by herself. She has been pushing up on hands and knees and rocking for about a month now, and doing a good job at scooting backward, but had not yet gotten the confidence or coordination to pick a hand up and move forward. That changed last week, and each day she is getting more and more mobile. She loves to move from belly to sitting and grab at whatever she can get her hands on, her favorites being cords and shoes.

She is still a good sleeper at night, decent napper, and generally good natured. She is loud, and inquisitive, and loves crawling all over Fletcher, who tolerates her, most of the time. She also loves the dog, who, despite her sometimes over exuberant petting, also tolerates her, most of the time.

We don't have her nine-month well-baby appointment until later this month, so I don't have any stats for you, but she still seems to be growing like a weed with no sign of falling back onto the growth charts. She is wearing mostly 12 to 18 month clothes, and I have gotten a couple of 24 month items for the summer. So yeah, still big, and with plenty of nicknames highlighting that little fact; "Big Momma" and even "Fat Momma" being some of the more common. We stayed with Trevor's Aunt Shelly for a couple of days last month and she was not a "big" (ha) fan of the nicknames, and, even though it is all in good fun, I understand why. I am actually trying to get away from calling her such things as she develops better receptive language skills. I mean, I just posted a video on the power of words, so I should understand.

But it is hard, because she is such a cute, chubby little thing. And, to me, every little inch of that chub is something to celebrate. It means that instead of being burned up by inefficient lungs or by high-tone muscles or other struggles her brother has to face that causes him to be rail-thin, her calories can actually go to a little baby fat because she enjoys the benefits of a healthy central nervous system. And, all seriousness aside, there is no denying it: the girl's just chunky.