Today Anabelle is 9 months old. I just re-read my post from 7 months, I'm just in awe at how she is growing in the blink of an eye. Trying to cherish every moment.
The first part of April she got her first top tooth. It was a long process just like the bottom but now it's happily poking through and her smile is cute as ever. Now that she has a top tooth she likes to grind it, eeek! The second top tooth is finally broke through a couple days ago. She was fussy the night before and the morning but this one was much smoother. She's so cute with her 3 teeth, I can't wait until she has a complete 4 tooth smile.
She is also doing much better with eating solids. She still doesn't like baby cereal and doesn't open wide for any baby food but she will eat baby food carrots, pears, applesauce and some others a little bit at a time when she feels like it. My best trick is to put some Puffs on her tray and when she goes to put one in her mouth (which she can do by herself now) is to quickly get a spoonful of food in first. She tolerates that most of the time and I still let her get plenty of puffs in. But she has become much more interested in what we are eating and will almost always take a sample. Trace has to share almost a whole bowl of stroganoff noodles with her the other night and she really likes my turkey sandwiches. So we are just going slow and trying to give her as much as she will tolerate. She is making progress drinking from a cup when I help her hold it and we found a sippy cup that she is just starting to take to also. I can acutally see/hear her taking real drinks of water. She still likes sitting on daddy's lap after lunch and dinner in hopes of a piece of kit kat or some other sweet he might be willing to share with her.
She has become more vocal, up until 2 weeks ago she still had only her own sing-song voice. But lately she is making more syllable sounds. Mamamama, yayayay, ssssss, and some other babbling. Dadadada hasn't made it on the list yet but Dadadaada tries to encourage it daily.
She is developing a great personality and is very social. She will let almost anyone hold her and she is constantly giggling; at herself, you, the air :)
Sleeping is not any better than in my last post. I'm a walking zombie. Everyone has been so nice at sharing suggestions and we haven't tried the full blown Cry-It-Out yet and nothing else helps either. Just mommy getting up every 2 hours and holding and nursing her... this has got to get better! Praying my next update shares great improvements!!
Still doing better in the car than the first 6 months but no where near liking car rides. A friend gave us a couple "kid" cd's and she seems to like those, Dad's not that crazy about them :)
Today on her 9 month day, we went to the park for an Easter fun day. The Lions Club (where Trace is a member) were serving hot dogs to the kids so Anabelle and I went to check it out. Here is a little video of her playing in the grass.
Can't believe we are only 3 months away from her first birthday...
