9 Months Old

Jessica turned 9 months old on Friday. We had a well-check Friday morning. She weighed 18 pounds 11 ounces (50th percentile). She measured 28.75 inches tall (75-90%). She had a head circumference of 45.75 centimeters (90%). She also had some blood drawn from her finger to check her iron levels. She did not like that at all.

What Jessica is Up To

Jessica is a very mobile baby now. She still hasn’t mastered the art of crawling on her hands and knees, but is a speed demon at crawling on her belly. She will make a beeline for three things: 1) the x-box game cases, 2) Mommy when she sits down on the floor to play with Jessica (if she’s already been playing for a little while) or 3) the camera (sometimes 2 and 3 are the same thing).

Determined Mover, 6/23/10

She’s Almost Reached the Camera, 6/23/10

Even though she isn’t crawling on her knees. She does kneel at her toys.

Kneeling Over Her Garden Toy, 6/24/10

She will also straighten her legs, so that she is quasi standing over her toys.

Standing Over Her Garden Toy, 6/24/10

Jessica has started pulling up on things, especially her crawl and cruise jungle. Although, she can get into a standing position, she sometimes doesn’t know how to get back down and will get upset.

Standing at Her Garden Toy, 6/25/10

Playing at Her Crawl and Cruise Jungle, 7/7/10

She enjoys playing with her Daddy. She likes to play with his phone case on his belt and can open it up. She also likes to play with the belt, much like she plays with the strap on her carseat.

Playing with Daddy, 7/1/10

Jessica enjoys emptying her box of shapes, but she has yet to put any of them back into the box herself.

Is It Empty, 7/7/10

Are We Sure It’s Empty? 7/7/10

What Jessica is Saying

Jessica is a very talkative little baby. She will say da-da, with some prompting. Everything else is just gibberish.

How Jessica is Sleeping

Jessica still takes two naps a day, although more frequently she fights at least one of them and only takes one nap those days. I guess we were spoiled with Jessica starting to sleep through the night at 2 months of age. When she first started teething, she started waking up. I don’t think she is currently teething, but she hasn’t been sleeping through the night very well. Fortunately, most of the time when she wakes up, it is before we go to bed, but it has been hard to get her back to sleep. We’re starting a tough love approach and hopefully it will get her back to sleeping through the night.

What Jessica is Eating

Jessica now has her front two bottom teeth. You can see them both really well in the next picture.

Jessica and Mommy in the Backyard, 7/6/10

She has excellent grabbing skills and can pick up food and put it in her mouth, as long as the food is not too slippery. I read that you can lightly coat slippery food (like banana pieces) with wheat germ to help aid in picking up and plan on trying that. She also holds a sippy cup and drinks very well out of it. Today, we started using a sippy cup that doesn’t have handles and she used it like a pro.

Eating String Cheese, 7/9/10

Homemade foods she’s tried: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas, acorn squash, green beans, sweet peas, peaches, applesauce, eggplant, pattypan squash, carrots, eightball squash, blueberries, tomatoes with cheese, sweet potato/apple puree, mixed veggie puree (green beans, peas, baby lima beans, corn and carrots), and cheddar quesadillas. Tonight, I made her a Creamed Spinach Puree (although I omitted leeks since I didn’t have any) and she just kept opening her mouth for more. Bananas are still her favorite food.

Purchased food she’s tried: rice cereal, oatmeal, Yoplait Greek yogurt, Happy Baby Organic Puffs (all flavors), Stonyfield YoBaby flavored yogurt, mozzarella string cheese, Happy Baby Mixed Berry Yogurt Melts, cheerios and gold fish.