Harper 9 months

This little lady is three quarters of a year old! 

Time sure is flying with this girl. She is a girl on the move and there ain't no slowing her down. 

Age: Nine Months Old

Weight: 17 pounds 15 ounces, 29%ile

Length: 27 3/4 inches, 51%ile

Size: Harper is wearing size 3 diapers, 9 month clothes and pajamas and we have broken out all of her 12 month summer clothes too

Hair: Light brown/blonde

Eyes: She has the most beautiful big blue eyes with long eyelashes. Everyone always complements her on those gorgeous eyes of hers and she sure knows how to work them already. 

Health:  Another great month in the books! She only had a couple days with a runny nose and water eyes due to teething but that has been it. We have been so extremely lucky in this department and I really have to give it to using essential oils on a regular bases with her. I roll one little swipe of OnGuard on the bottoms of her feet once every day to help boost her immunity. 

Teeth:  This girl has been teething ALL.MONTH.LONG. And not just with one tooth, she’s been working on FOUR teeth at once! Her top two front teeth came through and one on each side of her bottom two middle teeth. Those two bottoms seriously have taken the entire month to come through, they have been some serious hard work. We’ve been using lots of diluted lavender essential oil along her jaw line to help with discomfort and pain as well as natural teething tablets. For the most part she has been in really good spirits despite those darn teeth. That fourth one finally popped through at the very end of this month. She now as six teeth.  

Sleeping:  Harper has been a fairly good sleeper this month. At the beginning of the month when she was working on her top two teeth coming through she seemed to wake up earlier in the morning more often than not. There has been a some random nights she might fuss a bit more falling asleep or wake up in the night but it’s not very often. We did have one very bad night where she woke up just after 2:15am and was up off and on till 4:30am then really got pissed off and upset when I tried to lay her back down. She finally passed out in my arms sometime after 5am but it was useless for this mama to go back to sleep, it made for an extremely long day.  

Harper usually is ready for bed by 7:30pm and typically sleeps through the night. During the week I usually have to wake her but on weekends she has no problem waking on her own before 6:30am. She is still taking two naps. Her first nap is around 9am and lasts 1.5-2 hours. Her afternoon nap at daycare is usually around 1:30pm but for me on weekends she never will go down for me before 2:30pm. Not sure how that works out.

Eating:  Mommy fail this month on keeping track of new foods. I pretty much just feed her whatever we are eating for dinner just in smaller servings and cut up in smaller pieces. No idea what new foods we introduced this month. She has done a complete 180 in the whole eating department. She now loves food and will pretty much eat or at least try anything I do give her. She prefers to self-feed herself so she can stuff all the food in her mouth on her own. We still eat purees, mostly at daycare and sometimes at home or if we’re out but mainly it’s just whatever we have for dinner or we share our dinners with her to try.  Harper's favorite food by a long shot is Watermelon. Other top faves are dried yogurt melts, sweet potatoes, cheese, pasta, nectarines, blueberries, French fries, Puffs and.....ice cream.    

  

Harper is still breastfeeding. She usually eats about 5 times a day, two bottles at daycare. She still randomly comes homes from daycare with an ounce or two still left in one of her bottles. I’ve only been pumping once at work now which had led to a decrease in the amount I pump but I have a good supply frozen that we should be able to make it to 1 year if everything stays the same.

Movement: Harper is a girl on the move! She crawls everywhere and tries to get into everything. She is definitely getting faster and will really move to get to her mama when she’s tired, ready for bed or ready to eat. She bear crawls a lot too. Loves to do some baby yoga, downward dog and the splits. Before she fully started taking off crawling she started pulling herself up onto her knees and tries to pull herself onto everything. And now she is pulling herself up to standing, although she is still wobbly and it’s more of a standing lean. Gone are the days she will stay still for a diaper or wardrobe change! No matter how quick you try to be or toys you offer she cannot be distracted long enough to lay still. The wrestling matches have begun! 

Milestones: Pulling herself onto her knees. Pulling herself up to standing. Lowering her crib. Riding in the shopping cart for the 1^st time. Getting four teeth in one month. She can clap her hands. She often waves. Says mama!    

Favorite Toys/Activities: She loves non-baby toys, especially things that are big brothers. He has a Melissa & Doug hard lock puzzle that she loves to play with the different locks. She is always after his Nurf bullets or practice golf balls if she can find them on the floor or will bolt after them once she sees them. She still loves bouncing in her jumperoo. Knocking down anything that stacks. Bath time! Grabbing hair, necklaces, drinks, anything in front of her or within reach. Putting her toes in her mouth. Likes to touch/feel/grab faces. Still loves diaper changes and being naked, though she doesn’t want to stay still for them. Watching big brother all of the time!

Dislikes: Has turned into a mamas girl, not a fan of mommy putting her down or walking away from her. Being still for too long, particularly for diaper and clothing changes. 

Words:  Says Mama and Dada…..mama is definitely on purpose and when she wants her mama!

Sounds: She squeals and makes high pitched screeching noises, girlfriend knows how to get loud! Still makes lots of raspberries and babbling. 

Favorite Moments

• Girlfriend had her first fit! In the above collage, please note the bottom middle picture. After picking the kids up from daycare, we got home and I immediately fed Harper per the usual. After she was finished I usually always set her down on the floor with toys to play so I can go start dinner. I sat her down and turned around to take TWO steps to turn on the lamp and this girl went into full fledge fit mode. I looked at her and she had dropped to face down on the floor crying! She then looked up at me (not crying), saw I was looking at her and she put her face back into the floor to cry more. She did it two more times until she was done and started playing. It is far too early for THIS to start!!  

Monthly Highlights

• Had her first non-family member babysitter
• Went to the Farmer’s market
• Met her Uncle Bill and Aunt Marge, along with her Uncle Terry and Aunt Kim for the first time
• Family cookout at campgrounds
• First time sitting in the shopping cart
• Celebrated daddy’s birthday
• First time in a restaurant high chair
• Celebrated Big Brothers birthday
• First time to Chuck E. Cheese
• Partied at MJ’s birthday party
• Got to taste Madden’s birthday cake and ice cream
• Went swimming for the first time
• Celebrated Papa Jim’s birthday
• Had Great Aunt Alice’s 90^th surprise birthday party
• Chiropractor visit
• First Mississippi Valley Fair
• Still Breastfeeding

A girl on the move!