Kallie turned 9 months old last week, and I just can't believe it! I feel like I was just pregnant, and yet she's getting close to one! I have to say, this age is my absolute favorite so far! She is becoming such a little kid, and developing such a STRONG personality, it's just a blast being with her! She's changed a lot in the last month (just like every other month:), but it feels more dramatic this time. I think it's because it's more of her personality coming out, and it's just amazing to watch! Here's a few of the changes we've noticed:
1. Kallie has a temper! Around this age is when babies can start to respond when you take something away from them, and Kallie has definitely held true to that. When we take something away from her, or tell her 'no' (which she clearly understands) she gets quite upset. She'll throw her hands in the air, bite her fist, hit the floor, and 'yell'. I was pretty worried about it at first, but I also have to remember that at such a young age, she has a very limited ability to express her frustration. We never laugh because we don't want to a) make her feel like we're laughing at her feelings and b) encourage fits, but oh my goodness, I've almost died holding it in sometimes!
2. Kallie started waving and clapping! It's so cute and fun! I'm trying to get good videos of it, but as soon as she sees the camera, she stops whatever entertaining thing she's doing. I did manage to get a clip of her clapping (at the bottom) but the funny thing is, we were trying to get her to wave the whole time:)
3. She's started crawling on all fours. She was just dragging herself around before, but now she'll actually get up on her hands and knees. And she's also started pulling herself up onto things (just on her knees) and pretty much moves completely differently. It's amazing to see how she went from barely any movement, to being able to go from any position to another and moving all over the place. She's also very interested in the stairs, but hasn't tried to climb up at all.
4. Her eating has changed a lot. She's eating much more table food (instead of everything being totally pureed) and really loves it. Her absolute favorite food is bread (takes after mom and dad:), she just can't get enough and gets sooooo excited as soon as she sees a slice!
5. She's masterd her sippy cup. A couple months ago I started just leaving it on her tray, and she would play with it, and suck on it, but couldn't figure out how to tilt. Well, she's now a one-handed pro! And she really loves drinking her water out of it, so that's nice.
6. Kallie has started mimicking lots this past month..she'll mimic different sounds (hot, ma, da, ba), if we click our tongue in our mouth she'll do that, she'll mimic fake coughs, and she mimics different actions we do (clapping, waving, head tilting, etc.). And if I ask her for a kiss, and make kissing noises, she'll lean in and mush her open mouth against my lips:) It's definitely one of my favorites:)!
7. She plays peek-a-boo all the time. She'll grab a blanket, water bottle, toy, whatever is in her reach, cover her eyes, and then yank it down really fast and laugh when we say 'there she is!'. It's so cute...and can go on for a REALLY long time:)
I think that's everything, but I'm sure there's more~~it's amazing how much you can forget in a month! We are enjoying being parents to our little miss Kallie soooo much, it's unbelievable how much you can love someone! We're so proud of her, thanks for sharing a space with us that allows us to 'brag' and get so excited about her!!!
One of the really fun things about this age is how independent Kallie has become. She can entertain herself for so long; she loves exploring our living room, playing with all her toys, and she talks to herself and makes herself laugh all the time. I just love sitting back and watching her play and listening to her, it makes me laugh:) One of her favorite things to explore is daddy's guitar amp...there's so many knobs and buttons to play with! The other big development in our house is that Kallie can now pull herself to a stand. She first did it on the stairs (it's easier there) but will pull herself up on a table, and yesterday morning I found her standing in her crib for the first time! I posted a video of Kallie talking to herself...it's not the best (b/c of course babies rarely do what we want when we're video taping them...or anytime for that matter;) but it kind of gives you and idea of what she sounds like:) (mom, I'm sure you'll watch it a thousand times!)
