9 months

Dear Lauren,

 Time goes so quickly. I blink and another month has passed. And each month you learn and grow and change so much. I love everything about you, sweet girl. Here are some of those things...


Learning, growing, playing: Little Goose, you are so anxious to grow up! You are so determined and so smart, and these two things together make you so mischievous :) you are everywhere and into everything. Your problem solving skills astound me. You moved a box so that you could crawl up onto it to climb onto the couch to get the TV remote that I had taken away from you. My jaw dropped watching you do that. I am in awe of you, little girl! And the week before you turned 9 months old, you took three steps all on your own! When holding on to my hand or the furtinure you are practically running. You love to give high fives, copy noises people make, and play peek-a-boo. Your favorite toys haven't changed (a light saber, a giant pink ball that's bigger than you are, Sophie your teether giraffe), although you have added one new one. A stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Your eyes light up and you give him lots and lots of baby kisses and hugs. It's so sweet :) You and Winnie and great friends. You also love shoes and cardboard boxes!

Teething: it seems the teething has finally given you a break for now! You have two adorable little bottom teeth at the moment. The second one came in just a week or two after the first one. 


Talking: you say "ma" or "mama" or "mom" quite frequently. It melts my heart every single time, I just love it! Right now it's really the only word you say with any frequency. You can of course still say "dada" too though! And you don't say the word "no" yet, but you communicate it quite effectively by shaking your head. Cutest. Thing. Ever! 


Sleeping: it's amazing how completely things can change in a month. Our bedtime routine has been drastically adjusted. While before it helped you calm down for the night and fall asleep, now it seems that it gives you the heads up that it's time for bed and boy do you dislike that. You haaaate going to bed. Which is fascinating because you sleep so well, and have a pretty consistent schedule. You wake up around 8 am ish. And almost exactly two hours later you take about a 2 hour nap, give or take maybe half an hour. You take another nap sometime in the late afternoon, and go to bed sometime around 8 pm ish. You sleep great, you just throw an enormous tantrum about 80% of the time first. Our bedtime routine still includes a bath and a bottle, but it's not so much a routine anymore... If its too predictable, you kind of have a melt down. Its probably a good thing that your evening routine when im at work and its just you and daddy is so different- im pretty sure the two of you just cuddle on the couch watching baseball until you fall asleep in his arms. :) One thing we always do at bedtime though is rub lavender oil onto your feet. You fall asleep faster and seem to sleep so much better when we do. 


 Daddy and I love you so much, Lauren. You make life so much better. Happy 9 months my darling girl!