Nine months today! And a great doctor appointment to boot!
I can't believe it's been nine months already. Punky is growing up way too fast. I no longer have a tiny little baby, although she is still a runt by medical standards. She remains in the 5th percentile, only 15 lbs 10 ounces and 27 inches long. No wonder she still wears some 0-3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. But she is maintaining the normal curve of growth, so there is no concern from the doctor about her size.
She got a hepatitis vaccine in one leg, the first half of the flu shot in the other, and they pricked her finger to check her hemoglobin for anemia and also for a lead test. All levels are normal, thankfully, and she screamed her head off when she felt the needles. She has to go back in a month for the second half of the flu shot, and possibly the first half of the H1N1 vaccine if they have it by then. I know it is so controversial, but I think I am leaning towards going ahead with that vaccine. We'll see what develops over the next month as they continue to test it.
The doctor was also pleased with her development thus far. She may be small, but she's mighty and definitely hitting most milestones ahead of schedule. I was beginning to worry about her language development. She hadn't really begun to babble hard consonant sounds, and from what I read, she should have been doing that already. She coos all of the vowel sounds, and even seems to say "hi" once in a while, but no mama, dada, or baba yet. Then, this past week, she finally started with gaga gaga gaga...so now it begins. I think she'll progress quickly from here. Once she learns something new, there's no stopping her.
She still eats whatever you give her, and wants everything you put in your mouth. I started giving her some of the stage 3 baby food this week; so far so good, although she did spit up the spaghetti and meat sauce kind. For whatever reason, it didn't agree with her and now she has a stain on her cute, purple pants. I've been trying to give her more table food when I can, but it's hard sometimes since she is still toothless.
She is doing well now with feeding herself puffs and mum-mums, although she seems to prefer to drop them on the floor first and then pick them up along with whatever fuzz or hair is on the carpet. She likes to put her hand in the jar and pull out a fist full, and if she's lucky, one gets in her mouth and the rest hit the floor.
She is now able to walk by herself behind the car push-toy we bought her. She does it so nonchalantly as if it's no big deal, while we clap and cheer like there's no tomorrow. She must think we're nuts. Perceptive baby.
She waves bye-bye, but not always at the exact moment she's supposed to do it. She also has gotten the hang of clapping her patties, and now whenever we say "Yay!" and clap at her many awesome achievements, she smiles and claps her patties along with us. It's too adorable...my heart just melts every time. And when I sing songs with hand motions that she's seen time and time again, she attempts to do some of them on her own.
She is still a total monkey, climbing over everything and never sitting still for a second. When she sees something she wants, she'll go to the ends of the earth to get it, and sometimes it is hard to distract her. She focuses on the prize and is down right determined to reach it. Subborn baby. It's a toss up where that came from; we both can be bull-headed at times.
She still insists on trying to stand up in front of the TV, and we still tell her "No!" and drag her little hiney away from it a thousand times a day. She hears you say "no", she stops what she's doing, turns to look at you, smiles, lets out a giggle, and then goes for it in the blink of an eye. She knows what we are saying, I'm fully convinced she understands, she just chooses not to listen...yet. In order to stop her, we have to divert her attention to something else...and repeat the process five minutes later when she realizes she's doing something different than what she planned on doing.
When I read to her now, the pictures in the books hold her attention for a few minutes. Before, all she wanted to do was chew on them; now I get through a few pages before the chomping begins. I hope someday she loves to read as much as I did as a kid. There are so many great books that I loved, and I can't wait to share them with her.
I want to try to get a good picture of her today on her nine-month birthday, but she no longer sits still like she did when we had the six months photo shoot so this ought to be a challenge. She is napping now, sleeping off those horrible shots, and will hopefully wake up her usual smiley self and not a crankpot.
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