Happy 9 Months, Raegan!

Raegan is 9 months old!

 These pictures are getting more and more difficult to take

Well, what can I say?  Time continues to fly.  Before getting into the itemized milestones and updates, I have to share this-

This past month, I've started feeling that beyond being our little baby, that  Raegan has turned into our little buddy. Does that sound completely ridiculous? She can't even fully communicate with me, but I feel that when we are running errands together, I'm with my best friend. I can only imagine what it will be like once she gets older.

It's fun for me to watch little girls with their mommies.  I consider it foreshadowing into the next few years. 

The other day at Zumba, there were lots of little girls lined up against the wall watching us "dance".  (Snow day for the little ones.)  Towards the end of the class, a few got up, stood by their moms, and shyly started trying to follow them through the routines.  I literally almost started crying in the middle of class.

Crazy, right?

I don't know, the thought of Raegan wanting to do things like me makes me smile...and...well, it scares me a little.

The latter of those two reactions is one of the reasons that I wanted to wait a little longer than most to have a baby.  While I'm nowhere near perfect now, I'm definitely at a better place than I was five years ago.  I knew that I needed some time to work on me and make some improvements before bringing someone into the world who would be strongly influenced by me.   I certainly didn't want to pass on my negative flaws to someone else...especially my child.

My point is: I've always been acutely aware that I would eventually be a strong influence on my children.  It's just somewhat overwhelming that it's starting to take place now.  I'm beyond excited, but am feeling a lot of pressure.  I must remind myself of Chuck's favorite saying: "All we can do is our very best."  That, of course, and pray...

Now, onto this past month.

Updates:

She's little.  I mean, itty bitty. 5th percentile in weight.  I've not let those types of things bother me to date...but, this scared me.  5th percentile?!?  Is she unhealthy?  Is she getting enough nourishment?  Has my milk supply dropped?  Her pediatrician put my mind completely at ease.  She looked her over and over and assured me (while laughing at her cellulite and her rolls of fat) that she is definitely healthy. 

 For one, she said that Raegan has always hovered around the lower percentile in size.  She also said that at 9 months, most babies start tapering off on how much weight they gain each month.  (Up until 9 months, Rae was consistently gaining, at least, a pound a month.)  In addition, she said that at Raegan's age, babies' genetics regarding size start to kick in more. 

She asked me what my standard weight was.  I said "standard", not "current".  And, those of you who have known me all of my life know that until college, I got made fun of for being too skinny...waaayyyy too skinny.  No comments, please, on how that is no longer an issue. :).  Then, she asked me about Chuck.  She was like-"Kami, she is fine.  Your baby is genetically built to be small.  She's in the 12th percentile in height and in head circumference.  She is completely proportioned.  I have no concerns whatsoever.  She's just little."  

Whew 

One thing, though-Raegan did lose a few ounces from last month.  Yes-lost weight. But, after some discussion, we realized 3 things that the Dr feels definitely contributed to this: #1-lots of colds and teething in the past month, resulting in loss of appetite #2-The majority of the food she eats is homemade, so it naturally has less calories and #3-My paranoia over her digestion "issues" has caused me to be hesitant on giving her too many starches.  She does get 3 meals a day, but I don't push the cereal.  Dr said that she needs to get 4x what I'm currently giving her.  YIKES! 

Dr say, Kami do. 

All of that said, here are her little bitty stats:

Weight: 15.69

Height: 26.25

Head Circumference: 16.73

More updates

She is sitting up in her crib...all the time...before she goes to sleep, after she wakes up, in the middle of the night when she rolls over and realizes that she can see around her room now that her bed has been lowered...This baby doesn't want to miss a thing!  And, it's definitely causing a problem at Daycare.  More on that later.

Here's that little stinker after a nap:

"Where is everybody?"

"I seeeeeeee you!"

Raegan is ON THE MOVE!  She is everywhere.  She climbs all over me, reaches for everything, etc.  This made for some really challenging gift wrapping sessions around Christmas! 

Here she is, getting to where she wants to go:

What can I say?  She likes shoes...

...and has great taste in her selection. 
Those are some of my favorites too, Bits!

At school...apparently initiating a game of hide-and-seek

Speaking of being on the move, as of January 4th, I think it’s safe to say that Raegan is crawling. She’s been very mobile for several months (ALL OVER THE PLACE since Thanksgiving) and I honestly thought that since she was getting around just fine with her own method, that she would skip the true crawl. But, she’s crawling.

Caveat: It’s still a little awkward. She does this thing where she crawls for a few minutes, then angles her body up like an arch, gets on her toes, and then slides both her feet forward and lands on both knees at the same time...almost like a bunny hop...then, she arches her body, keeps her feet flat, takes a few steps, and then she starts crawling again.

She is eating some finger foods....puffs, cheerios, cranberries, etc.

She seems like such a big girl eating real food.

Before you ask, no, I don't let her chow down on an entire piece of broccoli.  I only let her hold the stem chew on the floret. Besides, by the look on her face, does it really look like she is interested in putting the thing in her mouth?

 She has LOTS of hair now.  TONS.

When the light is juuuusssstt right, you can see it...just a little bit

She's a social butterfly.  She was doing so much better with napping at Daycare...although, she wasn't doing as well as she does at home where she consistently takes 2-3 one and a half hour (and sometimes 2+ hour) naps at basically the same times each day. Now, that she can sit up in her crib, she isn't sleeping at Daycare much at all...MAYBE an hour ALL day. She sits up, looks around, smiles, and waves at everyone. Her teachers say that she can not stand to be missing anything going on. They have even started putting a blanket over the end of the crib to act as a shield so she can't see anything. What does Raegan do? She pulls it down, waves it in the air, plays with it. Chuck's response to this? "Well, Kami, you wanted her to be social....."

My favorite thing from this past month--She has started tilting her head when she looks at you.  She doesn't do this all of the time...just when she is being ultra sweet.  The first time she did this, it was to my mom (aka: De De).  De De's heart melted all over the floor and then she did it back to her.  Then, Raegan grinned and tilted her head to the other side.  Then, my mom did it back.  This went on for several minutes.  I don't know why this is so sweet, but it is. 

If batting her eyelashes comes next, Chuck is in BIG trouble...

She still loves playing with any and all things that are not toys.  She'll pass up anything bright, colorful, and/or musical for anything black, boring, and "adult". We really could have saved some money at Christmas had we used this to our advantage...

Toys hanging from every angle in the car, what does she want?  The TV earphones.

A pile of toys in the floor?  No thank you, she wants the box. 

I made the best of it.  If she wants to play with it, we'll play with it.

And, her newest non-toy obsession? 

PAPER!

Other Highlights:

• LOVES peekaboo. Thinks it's hilarious.

• Waves "hi" and "bye bye" but in different ways. For "hi", she waves right to left. For "bye bye", she turns her little hand to herself, cups it, and moves her fingers in and out of a fist. I think it's funny that she distinguishes between the two.
• Nods her head to music.
• Has gotten (and continues to get...every day) her first bumps and bruises this month. She even got an accident report at school. I'm telling you-she's on the move. She's hard to catch before she bumps her little noggin...especially since she is trying to combine the walk with her crawl. That combo = lots of unavoidable face plants.
• Gives us kisses...dives in...open mouth...And we love it. Slobber and all.
• Getting major separation anxiety...gets really upset when one of us leaves the room or takes her out of our arms. She still goes to other people, but she's much more hesitant. She also wakes up several times a night now(where did our consistent 11 hours of silence go?). Apparently all very common at her age. Crossing our fingers that it's just a phase.
• Completely interested in Gabby...wants Gabby's toys, bed, etc. Gabby isn't having it and is getting more and more territorial. Shocker.
• Still teething. The girl may have a mouth full by the time she's 10 months old.
• Says "aaahhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiii" and shakes her arms and smiles when she sees her daddy.
• Has a new favorite song: “Fuzzy Little Caterpillar”. It’s so cute when she's in the middle of something (even crying) and we start singing it…she stops whatever she’s doing and listens.
• Flails both her arms above her head when she is either super excited or has something in her mouth that she loves.

 Conversation the other day:

Chuck-"On a scale from 1-10, how cute do you think Bitsy is?" 

Me-"Um, 12.  Why?  What do you think she is?" 

Chuck- "She's a 52." 

I know everyone's baby is the cutest, sweetest, and smartest baby in the world.  So, when I share the above conversation, I say it with total awareness that we are 100% biased.  Although, our baby really IS the cutest, sweetest, and smartest baby in the world. ;)

Happy 9 Months!
We love you, you little 52