Walking with the Cooks: Happy 9 months, Lydia!

Our Lydia girl is feeling less and less like our baby. She loves to be surrounded by the kids' toys, is eating some finger foods, thinks the rest of us are just hysterical, and waves just to delight an audience. Lydia keeps her best tricks for the house. When we are around others she puts on her serious face and we sometimes even get a snuggle. But don't be fooled! She is our content socialite at home with a desire to charm.

Weight: 24 lbs 8 oz (99th %)
Height: 29 in (92nd %)
Head: 18 in (92nd %)

Diapers: size 4/5 and cloth
Clothing: 18 and 24 month, 2T

Likes: her paci, crawling around the backyard, licking the grocery cart, chewing on toys, tickles, chewing shoes
Dislikes: baths, mom walking away, the shoe she is chewing on walking away :)

Schedule:

7:00am Awake for the day! Nurse and finger food
9:00-11am Nap
11am Nurse
12:30-3pm Nap
3pm Nurse and purees
5:00-6pm Nap
7pm Nurse and purees
7:30 Back down for bed
9:30 or 10pm Dream feed and down for the night!

Sleep: We are in a rough patch right now, which makes it a little challenging to generalize her sleep this month. Lydia had some teeth coming through/a growth spurt, which led to a yucky runny nose, which has resulted in about a week of waking to eat during the night. But generally, Lydia was napping well and still taking a little third nap and dream feed. Hopefully we will get back on track in the next week! I don't know that I have ever noted this on the blog, but Lydia is a definite tummy sleeper. If I put her down on her back, no matter how sleepy she is, she will flip to her tummy. She isn't regularly a bottom-in-the-air sleeper, like Sarah was, but likes to be flat and spread out. A favorite paci is also an essential part of her sleep routine! As long as she has her paci she is happy to hang out in her crib when she wakes up.

Physically: Lydia is an avid crawler and has gotten pretty confident with pulling up. She will pull up on anything: knee, skirt, coffee table, chair, cabinet knob, etc. (Nothing like a good cabinet knob to chew on!) Dave calls her a fighter, because when he holds her she gets excited and pushes off his chest or arm, and she is really strong! It makes her hard to hold when she gets wiggly. Like most babies, she thinks if someone lays down on the floor, they must want her to be on top of them. Her hair is still coming in slowly, but steadily, and she is on the verge of a fantastic baby mullet.

Food: Lydia continues to nurse well about 5 times a day and is eating from a spoon baby cereals, apple sauce, and pureed peas, green beans, squash, and sweet potato. We gave her banana, puffs, cheerios, and peas as finger food this month and she went after them like she had been chewing food all her life. That is the perk of waiting to begin, I suppose, even if the truth is just that time got away from us. Interesting fact, we learned at her well visit that while the APA hasn't change their view on waiting to introduce potential allergens to babies, an allergy association has changed their recommendation and no longer recommends waiting. They also said Lydia's iron level was on the low end of normal.

Communication: First word- bye. Second word- dada. She does all kind of babbling to go with waving, clapping, and tongue tricks. Lydia has picked up the signs for "all finished" and the "more" of "more please" while she is eating.

Next appointment: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 9:30am