Paige is 9 Months!

Paige is 9 months old, 3/4 of a year, almost there.  It's insane how fast time has flown.  We are in a really fun and hard stage.  She is learning so much and having so much fun.  She is so exciting to watch each day.  But she wants to be big.  She wants to walk and let go.  She wants to eat regular food.  Sweet little baby. 

She weighs 18 pounds 8 ounces and is 27 inches long.  Which is 60th and 50th percentiles; so not as huge as we thought.  She is in 9 month clothing but still wears a few 6 month things and has started to wear 12 month things.  Just because we don't have a ton of 9 month things and Kristen gave us a bunch of 12 month winter clothes from Reese.  She is in size 3 diapers, which I think we will be for awhile.  She just recently switched to a 4 hour bottle schedule.  I'm not sure it will work, but we are trying.  She stopped drinking her bottles for awhile and it just seemed like she wasn't hungry.  She gets a bottle at 7, 11, 3, and 7.  Morning nap and afternoon nap and sometimes a catnap in between.  Bed after her last bottle and lately she has been doing a great job of sleeping all night.  She was sleeping until 7:30 which was amazing, however Daylight Savings Time screwed her schedule and she's been waking up between 5 and 6.  Brutal.  And usually she poops right when she wakes up, so she doesn't fall back to sleep.  Sometimes she is good with the 4 hour schedule and sometimes it's too long. But she has done well all week with childcare.  They were all shocked that she was in such a good mood for them.  It's a good change.  

She is still drinking about 6 ounces per bottle.  She likes to stroke the arm of whoever is feeding her.  It's actually the cutest thing she does.  Just up and down, up and down, which she sits there.  She is eating breakfast, lunch and dinner.  She eats grapes, strawberries, black beans, green beans, turkey, pancakes, applesauce, and potatoes.  She goes through weeks of loving something and then weeks of not touching that same food.  The one food that she has loved the whole time and scarf down is Greek vanilla yogurt.  It's our permanent backup.  She of course still loves puffs like they are a major food group.  And yogurt melts, wagon wheels, and cheese crunchies.  Any processed crap that kids love she is all over it. 

 She is so big.  She is crawling around and pulling up on everything. She can walk along furniture and loves to just stand up and see around the room.  Her main problem is when she is up on furniture and can't get down.  She isn't sure how to bend forward without letting go and can't sit down without falling back too hard.  It's her main struggle and it makes her very unhappy.  She crawls back and forth through the house, following Harper around.  She stands at the coffee table and bangs her hands down. She pulls up on the doll high chairs and almost takes it down every time.  She pulls up on the train table and looks around so we can applaud her.  She stands up at the fireplace and tries to look straight up at the TV.  Paige is so big!  She finally learned to jump so she likes her jumparoo.  And she decided she doesn't like her walker anymore.  It's too controlling, she can't steer it well enough to go where she wants.  But she still likes to play on it so she pulls up and stands on the rim.  This kid is fearless.  I have realized we might have a daredevil on our hands.  She acts like she is invincible.  This also includes the bathtub which terrifies me.  She likes to crawl around, pull up on the slippery tub side, and then flop back down.  She's always getting very close to hurting herself, but she just won't sit still.

One of the bad parts of this age is not really understanding and following when we tell her no.  She kind of knows what it means, in that she will pause for just a second to look at us, but then will continue on with what she was doing.  She eats anything she can get her hands on.  Paper is her go to, but she puts lots of leaves, dirt, toys, etc in her mouth to try to eat.  I feel bad because I have no idea how much paper she has actually consumed, and I know I was much more alert to Harper at this phase, but she's the second baby so I know that a little paper won't hurt her.  On that note, I have learned to let go of so many little things.  I am not controlling of her schedule to the minute.  She had french fries last week.  If she misses a meal, it's no big deal.  She doesn't get a new diaper every single time she pees.  Everyone always says, oh she's wet, you need to change her.  No, she's a baby, there is pee in her diaper 24/7.  I can leave her in a room while I do something else real quick.  That's the amazing joy of having an older child to help you out.  Second babies are definitely different to parent than firsts.

She is also talking, way faster than Harper I feel.  She said Mama a few weeks ago.  She used to say it mostly when she was upset about something, but now she says it fairly frequently.  She can say Ba-Ba for bottle and Pa-Pa for pacifier.  And today she said Baby.  A real word, not just a repeated sound.  I couldn't believe it but was so glad I got to witness it.  She just kept playing with Harper's baby doll and repeating the word.  Sweet girl.  We are still working on Dada and Sister.  I have a feeling Dog is coming next though because they fascinate her.  

She doesn't like baby toys.  She just wants to crawl, pull up, and eat.  She is fickle about the temperature of her bottle, it must be just warm enough not to be lukewarm.  She hates getting her face wiped off.  She goes to sleep easily as long as she has her paci and her blankey.  She has the best nose-squenched toothy grin that she does when she snorts and laughs.  She is almost always smiling and happy, especially when she gets attention.  She likes poops alot.  She has a fear of stranger danger, and it is much more heightened at night when she is tired.  She likes being outside.  Her hair is getting longer and longer and is so soft and pretty.  She loves to laugh, especially at Harper.  She hates being left alone.  She screams and cries if I leave the room without her and will follow me, crawling slowly and sadly, bawling the whole time.  She gets excited when Cody gets home from school and always wants to go to him.  She sleeps more when she gets more sleep, and sleeps less the less sleep she gets.  It's so frustrating.  She is our sweet Paigie girl and we love her so stinking much!