Madison Monthly: Turning 9 Months Old

The Basics
Sorry for the delay (I'm sure you were concerned) but I wanted to wait to post the monthly update until after the doctor's appointment; that way I can let you know that Madison is 21 lbs 6 oz and 30 1/2 inches. She's one tall baby.

Eating and Sleeping

She's random. That's really the thing here. For the most part, she eats really well, hogging down baby food. This month she has also had bread, au gratin potatoes, pluots, bananas, toast and jelly, crackers, biscuits, boiled red potatoes, and errr...I think that's it. While she enjoys eating these new foods, she is not a fan of feeding herself. She actually won't pick up a piece and put it in her own mouth. I've seen her open her mouth, bend over, and get a piece off the tray; but for the most part, she opens up and stares at you until you feed her. We're working on it.

While she won't put actual food in her mouth, she has no problem eating other things: like headbands, socks, decorative flowers, etc.

Sleeping did a 360 and went back to crapola. The Ferber method worked, and M was falling asleep within minutes of being laid in the crib. Then she learned how to sit up and it all went to pot. We are back to multiple awakenings, most of which require a lot of rocking and possibly even a bottle. Hopefully that will end soon. Mommy needs her shut eye.

Behavior and Development
She could walk if she would just let go of our hands. Honestly it's kind of funny (if a bit annoying). M wants to do nothing but walk, around and around and around the house, all day, every day. Now that we are walking together side by side holding hands, it no longer feels like my spine is going to rip from my back, but it's still not all that fun... She's so used to holding hands that she almost refuses to walk without a hand. I'll stand her in front of me, facing Brian or one of the grandmas, and she'll be flailing her arms behind her, searching for one of my hands. If we do get her to walk, she ends up launching herself at the nearest available hand. Crazy baby. She can walk roughly five feet or so before getting excited or ADDed into falling.

She's been trying to stand up without help....

Had I taken another picture, you would see M falling over quite spectacularly...

Social Stuff
M loves people, and they love her. I won't lie...my daughter is seriously cute. She loves going to the store, making her squinty eyed smile at everyone she sees and randomly screeching in delight.

We recently took her out to dinner where she carefully reviewed the menu:

And then hailed the waitress:

Mommy Notes
I'm tired. Not really a new thing. I average 3-4 hours of sleep a night, and I'm more of a 9-10 hour/night kind of girl. Someday M will sleep...I've been assured of this. I just hope it's not 12 years down the road....

I am managing to get some more reading time in at night; I've pretty much given up television these days. I do miss those long stretches of reading I used to indulge in..in which I used to indulge. There is nothing quite like reading for 4-5 hours in a row. Ahhh, the good old days.

Her Nicknames (in order of use, 1 being most often):

Nutter is still up there; it's just a sort of permanent nickname I'm thinking. I have taken to calling her Beautiful and Gorgeous from time to time. Really though I am trying to call her Madison as much as possible. Name recognition and all that.

The Pictures

 I refuse to sit still while you take my picture....

 Who says I can't wear a giant skirt?

 I am about to do something super-naughty.

 M now knows the oh-so-fun-game of How big is Madison? Soooo big!

 Doesn't she just look thrilled to be taking a picture with me?

 Hey, take a look at this toy.

 Hey Grandma...smell my foot...

 Here daddy, I'll unzip you while you unzip me. And now we all say Awwwww

 All of a sudden she knew how to take her shirt off...