My Maggie is a whopping 9 months old today. Whew! Has time flown. My little angel in disguise is growing up right before my eyes. And while it is amazing to watch, it is breaking my heart at the same time.
I hate to do this, but I have to start this post with a minuscule rant, (no offense to you Maggie). It all has to do with motion, or lack of. To put it simply, Maggie is still not crawling. Now, that isn't even the biggest issue for me, the bigger issue is she is making no effort to do so. She lifted her tiny tush off the ground about an inch the other day while leaning forward and responded with a face of utter surprise and quickly sat back down. Almost to say, "oops, I didn't mean to do that". And for the first time yesterday, she went from a sitting position to a tummy time position and accomplished a little squirming before whining to be placed back up.
Do I think something is wrong with her, that she will never be mobile, that possibly she is lazy? No, not at all, I think she is spoiled. Maggie has become the diva of the house. She has even been nicknamed that at her gym class. If she wants something out of reach, she whimpers, moans and even gives a heartbreaking whine. And then what happens? Everybody rushes to her rescue and fulfills her needs. Why crawl? She has a house full of servants.
Okay, that was my rant, now on to the good stuff...
Eating
Maggie starts each glorious morning with a 6oz bottle followed by fruit and cereal. Breakfast feedings can still take up to a good 30-40 minutes. Actually, every meal can. 50% of the time she is eating and the other 50% she is checking out the happenings of the house. Even the sound of Cosby walking in the kitchen can distract her. She has to know what is happening EVERYWHERE! Maggie's favorite breakfast treat is the tray full of Cheerios she gets as I clean Jack up. She hoards them in handfuls and yelps if I even as so much touch one.
Lunch consists of a 4oz bottle and a jar of veggies and a jar of fruit. I haven't really noticed a favorite for either. If she could choose, she would eat what Jack and I were.
Dinner is another 4oz bottle and some meat/veggie mixture. This might be the hardest meal of the day. She will find anything to distract her from the meal at hand...the straps on the high chair, my wedding ring, her bib, the rug, you name it. Another long meal. I'm confident she is hungry, she just likes to take her time.
We follow our bedtime bath with a 8 oz bottle to top her off for the evening.
I have to admit, I started giving her some of our food before the pediatricians 'okay'. Some of her faves, to the point of being ravenous are...beans, peas, broccoli, apples, peaches, granola bars, and bread. I have a feeling we won't be doing the baby food thing much longer with her.
Activity
When it comes to activity, Magpie just wants to be in the action. As long as she is with her peeps she is a happy camper.
She adores playing with toys on the living room floor with big brother. She likes any toy that has balls. And she is big fan of her plush blocks that have noisy contraptions on the inside. But, above all she is happiest in the tub.
Maggie's favorite activities out of the house are gym class, music class, and the baby pool. She can sit under the umbrella at the beach entrance of the baby pool forever. Give her a couple toys to gnaw on and she is good to go. What am I going to do when summer is over?
Sleep
Maggie could be the poster child for sleep. I do not lie. I thought Jack was a fab sleeper, this baby blows him out of the water!
She takes her a.m. nap at 9:30. We will see how that goes when Jack has to be at school at 9:30 here shortly. This nap usually lasts close to 2 hours, I wake her if it goes over the 2 hour mark. Great, but frustrating at the same time. We are always on the countdown for her to wake so we can get going for the day. A girl has to have her beauty rest though!
Mags then takes her afternoon nap at 1:30 right with Jack. Mmmmm...gotta love that! She will nap anywhere from 2 1/2- 3 hours. Generally she wakes just a smidgen before Jack which works out perfectly.
Now here is the kicker. Are you ready for this? At 9 months old my Maggie is STILL taking an evening catnap. Jack had dropped his by 8 months old. But, then again Maggie likes to take things s-l-o-w-e-r than he ever did. I can't really complain, she still will sleep through the night and 90% of the time we are home anyway. If we really have somewhere to be, we let her miss it and she survives. But, she struggles in the tub--there is the trade off. I will say though, that she is shortening the length of this catnap. We use to put her down at 5:30 and wake in time for bath at 6:45. Now we can easily wait until 6:00 to put her down.
Bedtime is a breeze. After bath, bottle, and books, she goes down at 7:30ish and wakes between 7:30-8:00ish the next morning. If she woke any earlier, I would have no clue. She is so quiet and content in her crib, I never know if she is awake or not. Thank goodness for the video monitor.
Maggie has become a full fledged bedtime thumb sucker. One thumb in her mouth and the other clinging onto her lovey. Hmmm...sounds familiar.
Stats
We had Maggie's 9 month well visit this month. This is one of my favorite things about being a Mommy--getting to see my baby's growth. This is how she measured up...
Height 28 inches 75th percentile
Weight 19 lbs 5 oz 70th percentile
Needless to say, this little one isn't so little anymore. We went ahead and moved her up to a size 3 diaper after a few leaks, I now see that was appropriate given her stats. Clothes still tend to confuse me. She can still squeeze into a few 9 month items and even some 6-12 month things. But, seems to fit more comfortably in 12 months--with some room to grow. The biggest problem we have is elastic around her chubby thighs, poor baby ends up with an indention for a week around her leg after wearing anything of that nature. But, boy does she look cute in those bubbles!
New Talents
My sweet baby has a plethora of new talents--none of which are crawling. BUT, she has surprised me in other areas.
Her most recent talent is waving bye-bye while babbling "bybybybyby". I guess I'm suppose to consider this her first word besides Mama? Her chubby little fist opens and closes in slow motion, it is absolutely precious!
She has started, but is not always consistent, with using her baby sign language for more. Maybe because she rarely wants more of anything unless it's Cheerios or puffs.
Maggie has gotten really good at imitating me too. If I take a ball and put it in a cup and tell her to do the same, most of the time she will. Sometimes I can just tell her and point and she can copy me. Amazing how the pettiest little things excite me!
And the last of her new talents, really got me smiling. We read Goodnight Moon every night. When we get to the little toy house I always do a pretend knock on the door/book and when we see the cow I moo. Just recently Maggie has started to do both things before I do. It is darling! She bangs the little toy house page with a wide open hand. And when we get to the cow, she belts, "muuuuu". She has even started to recognize cows elsewhere and add her sound effect. I love watching it all come together--what a sweet age!
Have I ever mentioned, I love this girl? I mean like a true, unconditional, how was I so blessed kind of love. I could never put into words the joy she has brought to our lives. She was the missing piece all along...I truly think she has completed our family. (we will see though;)
Happy 9 Months Sweet Magpie! You are truly our little angel!
