9 Months

Dear Lily,

Yesterday you turned 9 moths old. If there was a theme for this month of your life, I believe it would be "Exploration". You are on the move and checking out everything. You have mastered crawling and pulling yourself up onto things. You have started letting go for a few seconds while standing, but as soon as you realize you are standing by yourself, you get a worried look and grab the nearest support. You love to lead us around with us holding your hands still, but now you can do it with one hand. You are fascinated with EVERYTHING you touch. I love to watch how intensely you study everyday objects that are so common to us, yet are new and full of wonder for you. It makes me see things in a completely different way.

Things I want to remember about this time in your life:

Your 2nd tooth is just starting to pop through the gums.
You have started to say "aba aba" which I take to be mama, but you don't associate it with me yet.
You really like playing in the sink and splashing everywhere. At bath time, sometimes I feel like we get wetter than you do.
You are becoming more and more cuddly and climb into our laps more, which completely melts mine and your daddy's hearts.
You are getting a little better about "petting" the pets and not as much "grabbing". There is still a fair share of hair removal when you are done, though.
When daddy opens the coop door and you see a chicken, you scream, terrified!
You are going through a funny stage where if we are in a crowd of people and someone looks directly at you, you cry.
You've started using a sippy cup and seem to like the independence of it.
You've started eating more crunchy solid foods like teething biscuits and puffs which you really like.
You have been giving kisses for awhile now, but you've recently switched to only giving daddy kisses. When I ask for one, you blow raspberries at me. Nice!

Daddy is really excited that you have decided to take up cat fishing. Soon you'll be "rippin lips" with him on lake Monroe. See video below.