Audrey: 9 months

Our little girl is turning into quite the big girl. This is abundantly clear in her 9 month onesie photos. I could not get her to sit still next to the mouse. All of the photos are out of focus or she is on the go. Baby girl has things to do and people to see. She can't sit still for pictures. Good thing we got some professional photos taken this month!

She is a lot bigger than the mouse now. You will have to take my word for it.

Audrey has been busy during the last month. She has been to Wisconsin twice and Minnesota once. One trip was a combo MN/WI weekend. So she has spent two of four weekends traveling around the big lake. She is great in the car but by the end of the last trip she was done. So were we.

She has slept all night long a couple times in the last month. It brings back memories of months 2.5 to 4. It sure is a nice treat when it happens. Here's hoping the all night sleep occurrences continue to increase in frequency. I do not expect this, but one can hope.

Moving has been a big passtime for the doots this month. She has been working on improving her crawling. She is way faster at army crawling than she was last month. She has figured out how to use her legs to help her along. She has also started to do some crawling on all fours. I expect she will take off when she perfects this.

She also has learned how to go from laying down to sitting up. This is a great skill to have. It allows one to sit up in their crib and rattle the bars when awake and bored at 2 am. Seriously though, it is super fun to watch her learn how to do things on her own.

We try really hard to mostly watch her in a hands off manner so she can learn to do things on her own. Of course we play with her, but we also try to let her learn to do things on her own. This has resulted in a few head bumps and some frustration, but it also has lead to her knowing how to hold her head up when she falls, among other things. Watching her slowly learn a new skill is amazing and fun in a way I just cannot explain. I think it must be evolution at work.

She has also started to try to pull herself up on things. She has only gotten as far as her knees at this point, but I imagine she will be standing up on her feet very soon. We already lowered her crib mattress. She fell off her changing table she doesn't need to fall out of her crib as well.

Audrey's other new love is food. She is really starting to love food. She is not crazy for plain vegetable baby food, but who can blame her? I try everything I feed her and the plain veggies are gross. She is happy to eat fruit and veggie mixes or actual vegetables. Tonight she enjoyed some potato and summer squash frittata.  So far, she will feed herself pretty much anything you put on her tray. I know this will almost certainly change, many picky eaters eat whatever you give them at this age. I certainly have not declared victory in the food battle at this early stage. But for now she is happy to eat what you give her. 

Hard boiled egg and blueberries? Sure. 

Fittata and teething biscuit? Yum.

Blueberries and cheddar cheese? Delicious.

Yum, frittata.

I think Shasta enjoys Audrey feeding herself in her high chair more than Audrey does. She is great at cleaning up all the food that does not make it to Audrey's mouth. It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Do you need help with that teething biscuit?

Audrey came and watched my bout in Wisconsin. She wore this beautiful boutfit! She loves the Vixens.

9 months is old. It is very close to a year. I bought a bunch of 12 month fall clothes today. I can't believe my baby is almost a year old, good grief.

We love watching her grow and change, though. So, without further ado here are the love hate lists.

Things Audrey LOVES right now

• The boo game
• The cats, oh my goodness she loves the cats
• Baby food pouches
• Crawling
• Crawling over to the door to try to chew on shoes
• Monster
• Being tossed in the air
• Penguins
• Bath time
• Her stuffed trout
• Laughing maniacally (I really need to get a video of this)

Things Audrey HATES right now

• Going to Wisconsin twice a month
• Saying up too late
• Being confined
• Putting on her jammies
• Laying on her changing table
• Being tired
• Falling on her face
• Having food (especially apples or peaches) taken away

On the whole she is a very happy little lady. She mostly only gets upset if she is overtired or you take something from her she really, really wants. We love our happy little girl so much. I still can't believe how excited I get to see her every single day. She is the best baby and we love her to the moon and back.