Happy 9 Months Rayah!

My little baby girl is already 9 months old and she’s not so little any more!  She weighed in at 23 lb. 12 oz. and is around 29 3/4 inches long.  She officially outgrew her infant carseat, so we purchased one of these combo infant-child-booster seats that can still be used rear-facing for now and which she can grow into as well.  She is a chunky-monkey and I love her chubby rolls – she is so squishable and loveable in all her soft, mushy goodness! 

She has also been teething pretty much all month and has four teeth on the top to show for it!  This has also allowed her to start eating some new foods & loves chomping on rice crackers or a baby carrot or apple slice or french fries.   She often cries while we’re feeding her if we don’t go fast enough or when she’s done her bottle, because she’s so sad it’s over!  Here she is showing off her teeth in her classic under-bite smile.    Oh, and don’t you just love the little curl of hair she has in the  front – so cute!

She loves standing while we hold her hands and it makes her very happy to be standing, which is quite different from Justice, who would just go limp if we tried to hold his hands and have him stand or walk.  She’s also trying to crawl and will desperately try to move forwards toward a toy or something, but inevitably ends up pushing herself backwards into a corner.    However, she can scootch quite a distance acoss the floor while sitting on her bum!

Video – Bouncing

She’s responding to her name and laughing more and has added “mamamama” and “baba” to her extensive vocabulary of “dada”, “gaga” and “yaya”.    The videos below the pictures show her growling noises that she sometimes makes while eating that just crack me up (skip to about 0:35), as well as some funny noises she was making one day during her bath.

Video – Growly Eater

Video – Noisy Bather

She’s sleeping unswaddled on her stomach at night, but I’ve still been swaddling her for her naps, just because it seems to help her sleep better and longer.  She’s also learning how to open drawers and cupboard doors, except that most of them are already babyproofed, much to her frustration.

She loves sitting and playing in the water at the splash park and we’ve really been enjoying going there as a family once or twice a week!

Lastly, I’ve really been noticing several differences this month between Rayah and Justice as her unique personality is really becoming apparent.  She is more serious, more sensitive, more delicate, and more of a mama’s girl (“plays strange” with a lot of people and doesn’t like it if mommy leaves the room) while Justice is always laughing, is tough as nails most times, and loves people!  She’s also really funny – making Justice and Joe and I laugh a lot, determined, curious, and simply beautiful.