I’m a month late, but I want to get Clara’s nine month update on here before adding her ten month one. The month flew by, and Clara did a whole lot of growing up. At her checkup, she weighed 17.5 pounds and was 26.5 inches long. She’s finally moved up to the 25-50% for weight, which makes us super happy. She’s got plenty of adorable rolls on her legs these days, so we weren’t surprised she’d made the jump to the next percentile.

Between eight and nine months, she got two more teeth, bringing the total to six (four top, two bottom). Every time she gets more teeth, she grinds and clicks them together until she gets used to the new ones being there. It sounds horribly painful, but she gets a big kick out of doing it.

Just before nine months, Clara started pulling up to stand. She much prefers standing to sitting and will surely be walking soon. She spent most of December perfecting this, and now she pulls up on anything she can (including us, the couch, toys and her crib). She’s still crawling all over and now enjoys crawling down into the living room from our entryway, where there’s about a seven inch drop. It scares us to no end, but she laughs herself silly every time she does it.

She loves food so much that we can’t eat in front of her without offering her something. This is great most of the time, but it has proven to be difficult when we’re at a restaurant that doesn’t really have any baby-friendly foods. We went out for pizza, and I had to pull the vegetables off my pizza so she could have some. We’ve gotten in the habit of taking fruit or veggie pouches with us so that we always have something healthy for her to eat. She’s also discovered that Abby will gladly sit near the highchair whenever she’s in it, and she likes to toss food on the floor (presumably for fun, but we like to think it’s because she wants to share with Abby).

Another month has gone by, and it seems like Clara is growing faster than ever. Out of nowhere, she’s taken to standing (while holding onto us or furniture at her height). She’s crawling so fast that I can barely keep up with her. She recently discovered the computer cords, and tries to sneak under the desk anytime I’m not looking. Now that she’s gotten the hang of crawling, she’s back in her talkative mode. She took a break for about a month, but she’s come back strong and now crawls and talks at the same time. Mornings are still her favorite time to babble and squeal.

Her top two teeth are pretty much in now, and I’m certain more teeth aren’t far behind. Now that she knows those teeth are there, she really enjoys clicking them against her bottom teeth. The sound kind of makes me cringe, but she obviously loves it. She does it a few times and then laughs. Speaking of laughing, everything has been cracking her up lately! She randomly breaks into laughter during eating or playing on the floor or being carried. It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest sounds ever.

In just over a week, we’ll be heading to my dad’s near Charleston to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I’m looking forward to sharing all the delicious food with Clara. This will be my dad’s and brother’s first time seeing Clara, and I know they’re going to be ecstatic to spend time with her for a few days. Eric and I are really excited about heading into Charleston while we’re there, too, because there are plenty of restaurants and bakeries we want to visit in the area. It should be a fun trip! Then, before we know it, we’ll be celebrating Christmas! It’s crazy! I guess I need to start working on plans for her first birthday, which I’m sure will be here in no time.

Even though she’s getting close to eight months, I couldn’t let October pass without writing Clara’s seven month update. Lots of changes have happened this month, the biggest of which has been crawling. Though she hasn’t perfected it yet, Clara is essentially crawling all over the place. I’m calling it crawling and not scooting because she lifts her stomach off the ground when she moves. Her movement still consists of a hybrid of scooting, rolling and crawling, but it’s effective. She still loves being on her stomach and rolls to it pretty much as soon as I put her on the ground. She’s also learning to move from a sitting position onto her stomach, which has been interesting and amusing to watch. She started by falling to the side and then rolling, but now she tries to lean forward and gradually move her arms forward until she ends up on her stomach.

Another big change we’ve seen this month is the emergence of her top two teeth. This brings her tooth total to four at not even eight months. I get the feeling she’s going to have a mouthful before we make it to her first birthday. These teeth have bothered her much more than her bottom teeth did. Now that they’ve popped through, I’m hoping she’ll have a reprieve from teething for a little while.

Clara is continuing to eat new foods and has yet to turn down a thing we’ve offered her. We most recently gave her black bean burgers, and she was a big fan. We try to make sure she’s exposed to a variety of different tastes and textures in the foods we give her.

Early in her seventh month, Clara took her second plane trip. Counting two trips to Alabama, including one that required a layover in Atlanta, this brings Clara’s plane total to six. We leave for Dallas in just over a week, which means she will have been on eight planes in her eight months of life.

She’s continuing to make tons of talking sounds. We’ve heard so many consonants that it’s hard to keep track. There are g, c, d, m, n and f, just to name a few. The child likes to talk, there’s no doubt about that. She’s also really into “blowing raspberries” right now and often does it when she’s trying really hard not to fall asleep. Because of her newfound movement, she’s discovered door stops and tries to chew on them. I also found her chewing on the leg of my office chair the other day. She has wooden chew toys, but apparently the chair is more appealing.

She’s got lots of firsts coming up soon – Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas – and we’re both thrilled at what we can do to make these holidays special for her. Not only will this be her first Christmas, it will be our first Christmas in Virginia and the first one at our new home. We’re both insanely excited about starting traditions with her that will hopefully continue for many more years.

How is it possible that our sweet girl celebrated her half birthday a couple weeks ago? Clara continues to bring laughter and joy into our lives on a daily basis. The past month has brought about several changes, the most major one being the appearance of her two bottom teeth on September 4. We knew she’d been teething but knew it could be a while before the teeth broke the surface. Things were rough for a few days (mostly for me), especially when her six month growth spurt hit. I think it will be a couple more weeks before her teeth are fully up, and I’m glad they haven’t seemed to cause too much pain.

On a related note, we started solids around that time. She’s been eating wonderfully, and we’ve been amazed at how naturally and easily eating solid food came to her. We gave her watermelon last weekend, and she actually growled when we took it away for a second. Eric loves watermelon, so Clara’s love of it is no surprise.

Another big change is that she’s begun scooting, almost like an inchworm. She can move her legs wonderfully but hasn’t quite gotten the hang of moving her arms and legs simultaneously. She rolls all over the place, turns like a clock hand and also scoots on her back, all of which have proven quite effective to get her where she wants to be. She started sitting up just before she hit six months and has nearly perfected it in just the last two weeks.

Her vocal range is widening, and we now get to listen to a variety of noises including growls, squeaks and squeals. We’ve started to hear more word-like sounds lately, which is very exciting. When she gets hungry, she starts “saying” mamamama and smacking her lips. Since she started teething, she’s started sucking on her bottom lip and makes the cutest little face while doing so.

She was 25.5 inches long and 14.5 pounds at her checkup two weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure she’s gotten longer since then because of her growth spurt and the fact that some of her sleepers are becoming hard to zip up.

Though she doesn’t look that different day to day, I can see how much Clara has grown when I look back at these pictures. It’s crazy to me that so much time has gone by. Our little munchkin is discovering new things each day, and I love watching her do it. She’s still rolling all over the place and is working hard on her scooting. She’ll be crawling before we know it!

Our only hiccup this month came when I discovered that Clara’s diapers needed to be stripped (possibly due to the fact that we have moderately hard water, or maybe just a detergent issue). I love cloth diapering, but stripping the diapers was a pain. Thankfully, my friend Marlyn was able to help me identify the problem and give me a solution (after a ton of text messages back and forth). Considering Clara’s been using the bathroom in them the past five months, it was probably time for a super deep cleaning anyway.

Clara has been going to bed around the same time each night for quite a while, and Eric and I have a pretty good routine down now. Most of the time, Clara wants to eat just before bed, so I’ll feed her while Eric reads to us. We’re currently reading The Hobbit and will move on to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone next. This is, by far, my absolute favorite time of day. Clara will sometimes stop eating and give Eric the stare down if he pauses while reading. It’s hilarious. She’s definitely entered the easily distractible while eating phase. Speaking of eating, we’ll be starting solid foods with her in just a couple weeks! I’m sure there will be plenty of amusing pictures to come.

Clara’s four month picture was delayed a few days because of the insane heat we’ve had here the past week. It’s been well over 100 degrees here for days. We finally got a cool snap (read: less than 90) so I took her out for a few pictures. Since I can’t keep her still for anything, this was the best shot I could get.

She’s changed so much in the past month. She can roll both directions and is already trying to scoot by pushing off the floor with the tips of her toes (see her left foot above). She’s also laughing, like genuinely laughing. It’s pretty much the best thing ever. She has started licking and chewing on toys and her fingers. She can sit on her own in her baby chair and likes to be held facing out so she can see what’s going on. She doesn’t look different from day to day, but she looks so different than she did a month ago. It’s insane. At her four month checkup, she was 24.5 inches long and 12 pounds, 8.5 ounces. She’s a long, skinny girl.

For the most part, she’s sleeping at night in eight to nine hour stretches. There are occasional nights that she wakes up more frequently. I’m happy that, at least for the time being, she is such a good sleeper. She’s such a sweet, happy girl. 🙂