Finding her voice.

Before T was born, Chris and I would sit on the couch after work and talk about what she might be like. Chris' cousin has an adorable little girl with the sweetest, high-pitched voice and we wondered if T's voice would sound like hers, or how she would giggle. Now that she has been with us for nine months (!!) we still like to talk about what activities she will like (swimming or running like mama, soccer or music like Dad?) and envision ourselves sitting in the stands at her matches/meets/games/events and cheering her on. We also wonder what her voice will sound like. She makes a lot of noise, and started saying "dadada" and "mum" pretty early on, but most of what she says is in her own language. This past weekend, she really found her voice and started making growling and roaring noises at her toys, her toes, and everything else in her sight. This brings back a memory of my nephew, James, at a grocery store or Target or somewhere with his mom. She is telling him, "we do not roar at people." I feel like I understand this more than ever before. Thankfully, yesterday was our church's general conference, which means that we get to stay in all weekend and listen to our church leaders on TV instead of going to church. Trying to control those roars and growls in the quiet of sacrament meeting probably would have been near impossible.

In the last week or so, she has also drastically amplified her need for independence. When she sits in her high chair at the table while we eat dinner, we give her puffs and other finger foods to snack on. If we try to feed them to her, she turns her head and closes her mouth. But place them on her tray, and she will dive right in, even making excited "mmmm" noises as she eats. Except yogurt drops, which she turns down with great disdain.

She had her 9 month well check last Friday, and is very healthy and happy.

• Weight: 15.75 lbs (5^th percentile) – the pediatrician did mention that her weight gain isn’t quite as rapid as he’d like, but isn’t too worried. He just said to start adding chicken and other foods to her diet, since she won’t gain much weight with what she is eating now (fruit and veggie purees J )
• She still wears some 3-6 month clothes (mostly onesies) and all 6 month pants. We have tried a few 9 month clothing items on her, but they are always really loose. Most pants are too short on her, which makes us think she is tall. But she is 24.5 inches long, putting her in the 18^th percentile for length
• After our San Diego trip (where she had 2 blowouts and wet through five diapers) we moved up to size 3 diapers during the day, size 3 overnight diapers at night. Putting her in the next size at night (or overnight-specific ones) has been a real game changer and she hasn’t wet through one since.
• Her hair is getting longer and lighter! Her cousin KK always asks, “when do you think it will be long enough for pigtails?"
• She has two teeth (bottom front). Gma thought she felt a few more poking through the top, but we haven’t seen them yet.
• We hit a bit of a sleep regression, which was tough. The night before Easter was the worst because she woke up 10 times! Every time I went in there, she was standing in her crib and was very sleepy. From what I have read, this seems normal because of developmental changes, but that doesn’t make it any easier! She is doing better now, although she is fighting going to bed lately. She immediately stands up and starts crying, especially once I leave the room.
• She loves to eat real food, and will say “mmmm” while eating. This is especially pronounced when I give her little tastes of my frozen yogurt or other treats. She isn’t too picky, although she hates yogurt drops (I have even tried multiple flavors!). She gags and chokes a little bit when I try to give her pieces of food, but hopefully she will get the hang of it
•  Loves to crawl and stand up to EVERYTHING (even things that aren’t very stable, like her swing). If you are holding her, she will wiggle until you put her down. The only exception is if you are reading her a book – she will hold totally still and turn the pages
•  Her bath seat had a little hammock thing that suspended her kind of above/in the water, but she seemed to be getting too long for it so we took it out. Her first few baths without it have been a little questionable, and it seems like she feels unsteady so she holds on to the sides.