9 Months

Dear Annie,
You are now 9 months and 5 days old. You had your 9 month check-up yesterday with Dr. Eaton. Here are your stats:

You are 28.25 inches tall
You weigh 20 pounds and 6 ounces
Your head is 17.75 inches around

I don't have the sheet with the percentiles with me, but you jumped up into the 70th or so percentile for weight and I believe you are in the 80th for height. Dr. Eaton reiterated that you are perfect. We discussed you eating "table food" (which makes me feel like you are a dog getting table scraps, but I will get over that) and I ran down the list of "grown-up" things you eat:

eggs (but only when I am eating them, you hate them when they are your own dedicated eggs)

apples cut into teeny tiny slivery pieces

strawberries

watermelon (lets just assume everything on this list is in tiny pieces unless otherwise indicated)

bread

brown rice

beans

crab-tried it once, just to cross it off the list of possible allergies

PEANUT BUTTER

We are still giving you rice cereal maybe once a day (usually lunch) and then you eat regular baby food for breakfast and dinner. You are still getting 3-4 bottles of formula a day, but have become quite proficient at drinking water out of your sippy cup. You can be trusted to feed yourself finger foods, unless those finger foods are puffs (regular or yogurt). In those cases, you must be watched like a hawk or you will stuff your little mouth full of them.

You crawled for the first time yesterday. It wasn't a traditional crawl, but more like a snake that grew an arm and a leg on one side of its body. You then would use one arm/leg to pull/push and then roll to the side to reposition, then pull/push again. It's not going to win any gracefulness points, but it got you to that baby doll, and that's what is important. Speaking of the baby doll, you are now able to give kisses on demand. A warning to anyone that tries this little trick with Annie, this is no kindergarten peck on the lips. This is a full, open mouth, PG-13 tongue action. You commit to the kiss. I really need to cut down on all the Soaps you've been watching.

I feel like everything is happening at once. You are now moving around in your army worm crawl, you clap, you wave, you hand us toys, you feed yourself. It's almost too much to take. I peeked in on you the other day on our Annie cam and you were sitting up in your crib. I had seen you do that "in real life" but never on the camera and it stopped me in my tracks. After seeing your little body all sprawled out for 9 months, to just see the top of your head was quite a shock!

You are impossibly sweet and happy baby. People comment on it all the time. Even your screams seem to be happy and they tend to make you laugh after a particularly loud one. I love those screams because it makes it very easy to find you and your Dad when we are out shopping.

You don't really let me rock you to sleep any more. I guess all that sleep training really worked out, but now it makes me sad. At bed time, after we brush those two sweet little teeth, you and I go back in and sit in our chair. You will usually give me brief moment where you will lay your head on my chest and then about 10 seconds later you will arch your back towards your crib. You are usually asleep within minutes and have been going to bed around 6:30 on most nights. You sleep until 6:15-6:30 in the morning. It is really amazing.

A rare photo of the two of us. In stripes, of course.

Twenty years from now, I hope I remember how sweet and fuzzy your hair feels on my face when I am putting on your socks, how quickly you seem to remove your socks/shoes every time we get you in your car seat, how you arch your back and squinch up your face to let me know you no longer want to be stapped into your chair/rocker, how impossibly white the whites of your eyes are, how obsessed I am with those two little teeth because they make you look so big, the sweet pads on the back of your hands because they remind me that you are still so little, and how my heart aches and soars every time you learn something new.

I love you more than Puffs (you) and nachos (me),

mom

Big Weekend

This was a bit of a whirlwind of a weekend. We had our first swimming lesson on Saturday, which provided many learning opportunities for future swimming lessons. The main one being that it will take more than 10 minutes to prepare for swimming lessons. And that the post-swimming lesson locker room scenario will be as close to hell on earth as you have come in your life. You will let your child, that puts everything in their mouth, on the grimy locker room CARPET because there is nowhere to put her. I am still recovering.

Despite her deer in the headlights look here, Annie rocked swimming lessons. No tears and she acted like she had done this 100 times before. I was also pleasantly happy that all the chlorine in the water was burning my face because Annie's primary objective was to drink the water. I have convinced myself that ingesting chlorine is less harmful than e. coli or some other water-borne parasite.

The weather on Sunday was perfect for the highly impractical turtle neck, short-sleeved sweater. Hard to wear, but oh so cute.

She was apparently comfy enough to fall asleep in her big girl car seat. It's not very often that my child's outfit makes me feel I am under dressed.

We finally bit the bullet and purchased the B.O.B jogging stroller. Sure, it's roughly comparable to a monthly car payment, but we already used it twice on Sunday. Annie sacked out during the maiden voyage and I got a good workout in. Everyone wins!

And a big Happy Birthday to Mr. Big Daddy Loyd. We miss you and hope you are having a perfect day!

My People

Yesterday was a big day in Casa de Erwin. It was The Ricker's birthday and Annie turned 9 months old! To honor these two, I present this photo montage:

He provides extra good views in Miami

He's a comfy place to sleep.

He is not afraid to pimp Annie out in City Museum gear.

Though she bites now with her big girl teeth, this Dad's not afraid to become a human chew toy. And would you look at that leg? That is some sweet, sweet baby chub.

Happy belated to my two favorites.

Let's give the gal a hand

Annie clapped today! Intentional hand slapping claps in celebration of her ability to SIT UP BY HERSELF. It's all very big stuff over here. Rick and I screamed like lunatics and I am sure we are setting Annie up to be one of those nightmare kids that expects people to fall all over themselves when she eats her veggies when she's 16. But I refuse to worry about that now. Our kid can clap! And sit up!

I also refuse to let Blogger tarnish my excitement over this moment by not uploading the video of said clapping. I am sorry the two of you that didn't already receive it via text 13 seconds after it happened have to miss out on the cuteness.

My Sweet Valentines

I am very lucky to be filled with so much love today.

I love Rick for making sure he's there to wake Annie up each morning and feed her.

I love Rick for fishing all those pesky boogers out of Annie's nose (and then showing them to me).

I love Rick for offering to get up each and every time Annie cries in the night.

I love Rick for having such an overwhelming job, but for taking so little of it home with him.

I love Rick for being such a child at heart and being so playful with Annie.

I love Rick for not getting upset when Annie reaches for me, because he knows when she's old enough to know how to play, she will be ALL ABOUT her Dad.

I love Rick because I always knew he would be a wonderful father, but he somehow managed to exceed all of my expectations.

I love Rick because he tolerates all my bossiness and cranky times (yes, it happens).

I love Rick because we make such a good team.

I love Rick because he has always made me feel as if we are on a great adventure, but so safe, no matter what we are doing.

I love Rick because I didn't think I could love him any more than I did before Annie came along, but there is something about watching a man with his child/daughter that makes them pretty much irresistible.

And Annie....I don't even know where to start. She changes so much every day.

I love how she is moving so much that she hardly wants to be held (though it makes me a bit sad).

I love how she will reach up and touch my face almost like she's trying to memorize it.

I love how she looks different almost every day because she's growing so fast.

I love how she will start to almost tremble when she gets really excited about something (peanut butter was the latest).

I love how she will reach for me and I soak in every minute, because I know there will come a time when this fickle child will reach for others (see above).

I love how one person will say that she looks just like me, then another person will declare that she looks exactly like Rick.

I love how she loves to bang on just about anything.

I love how banging on things comes a distant 2nd to chewing on things.

So maybe they were right, all you do need is love....and perhaps something to chew on.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Toofer Tuesday

Say goodbye to this sweet gummy mouth, people, because someone's got TWO brand new teeth a-pokin' their way through! We noticed the bottom right one coming in on Sunday (2/5, for future reference) and then I am pretty sure the front left daylighted today. She's very protective of them and you have to both get her to hold still and be faster than her tongue to get a good view.

And say HELLO to this sweet little bundle of handsome, Mr. Marshall James Dodgen, born at 12:33 weighing in at 8 lbs, 3 oz. He is the son of my beautiful friend and college roommate, KK (grown-up name Kristen).

The proud Mom and her sweet boy. As if I needed another reason to visit Austin. Hopefully Marshall's father holds off a while before he starts feeding the little man Almond Joys.

Sick

Sorry we have been so MIA over here. I got the call last Friday that Annie had a fever, so I rushed her to the doctor, convinced we were going to be admitted to a hospital of some sort. Turned out she had a cold. Being a first time parent can really rattle the ole nerves from time to time. Relaxing, it is not.

The weekend included the Grandparents Erwin coming in to babysit for an evening while we went out to celebrate Chaney's 37th birthday. Nothing like leaving your sick, wailing baby as your first real "night out" experience. Thankfully Grandma and Papa Erwin have done this a time or two before and handled it like real champs. Rick and I were not so composed and fought the urge to check in every 15 minutes.

As luck would have it, I then started to get sick on Sunday. It hit full-tilt boogie on Tuesday and I am finally on the back side of it now. Annie has perfected her snot-rockets and nothing makes me feel more like a Mom than constantly wiping her nose. You have to be fast about it or else (WARNING, this is gross, and Annie won't be happy I wrote this in 12 years) she will try to LICK up the business that has just shot forth from her nose. It's nothin' but class over here people! I guess she gets a pass since she's still a baby. I will start to worry if this behavior continues as we are headed off to college.

We are still in the drainage phase, just in time for us to board a plane to Miami. I can only imagine the joy the person will feel sharing a row with two sneezing, coughing, snot blowing individuals, one of which happens to be an 8 month old. I fully expect this poor soul to take one look at us and kindly request the flight attendant's assistance in locating another seat. Can't say I blame them. This is sure to be an adventure!