9 months old

Well, she’s officially been on the outside longer than she was on the inside! Harper’s 9th month was full of development. The biggest change is her mobility. She’s not fully crawling forward just yet, but scoots backwards and in circles, goes from sitting to all 4’s and back to sitting, pulls from sitting to standing, and will take a few steps while holding our hands. She rolls over from back to tummy every time she’s in her crib now and will often sleep most of her naps on her belly. She still loves her jumperoo and jumps with a lot of enthusiasm – I’m surprised it has held up! She can spin herself around in it too.

She can clap, lean in for kisses (a slobbery open mouth) and has 5 teeth! She likes to smack her lips, click her tongue and say dadada and bababa. She’s ticklish under her arms and still laughs the most at Maeby and a yellow chicken puppet on TV named Chica. She gets rather shy around people and sometimes whimpers when I leave her at daycare, but it doesn’t last long.

She likes just about all the food I’ve given her, even beets! She still has a pretty sensitive gag reflex – so we stay away from chunky stuff like chicken and quinoa. She’s just started to feed herself (picking puffs up off her tray and putting them in her mouth…sometimes) but still prefers to be spoon fed (as long as she also has her own spoon to hold to keep her hands busy.) She uses a sippy cup too! She’s now 21 lbs 11oz and 27 inches long.

She has a lot of admirers when we take her out with us – a lot of “look at those cheeks!” and “look at those eyelashes!” comments. Her favorite outing this month was to the big pool on Father’s day. We have her first flight coming up in July and she’ll be meeting a lot of her extended family!

water baby

This last month has been quite busy! The month started out with a visit from Grandpa and Julie!

My sister gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Avery Leigh! I went to New York to visit for a few days and enjoyed some newborn snuggles. I can’t wait for Harper and Avery to meet – they will be BFF’s!

Harper will be spending a lot of time in the pool this summer – it’s the only thing to do here when it’s this hot!

We took her to the big pool to swim for the first time! She loved watching all the other kids, but didn’t like when she got splashed in the face.

Harper had her first sink bath and had the time of her life! She was so excited the whole time – particularly when Maeby jumped up on the counter to check out the water.

I put shoes on her for the first time and almost died of the cuteness!

Harper clapped for the first time and I managed to get it on camera.

She’s been more and more active – scooting backwards and in circles, pulling herself to standing, trying to crawl forward (but having a hard time getting over that foot.)

Now that Harper is 9 months, I’m finally getting around to packing up some things she’s outgrown – her swing and her bumbo.

Her first time in the swing:

Her last time in the swing:

Her first time in the bumbo:

Her last time in the bumbo:

And when it’s too hot to do anything else, we play dress up. Of course, I had to dress her up like my childhood doll – they look exactly the same!