Approaching the 9 month mark

I can’t believe how big our little baby is getting. And I can’t believe the first year of her life is 3/4ths over!!! How these precious days fly.

Elaine is more and more of a little person. She talks regularly now. Yes, its still babbling, ‘ya ya yaaaa, dada babaababa, maaama,’ but its quite expressive. She talks while she plays by herself and she talks with Jeremy and I often. Of course with new people and situations she still observes mostly. But the quality of her talking continues to develop. We’re doing little sign language signs with her and there have been a few times where she actually SAYS something close to what I’m saying signing. “Up? …. Uh.” “Daddy? Dada!” No doubt about it. She’s understanding a lot  these days.

As for mobility, no crawling yet but she LOVES to stand. We inherited an exersaucer and a little musical table from a friend when we got to Colorado and E has used both quite enthusiastically almost everyday. She has also been working on pulling herself up and lowering herself down. She can’t quite pull herself up independently yet but she’s very close. Once, on Daddio’s 96^th birthday, Nov 3^rd, she pushed herself up into a sitting position in her pack n play. She hasn’t done it since but it’s within the realm of possibility! She does pivot herself and roll a lot. She can cover the floor pretty easily so that means we’re officially on baby-proofing territory.

Standing Pretty 

Here’s a little video to give you an idea of her mobility and another one of her quirky phases. She started blowing spit bubbles out of the blue around Halloween and its been one of her favorite pastimes. I don’t know if she understands what she’s doing. She obviously can’t see the bubbles but perhaps she likes the sensation on her lips? What an interesting kid!

Bubble Machine

As for eating, Elaine is trying her hand at self-feeding. We’ve given her little melt-in-the-mouth puffs and although she can slowly pick them up she has yet to accurately get them in her mouth. She’s been successful once or twice but its not consistent. She has slowly been introduced to more and more texturized foods. I’m making her baby food more chunky these days, not completely pureed. She’s also become VERY interested in the foods we’re eating. So I am now giving her little tastes of ‘big people’ food and she has yet to reject anything. Veggie curry? Yup. Beef schwarma? Oh yeah. Cous cous? Yum. Banana pancake? Bring it on. Of course she just gums the food and swallows since she only has 4 teeth but she’s loving the variety!

She also met her little Colorado cousin Robin Tharp this past week. They were SOOO cute together. Robin hasn’t spent any time around another baby so he was quite enthralled. I think they’re gonna be good friends!

Cute CO cousins!

Another milestone that isn't nearly as fun or cute as the others is Elaine and I got our first colds together. Amazingly, she was in much better spirits than I and her illness seemed to be a lot less severe. Hopefully we won't have to have too many repeat performances this season. But it was nice to lay around the house for a few days in our pjs watching the snow fall. Onward with the building of the immune system!