Oh how my baby grows...so fast! Nine months is so much fun and I really wish I could just freeze time right now. Our littly Livvy has changed so much these past few months it's unreal. And so much fun.
December wasn't the best month for Alivia. She got her first sickness as well as her first teeth! She got both teeth on the bottom in. The sickness may have been due to that fact that she got teeth. It was sad when she was sick though. It's always hard to have a sick baby. Alivia's such a happy baby and during those few weeks, she just wasn't the same. Once it was over though, she was back to her happy self and playing and rolling all over.
She also decided to stop taking a bottle in December. It had been about 2-3 weeks since I'd given her a bottle so I decided I'd better give her one. All she did was chew on it. No sucking whatsoever. Now that I think about it, maybe it was because she got teeth. I'm not sure why that would have anything to do with it, but she wasn't having anything to do with that bottle anymore. Or binkies for that matter. She would nurse and suck her finger and that was it. It's been kind of a struggle sometimes because it's nice to have a "plug" once in awhile (okay, at church), but at least I don't have to worry about weaning her off a binky (just that finger!).
No thanks Mom
She has begun to increasingly enjoy "big people food." She would always eat her baby food so well and we tried some new stuff too.
I was nervous about giving her green beans, but she loved them! And she also likes peas.
I know it looks likes she's spitting it out, but she's not. I think she's just talking
She loves to eat crackers and once she hit eight months she began to figure out the pincer grip and started picking up little finger foods. She loves to feed herself. Recently, she almost prefers whatever I'm eating to her baby food. I think her taste buds are maturing. She does eat fruit now and loves it (she wouldn't at first). I've made her applesauce, peaches and bananas and we've tried some store bought stuff as well. We haven't found a food she doesn't like.
As far as milestones, she got much better at sitting up on her own and pretty much perfected it by seven months.
She's practically doing the splits in this picture. So flexible. She started out this way, holding her hand in the middle to keep herself up.
Alivia also began recognizing her family and would notice when she was alone or when we left the room. She decided she was much happier with her family around :)
Here she is listening to daddy sing
She just loves her sisters. She sees more of Aivree because Aivree is home more than Anisten and they are so cute together. Aivree is such a good big sister and so understanding when Alivia pulls her hair and scratches her and takes her toys. Alivia loves to just be near Aivree and watch whatever she's doing and laugh at her. It's nice that they're already learning to entertain each other.
I love this of Anisten reading a book to Alivia. She loved it.
Livvy loves to laugh. She seriously laughs all the time at the most random things. We're not even trying to make her laugh and she's giggling. Such a funny girl. She makes us laugh too. She started doing this funny face around six months and she did it for a few months. Not as much anymore. I love it and it would always make me laugh.
She closes her eyes and scrunches up her nose
She rolled and rolled around to get everywhere and then about 7 1/2 months she started army crawling a little bit. She's got progressively faster and now she gets up on all fours and rocks all the time. I just keep waiting for her to take off one day.
At around six months she learned her first "trick." She learned how to clap. All we had to say was Pat A Cake or Yay!! and she'd grin all big and start clapping those hands. She claps her feet really well too! She also learned to wave Hi shortly after that and recently she's learned to blow kisses, play peekaboo, do the Indian pow wow sound on her own and give kisses. She's also started shaking her head really fast like she's dancing. It's so much fun when they start understanding things and even though we're only communicating in a small way, we're understood by each other and I love it. It's so stinkin cute too.
This getting older stuff has it's advantages too. I brought up a bunch of old baby toys that we have and it was like Christmas for Alivia. So many fun toys to play with.
She loves this one and sits and plays the instruments and looks at herself in the mirror forever. So cute
With her new mobility she's begun getting into things at her level...oh the joys, right?
She discovered a little friend in the mirror one day and decided she liked her so much she'd give her a kiss.
One good thing about having a baby in winter time is that I could put fun little hats on her to keep her head warm (see picture above as well). She looked so cute in them.
Of course, the girls still love to put other things on her head too :)
One day she was chilling in her high chair and she noticed that if she waved her hand over the garbage can it would open! She had a fun time with this for quite awhile. Such a smartie pants. She really is a pretty smart girl. She loves to put things in other things, if that makes any sense. For example, I was giving her her little snacks and I'd dump them in my hand and she'd pick one up and put it back in the little container. She also likes to put her toys into anything she can reach. When I try to teach her a new "trick" she catches on really quickly. She loves watching Baby Einstein too and gets all excited when it comes on.
One of her favorite games is peekaboo. She puts anything over her head and loves to hear us say "Where's Alivia?" Then she pops her head out.
She's also growing some hair! I thought it was so funny that when she had just a short amount of hair, she'd still manage to get bed head.
When she was sick (again in February) I'd put the vaporizer in her room and this is what it looked like after her nap one day. So curly! She's got lots of curl in her hair, just like her sisters did.
And at eight months it was long enough for her very first ponytail! Such a big girl
Here are her stats at 9 months:
Weight: 16 lbs 3.5 oz - 9%
Height: 26 1/2 inches - 16%
Head: 17 1/4 inches - 44%
She's a petite little thing!
At 7 months I decided that she should be able to sleep 12 hours at night. I'd trained my other girls much earlier than that. She would occasionally sleep 12 and then other nights wake up at 8 or 10. I was okay with it for awhile because I'd just put her back to bed and then she'd sleep in while I was getting the other girls up. But one night, right at seven months olds, she woke up after only eight hours so I had to do a little sleep training and not go feed her. She was awake for about an hour and a half and fussed/cried the last half hour and then went to sleep. Since then, she's slept 12 hours every night. There was a few days when she was sick that she woke up early again, but after she got better, she went back to her 12 hour schedule. So nice when they start doing that. She's always been such a good sleeper, something I'm so grateful for.
Honestly, I regret that I haven't recorded Alivia's life better. I should've documented more as it happened, but there's not much I can do about it now. I'll just try to be better in the future. She is seriously so much fun and most days I am sad when I have to put her to bed because I miss her. She's such a sweet little cuddly girl and loves to be loved. She makes me so happy and has honestly been my saving grace these past few months when Rob has been away so much with his crazy work schedule. She is such a blessing in all of our lives and can always make any one of us smile. Our family would not be complete without our precious Livvy.
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