9 Months

Ann turned 9 months old nearly two weeks ago.  I can hardly believe how much she has changed and grown in just 9 months!  She went from this.....

 (just shy of 2 weeks old)

...to this:

Such a big girl! 

Ann had her 9 month checkup last week on Valentine's Day.  She had grown quite a lot in the last 3 months since her last appointment.  She's now a whopping 18lbs 5oz (39 percentile) and is 28 inches long (75 percentile).  (She gained over 4.5 pounds and grew almost 2 inches since her 6 month appointment back in November.)  We love her so much!

It has been so much fun to see her little personality continue to develop.  She has a lot of separation anxiety, especially in the mornings, when I try to set her down to get something done (i.e. get breakfast ready).  But she has gotten to be very opinionated about things as well (such as when/where/how long I nurse her).  One of her favorite places to hang out is on her daddy's shoulders, playing with his hair.  She definitely protests when she's taken down.

She's still not crawling yet, but can scoot around on the floor some.  It's sad to see her get frustrated when she can't quite get to where she wants to go.  We just keep putting her on the floor to get more practice!

Ann loves her books.  Even if she's a little fussy, I can sit down with her and read her books to her for nearly 20 minutes or so.  She loves to look at her books by herself too. 

I tried to take a self-portrait picture of the two of us again and was actually able to get it to focus pretty well on us.  Ann decided to play with my hair when I attempted to get a good picture (hence my hair across my face) - that girl LOVES to play with hair! 

High chair!  Ann has officially graduated from eating in her bumbo to eating in a high chair (read: she was getting to active/antsy in her bumbo so we finally broke down and bought a high chair).  She seems to enjoy sitting it in, and I think she likes having a tray in front of her as well. 

"I love my high chair!"  Haha...if you look closely at the bottom right corner of the picture, you'll see Tom's hand tickling Ann's feet in a successful attempt to get her to smile.

Not too much else has really been going on here.  Tom and I were able to have a quiet Valentine's dinner together at home while my parents watched Ann for us.  Tom continues to go to school and be incredibly busy with schoolwork.  I stay home and try to keep things clean and orderly and keep a baby fed and happy. Ann continues to grow and be cute.  We love her so much!