NINE Months Old

{blogged a week late}

Oh Avery-
It seems like before my very eyes you are changing. Sometimes you look older to me at the end of the day than you did that morning. Because I spend all-day-every-day with you sometimes I don't realize how much of your "infant-ness" is dissipating. You aren't quite a toddler, but you certainly aren't a newborn. Every night when I'm rocking you to sleep, I look down at you and my heart hurts with love. Does every parent love their child this much? Sometimes it takes my breath away. I worry about you constantly. I think about your heart being broken, or kids being mean to you at school and my heart aches. I want to protect you from the world. It's a scary, helpless feeling being a mama. I want to keep you little and in my arms where I'm able to keep you safe. And on the other hand I can't wait to watch you grow into a joyful, kind human being. I hope your dad and I will always be able to watch you live out your long, happy life. I love you baby girl.
Stats: At your 9 month doctor appointment you were:
 -29 inches long (93% - how did you get to be so tall?) 
-19.4 pounds (69%) 
-and your big ol' head was 46.5 cm (97%). 
New: You love to stand on your own - holding on to the ottoman, or your crib. The look of pride and satisfaction on your face is amazing. Your expression just beams, "do you see what I'm doing mom? No big deal." 
You are understanding more and more words. My absolute favorite is that I can say, "Kisses? Give mama kisses?" And your face will freeze and you'll slowly lean towards my face until our faces touch. Then you scrunch your nose and give me the best smile, satisfied that you were able to understand what I said and carry out the action. You also say, "dadda" "doggy" and "Wassat?" (Translation: What's that?)
Sleep: Sigh. This has probably been the worst month we've had. You've been sleeping through the night more or less since you were a few months old. The past 3 weeks you have been waking up several times a night crying reallllly hard. The only thing that will calm you down is the boob. Then you fall quickly back to sleep. I'm still not sure if it's a growth spurt and you're actually hungry, or if you're just becoming more aware that I'm not in the room and it makes you mad? I really, really don't want to just leave you to cry by yourself, but I'm terrified I'm going to create bad habits. After a couple of weeks (one night you woke up every two hours like a newborn baby!) I let you cry for awhile before I went in there. After about ten minutes or so, you fell back asleep. I think maybe you just need the practice learning to soothe yourself. Talk about ripping mommy's heart out though. 
Food: You are the BEST eater Avery. You will eat anything, and everything. I've been experimenting with different combos. Your favorites seems to be sweet potato-apple-green beans and banana-blueberry-peaches. You really like broccoli (pureed as well as just steamed and in chunks) and love your morning steel-cut oatmeal. Sometimes I mix in banana-blueberry puree to sweeten the oatmeal, or sometimes I just add halved blueberries. You are still nursing every 3-4 hours, but not for nearly as long. You spend maybe 10 minutes nursing and then you want to be moving, standing, playing, singing. I NEVER thought I'd say this but I kind of miss the hour-long nursing sessions when I could just stare at you {and watch my reality tv shows}. 

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