Nine Months Old

Our little girl turned 9 months old today! I can't believe it. She is getting so big and grown-up. I have no idea where the past 9 months have gone--it seems like just yesterday she was still in my belly, trying to break out into the world! Here are some things going on with Holly lately.

1. She is crawling very fast. She zips around all over the place! She loves being on the move and I love it, too.

2. She is cruising along the furniture. Actually, she started this shortly after learning to crawl. She is getting pretty fast at this, too. She loves to stand and will no doubt be walking soon.

3. She is finally learning to stand up on her own! Just in the last 2-3 days she has really started to take off. She can keep her balance pretty well, but still likes to hang on to a hand or shoulder or knee for balance. She's getting there.

4. She is trying and loving more and more foods every day. Some of her favorites are bananas (a favorite of babies everywhere), sweet potato, carrots, and cheese. She actually loves all fruit she can get her hands on and is coming around to different varieties of vegetables. I would love for her to actually like vegetables, unlike her mother. Holly rarely meets a food she does not like.

5. She gives hugs! This is one of my favorite things about her right now. When I get her from her crib in the morning or after a nap, or at any time during the day, Holly will throw her arms around my neck and squeeze very tight. I love it! She is such a sweet little girl and loves her mama. (She has even been known to give her daddy some hugs, too.) She will sometimes give sloppy, disgusting, open-mouthed kisses too. It's pretty scary to see her coming at you with her mouth open wide!

6. She is going through the requisite separation and stranger anxiety phase. She hates it when I leave the room and, if she's in the right mood, will sit on the floor and cry pitifully until I come back and give her a hug. It's endearing to know that a little someone loves me and depends on me that much, but can get tiring too sometimes. But most of the time, it makes me feel wonderful!

7. If you haven't caught on already, Holly is a big, fat mama's girl. It's awesome, but I feel bad sometimes for daddy. She is slowly coming around to him and they have more and more fun together as she gets older. But I have a hunch that she will always be mine!

Sorry about the picture-less post, but all recent pictures are trapped in the camera and I am too lazy to walk into the computer room and get them off the camera. My other excuse is that Andrew is on call tonight and won't get home for another hour or two. Feel sorry for me. I do! I need to throw a pity party for myself whenever he works late, because I am not used to it anymore. Sigh.