The ninth month was a doozy

I missed the 9 month post yesterday and I was feeling slightly upset that I didn't post on the actual day until I re-read my Not Me Muesday post and I realized that I've been off by a day for the whole week. It's just been one of those weeks, and by weeks I mean month.

Let me just start off by telling you that despite the hardships of this month I would relive it over and over again in a heartbeat just for those 9th month moments again with our little girl. But, that said, it was a DOOZY and a half, I definitely as a friend of mine would say, had to put on my big girl underwears and deal with it!

Riley is 9 months I can hardly get over it. Can I make a confession? More than once this month I found myself tearing up. When I rocked her to sleep one night I realized that her sweet newborn baby smell was gone and I nearly lost it. Ridiculous isn't it? I feel conflicted. I am so thankful for her growth and all the things she's learning and every new milestone, but at the same time sometimes I wish time would slow down just a bit. I suppose every parent has had this same thought at one point or another.

I've made peace with it by deciding to make the most of every moment that we have, even those middle of the night moments that we've been having more of lately. I know that one day she won't wake up and need me to cuddle her at 2:30 am, and I'll be laying awake in my bed wishing I could wake her up for a snuggle.

What has she been up to this month? Brace yourselves, she's moving down the milestone list like a freight train! In her ninth month our princess...

Had her top two teeth break through finally and she had her first cold, ear infection and antibiotic x2 experience. The teeth and ear infection happened simultaneously god help us in the last week or so. She seems to be on the rebound though and now we just have to kick this runny/stuffy nose that we've had for the past month.

Started crawling and now she even has a turbo speed that makes us laugh like crazy. Almost immediately after the crawling came the pulling up and stair climbing. She pulls up on everything, including Mommy and Daddy's legs and she find its hilarious to have a view that's of more than the floor. She can climb the stairs like a rocket and although she's out of breath by the time she reaches the top she's determined to make it all 3 flights everytime.

Started babbling a LOT more, almost incessantly, and has conversations with everyone/thing around her. She does baba, gaga, yaya, dada, mama, and a bunch of mixed strings of sounds. She doesn't use mama and dada discriminately everytime, but first thing in the mornings when she sees Matt she almost always shrieks "DA!" and at night when she's upset its always "MamaMamaMama" coming over the monitor loud and clear.

She can turn light switches on and off and always reaches out her little hand to grab them. She's also learned that doors (and cabinets and refrigerators) can be pushed open and closed and she has great fun playing peek a boo with us by swinging them back and forth.

She just started CLAPPING her little hands together and we find it hilarious. She loves the attention it gets and she does it a lot. It's so funny to watch her little face when she gets it just right and she makes the tiniest little clapping sound.

She still waves bye, not all the time and mostly delayed, but when she does the lucky recipient is always thrilled.

She has just started wiggling her little body when she hears music. Again, we find this quite funny. Last night she was really rocking out to a Latin band at our school's International Night. She had everyone around us in stitches.

She's eating more solid foods and Miss Independent LOVES to feed herself. She's almost mastered her pincer grasp by using her index finger and thumb to grab her little food pieces. She still loves almost everything, and even eats peas now that they aren't mashed and watery.

Simply put, she's thriving and we thank God daily for that because we are well aware that these amazing moments and milestones are not a given. While we're a little sad to see another month go, we know that we have so much more to look forward to and we want to tell our girl...

Daddy and I never imagined how much more love you would bring to our lives. We are so proud of you and the little girl that you are so quickly becoming. We love you princess girl. Happy 9 months Riley!