The second 9 months

I feel like Ellie is really blooming lately. Her personality is just coming out and it is so much fun! Today, we put her in the jumper chair that hangs from the doorways. She had so much fun jumping! I think she felt so big and more like she could control what was happening to her. She has been playing lots of cause/effect games. She loves to shake her head (like saying no) and wait for you to do it too, so she can do it again. She laughs and thinks that's so fun! She also loves to clap. Anytime we say "Yay!" she will clap for herself. Many times, like tonight in the high chair at dinner, she alternates--head shake, clap, head shake, clap. It's darling! And of course, she waits for you do it with her each time. Today we went to the park and I put her in the baby swing. As soon as I gave her a little push, she just started laughing like it was the funniest thing all year! It was hilarious! Each time she'd go away from me, she'd catch her breath, and as she swung closer to me again, she laugh again so hard! She loves to go down the slide. I hold her with a hand in front and a hand in back, and when she's ready to go, she leans forward and lunges down the slide with a big, adventurous grin! She's so brave and fun! She loves playing in the wood chips. Of course, she still tries to eat them, but once I block her feeding hand once or twice, she's pretty good to just play in them and crawl in them. She's never been bothered by sitting in grass, even bare legged. She is quite the tactile girl. I still can't put anything in her hair because whenever she's sleepy, she fingers her hair to go to sleep. She sometimes will finger mine if I'm rocking her. Now that she's bonded with Penny the Pink Penguin (thanks Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jenny!) she's doing better about sometimes rubbing Penny and resting the hair. She's got the thinnest hair so far of my girls, and I'd hate to see her lose any more of it, even self-inflicted!
I think she bonded with Penny when we were trying to sleep train her to sleep through the night and go to sleep on her own. Less than a month ago, I finally got her to sleep through the night. I had tried before but I couldn't take listening to her and finally went in to her. This time, she'd wake up at 1 or 2 am every day. I let her cry (I could see her but she couldn't see me). She would cry until 6 am. Every day! For four days! I finally went in to her at 6 because I figured it was getting light by then and I couldn't take her sad crying anymore! So I went in and got her out and changed and fed her, etc. So, on the fifth day, I woke up at 2. Ellie did not! Ellie woke up at 6 am from then on! Awesome! It's an early start, but I'll take it over 2 every day! I have gradually got her to now sleep until about 7 am, which is even better! It was harder to get her to sleep through the night than with her sisters. So, Katie slept through at 5 months, Amanda at 7 months, and now Ellie at 9 months. I hate to think what that pattern might predict!
Ellie is mastering her "gimp crawl". She still does the right foot, left knee crawl and she's getting faster. She loves to crawl into tight spaces-under the kitchen table, between close furniture, into a diaper box, under the desk, etc. It's hilarious how she can try to squeeze in anywhere. She's caught herself high centered on a chair rung too. Very funny to me, but quite distressing to her!
She's pulling herself up onto furniture, and also learned to roll over from her back to her front this week. She usually pulls herself up on something, and then gets stuck. She gets her legs too far forward so she's really leaning back, or she just hasn't learned how to squat back down. She'll pull herself up on the coffee table, or leapfrog table, or dishwasher door, and love to play for a few minutes and then realizes she can't get herself down so she starts to squak.Ellie has enjoyed exploring my face a lot lately too. I get lots of fingers in my eyes, pulling my eyelids, pulling my earrings, in my nose, in my mouth, grabbing my teeth, trying for my tongue. I love watching her face when she sees my tongue move! And then she'll looks at my eyes and smile like "That's a pretty cool trick you do, Mom!" She's still a momma's girl, which I love! Now that she's sleeping through the night, I love the sleep I get, but I miss rocking her more. I'm trying not to get her hooked on being rocked to sleep, but it's hard to put her down when she's so drowsy and snuggly! I just love my Ellie-Bellie. These second nine months have gone so much faster than the pregnant ones! She's growing so fast, she's my little butter ball girl. I love to see her reach for me or snuggle me or say "MaMa" when I enter the room!
She's got one sweet little tooth, but her poor bottom gums are so lumpy that it looks like she's got two more almost popping through! She loves trying to feed herself. She loves bananas, peaches (from our own tree!), pears, crackers, and BREAD! We still get the "num, num" sound effects from her too! So cute. She still likes her mush too. It's funny, if I try to feed her just straight solid foods, not puree but cut up, she doesn't seem satisfied until I give her a little rice or oatmeal mush at the end. We're still working on the sippy cup. She'll take it for a few drinks, but it's almost like it hurts her teeth or gums.She's practicing her little sister skills. She follows around her sisters and tears apart their toys--pulls apart train tracks, scatters lines of cars, crashes block towers, pulls down tents, rearranges the kitchen and wakes up napping baby dolls! I laugh. Katie and Mandy don't!
I've started playing animal noises with her. We pull out the little people animals and make monkey and jaguar sounds. She does her little growl thing in return. We'll work on it! She's such a cutie and I love her with my all!