to the moon and back: 9 months

This growing girl is just so stinking cute. I just love to hear her babble and laugh and make her silly little faces. Her personality is coming out in full force and I do believe she's going to give her brother's a run for their money!

She is loving to clap for herself these days. She'll do something spectacular and we say, "YAY Hattie!" and she immediately stops whatever she is doing and starts clapping for herself. We now have a crawler (6/11)! She spent about a week getting up on her knees and a few days rocking back and forth, and then it happened. Arms and legs in sync, and away she went. The same day she crawled for the first time she also pulled herself up onto a pouf in the living room. She was raised up on her knees and talking away the entire time. She now crawls all over the joint and pulls up on everything. The boys have really enjoyed watching her accomplish these milestones. Jude especially will come running to wherever I am with some declaration of something Hattie has done. It's sweet to see them appreciate her in this way. They are proud of their girl.

We also have a major water baby in the house. Oh my goodness. I thought my boys loved the pool, but this girl takes the cake! She just can't.get.enough. She kicks and splashes and squeals and tries to lunge out of my arms the entire time we are in the pool. It's fun and a little exhausting. Especially while I'm attempting to keep Rhett alive in the water at the same time. Hattie seems to have similar skin issues as Rhett. She has broken out all over her body in rashes. I haven't decided if it's the sunscreen, the sun or the heat at this point. We shall see. It looks miserable when it happens. We can't have a child allergic to the sun in this house;).

Hattie has become quite the good eater. She opens wide and appreciates every bite of her food. I do think she has a bit of a texture issue though. She doesn't appreciate my homemade meals as much as I had hoped, so we've mostly served up organic plum and earth's best baby foods. They are quite convenient too, I might add.

Hattie thinks that sign language is hilarious. She will smile and giggle when I sign things to her. I'm hoping she'll start picking up the basics soon. Right now we are working on 'all done, more, please and thank you'.

At the beginning of the month she was still waking up at least twice a night. Once around midnight and again around 4:30. This changed about half way through eight months, and now she's down to once a night or not at all!!

She's still been wearing 6 month clothing, and much of it fits just right. 9 months is too big on her, but I have a feeling we will run into a fit issue come cooler weather. She's so long and skinny-legged. She'll probably be a leggings girl for this reason..fine by me! She's still in a size 3 diaper. She weighted 17lbs at her 9 months check up and was in the 25th% for weight and 75th for height.

We took a family trip this past week and this girl did amazing on the way to KC. The way back was a different story. Poor baby. I'm still not sure how I plan to make it to IL on my own with all three kids next month. We did switch out her carseat this week to the big Britax (rear-facing). I thought it would be more comfortable for traveling and a little less hot. She got so hot in that carrier! Now that it's situated in the car, it's staying there.