We are...

Waving. Quite enthusiastically. Sometimes with both arms as if to say, "HEY I'M OVER HERE!"

Clapping.

Throwing more of our food than we are eating.

Very attached to mummy.

Wanting to stand ALL THE TIME, trying to walk, but we know we need a helping hand. However...we're sometimes standing on our very own for up to 5 seconds or so.

Goodbye Gummy Smile

We will miss you - you were so cute.

Angela was fussing today regardless of how I held her or tried to entertain her. So, I stuck my finger in her mouth and wouldn't you know I felt something sharp poking me back, for the first time.

In other "firsts" this week Angela had discovered the art of "putting things back where they came from" which is fun to watch. "Hey wait, I can put this toy back in the bowl!"

According to our babysitter, she also discovered her shadow and was reaching down and trying to grab it, which has only gone to convince me further that I have a puppy - not a baby.

9 Month Check Up

17lbs 12oz (she's gained a whole whopping 1 pound 7 ounces in 3 months)

29 inches (but has grown a total of 2 inches!)
We've got a long, semi-lean baby: 90% for height, 35% for weight.

Sleep continues to go into a downward spiral. I believe tonight is going to be night one of daddy on sleep duty, which means I'll be waking up John when I hear Angela cry because he sleeps too heavy to hear her himself.

Angela can "technically" say mama at this point, however she only brings it out after I pass her over to John and she's upset to lose her human pacifier. Her mummy attachment is so evident that if Angela & I are in her room playing and she hears daddy's feet coming up the stairs she literally bolts from wherever she is and pounces/climbs on me in anticipation of John coming into the room. It is so funny to watch her do this that John and I now "set her up" and have John wait outside the room and then rush in so we can see her reaction.

espite this behavior, John is pretty much the only male that Angela will let hold her. She definitely prefers the female sex and it is apparent that she is developing a sense of the different types of people, and has made up her mind what people she likes and who she doesn't. Most men can forget it. Women - it depends on their personality. Other babies and kids she adores & gets so excited when she sees them that she just wants to reach out and grab them, same goes for animals, stuffed or alive.

ah baba dada va-ba-da

I guess the whole making sounds thing has clicked. Yesterday while giving Angela a bath, she threw out a "ba" sound. So we started saying "ba" back and Angela has been babbling ever since. Usually "bababababa" but she's even throwing "byebadada." Right now I'm downstairs listening to John trying to rock Angela to sleep while she uses her new "baba" sound to voice her protest over the matter.

Dah-dee

We've been working on getting Angela to say da-da or ma-ma, and aside from one time saying a very distinct "da" she hasn't done much on this front. Until today during one of our seemlingly unproductive sessions of saying dada and mama and pointing or patting the appropriate person, that Angela put out a "dah-dee," at which point we both looked at each other saying "did she just say daddy?" The verdict is still out, but we definitely heard something we hadn't before. Despite the language barrier, Angela still has her way of getting her point across. Specifically in regard to identifying who she wants holding her. In order of preferred people: #1. Mommy    #2. Grandma    #3. MacKenzie (Andrew's gf)    #4. Daddy. Everyone else she decides after she meets them and is able to assess them for herself. Females are most definitely preferred over males, the males she likes to smile at and maybe reach out to touch them, but generally she doesn't want them holding her. She'll even pick a random woman in public over daddy - and luckily daddy is ok with this. If someone she doesn't want to  be held by tries to reach and hold her, she'll turn her head and look in the opposite direction for a little bit as if to say "sorry, I can't see you so I'm technically not rejecting you, but really I am."

Many times while she's crawling all over the house and about to get into something she shouldn't, I'll say something to the effect of "Angela don't do that," and you can see that she senses my tone as she pauses, looks at me for a little bit and then goes right back to what she was doing. The best part though is that we can say "Angela come here" with our hands out and she crawls right to us with great enthusiasm (that is, unless she finds something else more interesting - aka something she shouldn't be doing/playing with). My my favorite mannerism is something she's been doing for a long time now - you make a funny face or do something weird to entertain her and rather than smile at you or stare, she actually raises one of her eyebrows as if you say "you're off your rocker, mom." The closest picture I have to this look is this: which was taken when she was two months old.

In other news, Angela is doing very well with standing and practicing walking. She can tool around the house in her walker and can stand and hold on to something with only one hand. Cruising seems to be coming up soon. Clapping hasn't happened yet but she's very close to doing that as well. She hasn't perfected her wave but she will throw her hand back and forth from time to time when we're practicing bye-bye in the mirror or even to someone else. Now that she's become much better with her dexterity, she will also use this new found ability with her fingers, to take her pointer finger and play with our lower lip so that it makes a 'blup blup blup" sound - this is entertaining except for when she's past-due for a nail trimming and then it actually kind of hurts. I am still breastfeeding multiple times per day which is fine, aside from the face slapping, scratching, kicking, and hair pulling that goes along with it. Her favorite nursing position though is to grabs her foot and bring it up to her forehead. Hmm, whatever rocks your boat, little lady.