Larkyn 9 months

Larkyn turns 9 months tomorrow!  Thankfully, because she is still wearing 3-6 month clothing, I can hold onto my "baby" for a bit longer...however she is definitely growing up!  The big news this month is that she learned to sit up by herself!

 While the muscle strength has been there for a while, she would intentionally push her head back to tip herself over because she preferred to be on her back.  She loves playing on her back and rolling over everywhere!  While I still keep pillows behind her as she will sometimes still "tip", she will sit on her own now.

This give a whole new way to play!  I set her up with a bucket of toys, and she reaches in and grabs out things to play with.

 Here are a few videos of her playing...

Knocking Over Tower (This cracks me up - after I would build a tower each time for her to knock over she would knock it over with her head instead of her hands!  I didn't quite catch it on video but you can see her moving her head to knock the tower over)


Playing Piano


Swinging






  She is also growing up in that she is preferring solids to nursing.  I think she is attempting to wean herself, as she barely nurses at all now before bed and eats very little during the day, even though I give her opportunity 4 times a day.  While I am definitely excited to be done with the nursing phase, I do know how healthy it is for her, so I will hope to "hang on" one more month if possible :).  Due to her lack of interest in nursing, I have started to try and teach her how to use a cup.  We have attempted several different sippy cups and she is starting to get the hang of it.  I usually put water or milk in it for her.  As far as solids, she eats most everything we do, just ground up, if it is possible to grind it up.  Otherwise she eats her veggies, chicken, or rice cereal for dinner.  This month we introduced eggs and small pieces of lunch meat, and she loves both.  She absolutely loves black forest ham!  She can feed herself crackers, but cannot yet pick up small pieces of food and get them to her mouth.  Due to her new found skill of sitting up by herself, she sat in her first restaurant high chair this month :).

 Larkyn has settled into a pretty consistent 2 naps a day.  She wakes up around 7am, takes a morning nap from 9:30-11am, and an afternoon nap from 2-4pm, and goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm.  She still falls asleep sucking her two middle fingers.  She will wait patiently and quietly for me to get her up (sometimes I don't even know she is awake!) and has started to play with some of the stuffed friends in her crib.

She has started babbling a lot more this month and her favorite word/sound right now is "Da-Da", of which Paul is quite happy :).  Here is a video:








 She can make a blowing kiss sound, wave (although I am not sure how intentional it is yet), and clap (however not on command - usually when we start clapping she stops clapping to watch us!)  Here is a little video of her clapping:



She has a special bond with both of her siblings, and it is fun to see them interact!  Colton will come give "Warky-Woo-Woo" hugs everytime he sees her, and Summer loves to try and make her laugh and smile.

My 3 musketeers

Summer loves to dress up Larkyn in hats, bows, and more, and always asks me to "put a headband in Larkyn's hair" :)

 Here is a video of Summer and Larkyn playing.



Still no teeth for this 9 month old, but she definitely puts everything immediately in her mouth!

She still is such a smiley, happy baby and truly a blessing!  Here are some giggles...




Click Here to see a cute 9 month video made on Magisto.   We love you, Larkyn Emery!