Nora: Nine Months

Sweet baby girl is nine months old today! We had her well visit this morning and it is always a relief to hear "she looks great!"

Measurements: Big baby girl weighs 22.5 lbs. and is 29.5 inches tall. She is in the high 90th percentile for weight and height and 85th for head size. Nora has 8 teeth now and her hair is slowly thickening up.

Eat: Anything and everything and a lot of it! She is a hungry hippo. Seriously, every time my mom facetimes with us Nora is in her highchair. She basically eats whatever we eat plus baby food and a lot of cheerios. She has four 7oz bottles a day. One before both naps, at bedtime and one in the night.

Sleep: Yay! Nora was down to one bottle a night for most of the month but made me super proud today because she slept through the night! I am hopeful that this is the new trend! She (usually) takes two naps a day. A short 30-60 minute nap around 10:00 and a long nap in the afternoon usually from 1:30-4:00. We try to get both kids down by 8:00 but we are usually having so much fun that we lose track of time.  It's closer to 8:30 by the time Nora goes down and 9:00 by the time Thomas is tucked in.

Play: She wants whatever Thomas has: books, cars, blocks, babies. She likes to sit in front of the bookcase and pull out all the books. Nora enjoys the bath tub but has started pulling herself up which makes me super nervous. She also likes to put her face under water, funny girl.

Brother: Holy buckets, Thomas is such a great big brother. There are still moments when he forgets to be gentle but I forget all about the rough "play" when he sits down next to her, takes out her nuk and says, "Hi pretty girl, tell me something." Or when she cries in the car and he says, "It's ok Nora, Thomas is here." I just love watching their relationship blossom.
Daddy:  Nora's new favorite activity (besides eating) is walking.  She is so proud of herself as she walks across the floor with the help of Mama or Daddy.  One side effect is that now she doesn't like to spend much time being held or snuggled.  She grabs for my pointer fingers when she's ready to go, whether we are playing in the loft or praying during church.  It's fun to watch her light up as she waddles from one room to another.

Mama: Nora is such a snuggly sweet pea. She sleeps with us at night and likes to be touching one of us at all times. If I have my back to her she keeps her hand on my back or arm. If I am facing her she puts one had on each cheek. There are times I wish we had a little more space in the bed but there is nothing better than her soft hands holding my face.

We have a big month ahead of us. I expect Nora will for sure be crawling and also getting close to walking on her own. We have a big family trip in a few weeks, and Erik goes away for a weekend so this month will fly by. I really need to start making some first birthday plans!