Nine

It seems hard to believe that 9 months have gone by so quickly, and that in only three months Willow will turn one! As we're entering the tenth month of Willow's life, here's what she's been up to developmentally.

New Tricks:

-Responds to "where's your baby?" and finds her doll

-Responds to "give a kiss"--but sometimes plays hard to get. She is more fond of kissing books than kissing Adam.

-Can climb onto our couch without any help (doesn't even need something to use as a step stool)

-Likes to wave hello and goodbye, although sometimes it's still hit-or-miss

-Sometimes obeys when we tell her not to do something (although we're not really worried about enforcing 'obedience' at this point)

-Loves to splash the water during bath time. She also understands 'bath time', and gets extremely excited (no matter how tired or crabby she is) the second she sees the bath tub being filled with water.

-Likes to clap her hands during songs

-still interested in non-toy objects more than anything else, and being careful with little details

-has had an explosion of 'baby-talk' in the last few days. She now babbles constantly while she plays. Before, she mainly stuck to vowel combinations and occasionally threw in a 'g' for good measure. Now she says little baby 'words' that include many consonants (l, w, g, b, d). It's fun to hear her experimenting with so many new combinations and sounds--I like to hear her little baby voice.

She has started giving us 'the look'. She looks at us with her chin down and her eyebrows raised. It is pretty funny! If we do it to her, she mimics us (it's unnerving how quickly kids learn how to copy behavior). She doesn't stop giving 'the look' until we smile at her--so it's sort of like a staring contest. It cracks us up! The first night she started doing this, we were eating dinner. We spent the whole meal giving each other the look and laughing at each other. To be honest, this 'look' gives me the creeps. I feel a little guilty saying that, as her mother, since I shouldn't be scared of my baby....But if I am doing something else and then turn around to see Willow looking at me with 'the look', it's unsettling! She might be plotting my demise, like Stewie.

At any rate, Willow is a silly baby with a budding personality.

Willow loves to play with Adam. He runs around with her, chases her, plays all sorts of little games they've invented together. She loves to be with him, once he comes home from work everyday. It's been very nice for Willow and I to spend more time with Adam during spring break--we will both be sad once he goes back to work tomorrow.

She has been enjoying playing in her room a little more lately since we've officially moved all her toys and books into it. She's also been going to bed at night with a lot less gusto. She's been a great nap taker this past week too, so I hope the trend continues.Of course, Willow loves to eat. She begs for food from the table, just like a puppy. It's been very nice to introduce more new foods to Willow. There's so much she can eat now; it's been fun for her, and somewhat of a relief to me. Probably the most annoying thing right now is Willow's ability to whine. She whines (not cries) a lot, and there's really nothing I can do to make her stop, most of the time. There's no reasoning with a baby--so unless I can miraculously entertain her in such a way that she forgets about being fussy, the whining doesn't stop. Sometimes, she's just NOT happy, and I guess she's learning to express it. I suppose this will get worse before it gets better. It drives me up a wall. This reminds me of something else that's developing...temper tantrums. Sometimes she REALLY wants something. Usually it something she can't have, because it's dangerous/fragile/valuable. When said thing is taken away from her possession, she FREAKS out. It's not just simple crying (like she would have done in the past), it's all out screaming/arching of the back/gnashing of teeth/wailing.....oi

Other than that, life is settling into a routine finally. I feel like the first six months were a lot to swallow--I was always so tired, and we were always traveling. Now, things are finally starting to feel normal, expected, and natural.

Supposedly, it is a realistic time to be back to your pre-pregnant self. I will never look at my body the same way again--it's a pretty amazing process (growing a human and ejecting it from your body). Even though I am lighter than I was before pregnancy (yay!), I am also flabbier. When am I supposed to work out? Plus, there's all that nonsense with bone structures changing. You can't be exactly the same as before, but I'm totally ok with that.

Back to our little girl. We love Willow so much. Everyday, we comment to each other about how funny and smart she is, and how much we love her. She is a bright source of happiness in our otherwise mundane lives. What did we ever do before she came along?

~julie