Brielle is 9 months old!

Dear Brielle,
On Monday, you turned 9 months old.  I was thinking you might take your first steps when you were 8 months old, and although you were close, you didn't quite make it!  You love walking around holding on to my hands (and can even do it with one hand), love walking around pushing the little bike/your high chair/the train box, etc so I have a feeling that any day now you'll be brave enough to do it alone!  Hopefully both Daddy and I will be there to see it when it happens.

You're down to 3-4 bottles, 7-8oz, a day.  Sometimes I feed you three meals, but most of the time it's still just two.  You love eating your puffs and cheerios and today ate some black beans.  You weren't too keen on the avocado I gave you last night and still love your yogurt.  You used to love veggies but are now getting a little wary of them...though you still really like carrots!

You are still in size 3 diapers, but to be honest, that's mainly cause we have so many.  We have about 2 big boxes to go and then we'll up you to 4s.  Your brothers were in threes sooo much longer...your little chubby legs are going to prevent that!

I can still squeeze you into 6 month sleepers, but for the most part, you are in 9-12 month clothes.

You are a pretty confident little stander and as of this week can even stand up completely by yourself without a prop to boost yourself up.  You can also squat way down and pick something up and stand up again.  You walk all along the furniture and as I mentioned before are constantly pushing objects around and walking.  One of your most favorite things to do is come up behind me when I'm in the kitchen and hold onto my pants.  You love walking around with me, holding onto my pants.

Other favorite things:  Jumping on the couch (you did this yesterday and were having the time of your life), banging your head on couch cushions (when your brothers put them on the floor) over and over, pulling out wipes from the wipe container, playing with our brothers' action figures and legos, hightailing it into the bathroom whenever Eli goes in there to get to your most FAVORITE thing ever...the toilet brush.  You also like dancing, ESPECIALLY moving your head from side to side as fast as you can.  You bang heads with Mommy at least 10 times a day doing this and while it hurts mommy, it brings you great joy.  You learned how to clap last week and like doing that a lot.  You will copy us if we start clapping.

This week, you've taken an interest in TV.  Before, you couldn't really be bothered, but now you stop to watch.

You're still a big talker and love chatting with us.  You have the cutest little voice.  You consistently say DADADA though it's not in reference to Daddy yet.  You like watching my mouth when I sing the ABCs to you.

We have a new nap routine.  When it's time for you to lay down, I take you into the bedroom and sing Twinkle Twinkle to you.  You always stop whatever you're doing and rest your head on my chest when I sing.  It's very sweet.  You still sleep through the night with no problems and usually awake when Liam barges out into the living room in the morning. You're still taking 2 naps a day, though the times this week were pretty strange.

You love smiling at people and will generally smile at anyone.  You are the smiliest, happiest little baby.  You LOVE laughing and always laugh at your brothers.  Eli loves tickling you and has started picking you up and carrying you around.  This can be scary for Mommy, especially in instances like yesterday when I caught him trying to put you on the motorcycle.  Liam likes calling you "Brielly!" and likes to give you kisses.  He also doesn't quite understand that it's not ok to push you down, something he does a lot of if you are playing with "his" toys.  You really don't like being held by people you don't know well and throw a little fit.

We have your 9 month doc appointment in 2 weeks, so we'll find out your height and weight and all that good stuff then.  Can't wait to see if you start walking before then!  If I had to guess, I'd say it's going to happen in the next couple of days!