9 Months

Julia technically doesn't have a birthday this month, since there is no 30th of February. So we randomly picked today as her birthday. And speaking of random, here are some random shots of her from the month.





How she greets us now if she hears us open her door:



She doesn't like sitting still or keeping her legs down while in her high chair, as you can tell here:

I normally clean her face and hands as we eat, but this day I decided to just let her go. She covered not just her chin, but drug it across her cheek and nose with her hand:

Playing with mommy's laptop and loving it:

Her Valentine's Day ensemble, courtesy of Andrea letting us benefit from Paige's cute clothes!

What Julia is up to:

• She loves walking now (still with us holding her hands, of course). The moment she stands up, she takes off. No more standing still for her!


• A couple weeks ago, I blogged that she hadn't shown any signs of crawling. She has finally started trying to scoot around on her tummy! It's not a conventional crawl yet, but she's working on it. Tonight though she was crawling several feet at a time to reach her toys.


• She has yet to find a food she doesn't like, and she's started to do a little self feeding with crackers. She loves them; but mommy doesn't love the cleanup. I never knew that cracker crumbs could get everywhere.


• She has five teeth...we noticed the 5th poking through just today.


• She is somehow clearly aware of what is a toy and what is not a toy. Naturally, she wants the things that aren't toys. And so the "no" begins!


• Her size 1 shoes are finally tight on her, but her size 2 shoes are still a little too big. According to the Stride Rite box, Size 2's are for babies ages 3-6 months. To say that Julia has small feet is an understatement!


• She is going through a clingy phase, which 90% of the time I absolutely love. I can be sitting on the floor playing with her, but she'll fuss and reach for me. As soon as she's sitting in my lap, she's fine!


• She refuses to hold your hands, unless you're helping her walk. Otherwise, if you grab her hands, she yanks them away.


• As we read to her, she loves turning the pages in her book. She grabs a page, turns it, and then puts her hands back down and waits patiently until you're done reading the next page.