I can't beleive my little Elsie bean is 9 months old. Really can't. Seems like we should be staying at 8 for a little while longer at least. At 9 months, Elsie makes her feelings known. She is a squealy babbly little baby. She screeches and screams in delight quite a bit. We know she is up in the morning or from a nap when we hear a screechy squeal. She also does this in talking or playing with others. Our daycare lady told us once that she was doing a high pitched screechy laugh and the two 1 year olds laughed when she did this so she kept repeating it. She also communicates her anger - will tell me how upset she is from time to time when I set her down and leave the room - or shout at me when I put her down for a nap and she wants to keep playing. She knows when I am talking to her and will look at me or respond with smiles or flailing her arms. I am starting to think she might be purposefully saying mom and mama but I do realize I am very biased and she probably isn't.

She does say mama and dada quite a bit. She will imitate us saying those and other words sometimes. She imitates words and sounds she hears. I made a bunch of videos of her and then was watching them back and Elsie kept imitating what she heard herself saying in the vids.

The most common comment that we hear about Elsie lately is that she is just such a happy baby. And she really is. She laughs and smiles all day long and is just so happy to explore or play with people. It is such a treat to come home to her excitement and laughter.

She is making lots of developments in her movements. Still not doing a 4 point crawl but she has crawls backwards. That started right at 9 months. She pulls herself up into a kneel - mostly to explore what is in the toy basket. If I have her seated on my leg next to the couch, then she can pull to stand up. I had her stand up at her walker the other night and she took 2 steps to the side while holding on, so that she could reach out and touch the little bee. She walks with her hands held and a little encouragment from us lifting her arms to indicate which foot she needs to move next. She gets into a sitting position from lying on her belly - quite often now, this started right at 9 months too. Basically she is all over the place. I will put her down on her belly, in the middle of the room, then go to the kitchen and then when I look at her again, she is suddenly sitting up by the foot rest.

She loves the opportunity to finger feed herself. She eats little puff cereals or tiny pieces of fruits and vegetables. New foods that she has had in the past month include turkey, sweet potatos, mango, white potato, broccoli, prunes, grapes, cauliflower and maybe some others that I am not thinking. Matthew and my mom sneak her table foods such as bread or cheese from time to time. Oh, and she has started some spices, such as cinnamon.

No more breast feeding. Officially finished up this month. She has 4 bottles a day.

Sleeping is the same. Morning nap, afternoon nap and sleeps through the night. Goes to bed between 7:30-8 and wakes up between 6-7. Had a stint this past month where she was getting up between 5-5:30 and a few times not even going back to bed. Little stinker!

I've been noticing a lot more purposeful play lately. She will open books and look at them. The other morning she opened her touch and feel book and was stroking the lion fur and turning the pages. In her jumperoo she was trying to grab each hangy toy (that hang up high) with each hand. It was like she was challenging herself to see if she could hold them both at the same time. She will take her rings off the post one by one. She assisted one night in buiilding a tower, putting blocks on top. She is in the phase where she drops toys from her high chair and then looks at them laying on the ground. We have a donated book with a label on it that says "Donated by:" She picked away at the label over a series of days and got it off. But she mostly still plays by eating her toys.

Still no teeth and no sign of them. She is getting a lot of hair though.

She makes all these cute weird faces lately. She gives us inquisitive looks. She squeals and sings.

CUrrently she is singing along with her aunt Angie as she bounces in her jumparoo.