9 Months!!

Our beautiful girl turned nine months old on July 4th. Laura had her 9 month old check up at our pediatrician last week and is perfect in every way. She is currently 29 1/4 inches long which puts her in the 90th percentile for height and is 22.6 pounds which puts her in the 90th percentile for weight. She is charting a pound less and an inch less than her brother at this age which was surprising but good. She might be the tallest kid in her class for now but at least she is petite compared to her brother's stats. Our kids both seem to have found a random tall gene that Nate and I missed out on. Ha!

Laura Elizabeth is such a joy to our family. She is her brother's "best sister" and her mommy and daddy's delight. She started crawling the week before 9 months and is now a few short weeks later a little speed demon trying to keep up with her big brother. I had wondered how the kids dynamic would change once Laura was crawling but overall Will doesn't seem bothered that she is into all his stuff and his little shadow. For the most part, he just seems to enjoy her company and she absolutely adores everything about him. In fact, sometimes I hear him encouraging her to climb the stairs to join him in the playroom or calling her to whatever room he is in to co-exist/play there with him. She is never far behind and always willing. He is clearly her favorite.

Laura went from starting to crawl one week to the following week starting to pull herself up to her knees and a few rare times to her feet. She also immediately made a bee line to the stairs to try to follow her big brother to the play room. Yikes! Mobility has never come in gentle waves at our house. It seems to be all or nothing. She likes to stand at the coffee table or at big toys and hold on. She is getting stronger and sturdier. I'm predicting she will be walking within a month, gulp!

She is continuing to develop and demonstrate her personality. She is still our easy going, happy baby, but she is also developing a strong sense of self and will let you know when she's not happy with something. She loves to make us laugh and is quickly becoming our family's little comedian. It's cute to watch her light up in smiles when she does things that makes us all laugh. So sweet! She is teething and has gone from two to four teeth in the last three weeks and is currently working on two more. Poor girl! She handles it like a champ though. We're starting to give her table foods, which she loves. She gets frustrated when we eat dinner and she is relegated to bottles or baby food. Sometimes she refuses her own because she wants ours. She has also started to want to help us with her spoon and bottle. Such a fun time as she embraces independence. As much as she likes to be down on the floor playing, she also loves to be held maybe just as much. I love it and cherish the moments she wants to be in my arms.

Here are some photos of our sunshine girl...

Such a cutie!

She loves this table and keeps trying to pull to a standing position with it. One of the amusing things of having kids so close in age is he still remembers the baby toys as his. Oy.

Look out! She started doing this the same day we started potty training Will. Hands full much?

Yes, we lowered the mattress since this picture.

I mean really, look at those beautiful big eyes...which I'm sure are checking out her big brother so she can make a bee line for him and whatever he has in his hands.

One of our greatest treasures.

Fascinated by the waves rolling in at the lake.

Look at the little bow!!!

The boat ride lulled my angel to sleep.