9 Month Update (Wow!!!!!)

7 February 2014: “Sam, NO!” “Bababababa” These are the two most common sounds heard in our house at the moment. Sam is crawling, pulling herself up, getting herself back down, and coasting around the furniture, and yesterday she started babbling. She has said both “Dad” and “Moomee” once. She’s also started trying to say duck, which she has developed an obsession with.

17 February 2014:

Weight: 8.3kg, 56th percentile (400g increase)
Height: 70cm, 55th percentile (1cm increase)
Head circumference: 46cm, 96th percentile (0.8cm increase)

28 February 2014: Seeing as there is no 29th of February this year, I am claiming this to be the last day of Sam’s ninth month of life. Now, let me see if I can remember everything she’s doing that I haven’t already mentioned. She is starting to occasionally experiment with standing unsupported, and she is crawling really well now. She’s perfected the bum flop when she’s tired of standing up or feels unsteady.

She’s starting babble in different sounds, and sometimes says “ma” or “da”, as well as various other sounds. If I say “mamama”, she’ll answer with “bababa” and we end up having quite the conversation. She is learning how to knock on the toilet door when I’m in there, and she’s just figured out how to wave. We are also trying to teach her baby sign language so that she can try and tell us what she wants instead of just screaming about it. She also is starting to understand spoken instructions, and will “hop/get down” and will pull her hand back when I say “no”.

She has also figured out how to slide the sliding doors open, so we have to make sure that they’re locked at all times, including when I go outdoors to hang washing out (so I have to use hinged doors that I can definitely close).

She has cut three teeth since Saturday, and I expect there’ll be another one tomorrow morning. That makes a total of five/six. She’s down to two milk feeds a day, but these are coming from a sippy cup as she developed quite the biting problem. We’re coping fine with this new arrangement, and I’m enjoying the extra cuddles she’s lavishing on me as she’s now missing out on the nursing cuddles.