Nine Months Old

It seems there has been a burst of development for Maryn in the last month.  She seems to have become less of a baby and more of a really little girl.  Every morning I wake up and think, "I wonder what she'll do today?"  It's such a fun time to be parents at the Smith home.  Here are some highlights of the last month:

• Growth: I don't have her height and weight stats yet because her check up isn't until the 26th.  But I can definitely tell she's growing!  She has outgrown a lot of her 6 month size clothes and has started moving up to size 9 months!  She can still wear size 0-3 month shoes though; she has small feet like her momma.
• Food: We've introduced lots of new things and she's definitely developing taste preferences.  Some things she eats with gusto, like yogurt, avocado, and the mashed potato/corn/carrot combo I made.  Other things she takes one or two bites and then shakes her head "no", like cereal and green beans.  Other new foods include beans (black, lima, pinto - she really liked the pinto beans), tilapia (her first meat!), macaroni and cheese, watermelon, broccoli, pumpkin, peaches, blueberries, and spinach.  Next up - scrambled eggs!
• Drink: Maryn now drinks from a sippy cup with a straw on her own like a big girl!  For now she just gets water, but getting this skill down will make weaning and the transition to regular milk one day a little easier.
• Teeth:  All four top teeth are through her gums now!  I had hoped we would get a break before any other teeth decided to come in.  But today I noticed she has two more bottom teeth coming in - one is already partially through the gums.  This means she will soon have a total of 8 teeth!  Maryn is a teething machine!
• Mobility: Still not really trying to get from place to place.  No attempts to crawl, and she doesn't even roll.  She prefers to sit on the floor surrounded by her toys.  If she can't reach something, she moves on to another item.  Occasionally she reaches forward onto her hands and bounces a little, but has yet to move her legs from the sitting position.  
• Skills: Just because Maryn isn't mobile doesn't mean she isn't moving.  She loves clapping, waving bye-bye, shaking her head "no", bouncing, and raising her arms straight in the air when we say "touchdown!" (her newest trick).
• Dancing: The cutest development of the month is that Maryn now dances (see recent post with video).  It doesn't matter if it's a song we play from our computer, a song on a TV show, a song we sing, or a song played on her little baby cell phone.  Everything gets her dancing.  It's the cutest little bouncy dance you've ever seen.  It has provided us hours of entertainment.  She has rhythm! 
• Mimicking: Maryn is very much into copying things we say and do.  Although not saying words yet, she likes to mimic sounds.  She even started mimicking zerberts which is pretty funny.
• Sweet face: She started doing this face where she tilts her head to the side and does this sweet little smile.  It started as a way for her to get Billy's attention when she wanted to be talked to or picked up.  But now she just does it constantly to anyone and she wants you to do it back.  We call it the "awww" face.
• Pictures: In Maryn's room, there are several framed pictures of our family.  She loves for one of us to hold her and look at the pictures, while we point out Momma, Dada, and Maryn.  She gets really excited about it, and has even started pointing to the pictures herself.
• Skype: Maryn is now able to tell when someone on the computer screen is trying to communicate to her, as opposed to just watching a video.  This has made skyping with family a lot of fun recently.
• Brette:  Billy usually stays home with Maryn on Mondays and Thursdays when I work.  This has worked out fine for the most part, but lately Billy's school work load has been very heavy, and he needed a little more time to work on things.  Our friend Brette, whom we know from church and is in our small group, has been coming over on Thursdays for half a day to watch Maryn.  Maryn just loves her.  Brette may soon be getting a new job, so she may not be able to keep coming.  But we have been very blessed to have her.  It's nice that Maryn is able to have a relationship with an adult other than us.