You have now had your First Christmas and seen in your first New Year!
I find it a bit sad that its not the year you were born anymore, it makes you seem older!
You really enjoyed Christmas Time...you went to see Santa twice and liked him both times (You did have a cry at the second one but only when Mummy & Daddy walked away to let them take a photo, you soon stopped when we came back!)
You were very spoiled with Christmas gifts but you've been loving playing with them all every day since - there are lots of things still in their boxes that we haven't even tried yet, I think I'll need to alternate what toys you have out or else the living room will be an obstacle course of toys!
Your pre-Christmas toys suddenly seem so babyish and much too young for you - before Christmas I was still getting your Baby Gym out for you but now that suddenly seems ridiculous! You seem much too big for it now so I think that will be finding its way to a car boot sale soon.... How sad :(
Eating
Well you certainly love your food...just like Mummy!!!
You eat weetabix or ready brek for breakfast each day and have a 6oz bottle.
For lunch you usually have an Ella's Kitchen pouch or some spaghetti hoops - we usually try to give you a bit of finger food at lunch too, usually Organyx Carrot Sticks or Dairylea triangles but I plan on trying you with whole rusks, breadsticks and rice cakes soon.
For dinner you have a mashed up version of whatever we're having, and you always have TWO petit filous fromage frais for dessert! You LOVE those!You usually have some porridge for supper too, and a 6 oz bottle.
Other than your morning and evening bottle, you only take 3 or 4 oz here and there through the day now but you're eating plenty so that's not surprising.
You also tend to have an afternoon/evening snack - usually Heinz Biscotti biscuits or something similar.
You still want to try a little of EVERYTHING I eat - this morning it was my all bran cereal! You hated it and pulled a face, but still wanted more!!
As you are still on Stage 2 my goal is to try getting you used to more finger foods and bigger chunks this month to keep you on target to move to Stage 3 at 10 months as recommended....You eat some Stage 3 pouches already (things like risotto etc), and over the past few days you've managed to eat cheerios, a whole Yorkshire pudding and today you tried raspberries for the first time! (You hated the taste and pulled some funny faces, but you managed to eat them at least!)
So fingers crossed our transition to Stage 3 will be easier than I feared!
You now have THREE little teeth too - you got your bottom two at the same time about a month ago, and your top right one came through yesterday!
Sleeping/Routine
You are still sleeping pretty much the same as before - you don't have a set nap time routine, we're not really those kinds of people - we don't have a routine as such ourselves and we like the freedom of being able to pop out whenever we want to without worrying about messing up your routine!I know quite a few people who struggled over Christmas with broken routines due to the festivities but we obviously didn't have that problem - if there's no routine to be broken then these issues don't arise!!
You usually have a nap about an hour or so after you wake up, and usually one in the afternoon and one after your tea - but the're not set in stone and we don't put you down for them, you just fall asleep yourself and we let you sleep until you wake up.
Your afternoon nap is always in your cot but the others are usually in my arms while I'm watching TV!
You go down for the night around 9.30 pm which works well for us as it means you keep me company for the evening and you get to see Daddy for half an hour when he comes home from work. You usually fall asleep on my lap, and then Daddy takes you up to bed.
You usually sleep through until about 6 am, then come into our bed for cuddles and sleep until around 9.30 am.
Some nights you have a little wobble and gripe a little around 3 am, but usually if we just pop your dummy back in you go back off easily.
You still sleep in our room - we said we would move you to your own room on New Years Day but it didn't happen. We're happy with you in our room for now and you seem happy to be there - we don't disturb each other so what's the problem?!
We will move you to your own room eventually but for now I don't feel like changing it.
Your Life At 9 Months
You're not crawling yet - well not forwards anyway! You have mastered the art of going backwards though!
Every time you're on your front you seem to end up half-under the armchair or sofa!!
You HATE being on your tummy though - you get yourself up on your hands and kick your legs around as if you know you could move but don't seem to be able to make the right movements, and so after about 30 seconds of trying you get really annoyed and start crying and shouting.You definitely have my temper and lack of patience....oops!
You still say "Mamma" but seem to have dropped the "Dadda" a bit lately - you just call him "Mamma" too at the moment!! Basically whenever you want anything at all you just shout "Mamma!!" until somebody comes and gives you what you want....whoever does that for you is "Mamma" it seems!!!
You have recently learned to wave when we say "Bye Bye" and clap when we say "Clap Hands"...it took you a few days to manage to connect your hands and not just flail them about wildly, but you have it down now!Your current favorite thing is standing! You love leaning against the sofa to stand or leaning against our shoulders to stand on our laps....you always want to be standing, sitting just isn't good enough anymore!I have also noticed that you have started to really enjoy books! I read stories to you after your tea every evening, and you LOVE it - you sit quietly and listen intently, and squeal a bit with excitement for the first few pages of "Room On The Broom"...that's definitely your favourite, which is fab coz its mine too!
Well that's all our news for now!
Lots Of Love,
Mummy xoxo