The Real McCoys: 8 and 9 month recap

I am so far behind with posting, I finally decided I should just do a quick recap of the last two months just to get it done.

It's really a shame that I have been lax with posting because Kate has changed so much over the past few months. She is still very much a baby, of course, but more and more often I feel like we are getting a glimpse of the little girl she is turning into. It doesn't help that her hair is almost past her shoulders.

There is so much going on in her little life, I don't think I can really describe all the changes, but the big things are:
- She learned to crawl! She started out crawling how you would expect, on all fours but has progressed to a lame leg gorilla crawl. She does not put her left knee on the ground, but pushes off of her foot and then drags her right leg behind her. She started pulling up around the same time as crawling, but is not very interested in doing that much.
- She has two teeth! Her bottom front teeth came in back to back, and it's been almost a month without any other dental progress.
- She is more and more vocal - she refuses to sign, but is very expressive and communicative. She has different sounds for different things and is not shy about getting what she wants.
- She barks! It took us a while to figure out what she was doing, but it is true, she barks at every dog she sees, and will even start barking if you ask her "What does Baxter say?"
- She has a little temper. I am not sure if it is possible to teach a 9 month old patience, but I wish we could. Kate knows what she wants and gets very angry if you're not quick enough for her - this occurs mostly at meal times.
- She is eating so well .. we had a period of transition in our schedule when starting solid foods, but Kate now eats breakfast, lunch and dinner and is eating mostly solids (what we eat, not purees). It is nice to eat meals as a family now.
- She is still nursing 4 times a day, first thing in the morning, around 12, around 4 and then right before bed. It is definitely nice to cut down on pumping at work!
- She is still a great napper - and is now taking a 1-2 hour morning nap and a 2 hr afternoon nap. She sometimes will take a 40min-1hr nap in the early evening depending on how the day went. She is also still consistently sleeping 10 hrs every night - it's awesome.
- I will hopefully write a dedicated post on this, but sadly Kate's babysitter has moved away. She has a new babysitter who comes 2 days a week for the summer, and also stays with a friend of ours 1 morning a week. Kate has done well with the change in routine and seems happy with our set up. She will start daycare in September when I pick up an almost full time schedule at work.
- She still loves the water and has gotten to swim a lot this summer. She is even enjoying her baby pool.
- She also still loves music, and is really developing her dancing skills

I absolutely love this stage with Kate, she is bright, happy, laid back, friendly and just a delight. She continues to amaze us every day with all of her new discoveries. I am shocked that she is already nine months old and wish I could slow things down just a little!

8 month pictures:

9 Month Pictures

We didn't have a very successful photo shoot the first time we tried, she needed a nap and we had had a long day. She still looks cute, and it's proof that she's not always happy.

Second try was much better! Just excuse the food leftover from dinner on her face.

She LOVES playing fetch with the dogs. She hasn't quite figured out how to throw the ball far enough, and the poor dogs get so confused because they know they can't take the ball from her, but also know she's trying to play with them. It's very comical.