Three quarters of a year down!
Yes indeed, Emma was nine months old yesterday! She celebrated her .75 birthday by going to Gymboree, which she loves, visiting with her Aunt Cathy and Cathy's mom (and Eddie and Sully, the two cutest puppies around) and then topped it off by going to see the pediatrician for her 9 month check-up. We weren't expecting any shots, but in fact there were two waiting for Emma - her last Hep B and a polio vaccine. At least it was only one leg, and Emma was a very brave girl, though she let her doctor know she did NOT like him once the shots were over! Emma's official 9 month stats are: 29.5 inches long (75th percentile), 18.25 lbs (just under 50th percentile) and her head circumference is 50th percentile.

Today, Emma went to Story Time in her new, "big girl" car seat for the first time. She has outgrown the one that snaps into the stroller, so now we've got the one that just stays in the car all the time. Mommy doesn't know what she'll do when she's out and about and Emma is sleeping! Up 'til now, Mommy would just plunk sleeping Emma, carseat and all, into the shopping cart and go, but now we'll have to figure something else out!

The other big 9 month news is that Emma can now eat table food, including eggs, and doesn't need to have everything pureed all to heck anymore. Emma has already added diced bananas (aka "nanners") to her repetoire, and will be eating peas in their natural state for dinner this evening.

And now the latest pictures of Miss 9 Month Old Emma:

• Here is Emma playing with her Pooh and Piglet stuffed animals.
  
• Emma is a very happy baby! She likes to chat up a storm nowadays, saying among other things: Mama, Dada, Lalalala, Pwah, Quoi (yes she appears to be bilingual, is it because we're so close to Canada?), Heeeeeey and Nnnaaah. None of these words have any meaning behind them that we can discern for certain, but one of these days she'll get the meaning matched to the word! (You may notice a glimpse of those upper teeth - aka Fang and his neighbor, Fang 2.)
  
• Emma demonstrating her rendition of the Itsy-Bitsy Spider.
  
• Mommy and Daddy are trying to help Em get the hang of crawling, and do whatever we can to encourage her. One incentive Mommy found that worked well today was plunking Emma down on the floor of her nursery, where Chloe the cat was relaxing in the sun, just out of Em's reach. Emma really tried to move those arms to get Chloe within her very strong grasp!

- posted by Heather @ 2:21 PM