Gabby had her 9 month appointment on Nov. 12, and she is now 28.25 in long (that's the 73rd percentile), and 20 lbs (although our scale at home says 18.5)! At any rate, she's no longer the tiny little peanut of a girl that she was when she was born. She really looks like a baby now, and you can start to really see what she's going to look like when she gets older. It's very interesting--at first glance, she really looks like me. She has my general face shape, and even some red in her hair. But was you look more closely, it's obvious that she really looks like Brian. All of the details are his--eyes, ears, etc. She does have the Pechenino smile though!
She's also quite the mover, and loves nothing more than to be crawling around, pulling herself to standing, and taking the stairs like a pro. Here's a video of literally the second time we let her on the stairs--I would have recorded the first time, but I was too shocked to get the camera!
As you can see, her gross motor skills are awesome. She can now let go and stand without support for a few seconds, and it's really only a matter of time until she starts walking. She's also getting better with the fine motor skills. Her socks never stay on for longer than half an hour, and she is ripping her bibs off as well. She can use her thumb and finger to pick up puffs and get them to her mouth at least 50% of the time. She can also clap her hands together, and loves to grab mine and clap them together as well. I'm working on teaching her high five--she'll slap my hand but then grab it and try to chew on it. We're also working on waving, but I already know I won't be able to do what the pediatrician suggested and wave as I leave the room!
She also showing signs of separation anxiety--she still loves daycare, and gets super excited when we walk in the door, but when we're at home, I have to be in the room with her, or she starts to cry and crawl around to look for me. She's really good at playing by herself, but I can't leave her alone even for a minute anymore. She's fine if Brian is there, and she can see him, but if one of us leaves the room (even if the other one is still there), she gets really upset. She's also more shy around strangers--she used to smile at them after a couple of seconds of them talking to her, but now she keeps a very serious face, and keeps looking at me like "is it OK that these people are talking to me?". Although kids seem to be another matter entirely. There was a 2 year old sitting behind us on the plane flying back from LA, and she and Gabby were completely fascinated with one another. Gabby gave her some of the biggest smiles I've ever seen! She also loved seeing her cousins Audrey and Olivia at Thanksgiving
She also has 5 teeth now. Both lower middle ones, a top front one, and the ones on either side of the front teeth. The last 3 are just poking through, but they are super sharp!
Her personality is starting to come through as well. I watched her at daycare one day, and she crawled right up to another baby, yanked the pacifier out of his mouth, and started to put it in her own. The daycare worker caught her and took it away, but then she tried to take another baby's socks! She's also really stubborn (mine and Brian's baby stubborn? Who would have thought?), and will fight tooth and nail anything that she doesn't want to happen. She had to have a blood draw after her doctor's appointment to check her white cells, Fe and Pb levels, and she fought like we were skinning her. This after the nurse assured me that she would hate the shots more, and blood draw would be no problem. And then we got a call to repeat the blood draw. I'm so not ready for that!
Gabby is quite an eater! She gets 5 bottles a day still (6 oz each), and 3 meals of baby food. We've recently started giving her finger foods, and she seems to have a really good time trying to get them to her mouth. She loves Saltines, and will spend a meal eating just 1, which makes eating much easier for me! As first timers, I think we are very hesitant to give her things (particularly after a few episodes in which we gave her something that was a little too big and suffered some very unfortunate consequences), but we're getting the hang of just handing her something and trusting that she'll figure out if it needs to be in smaller pieces.
Gabby had 3 costumes for Halloween this year. She had a cat costume that for some reason I bought in a 3-6 month size, so it was super short on her, and I didn't take any pictures. She wore her doctor scrubs to daycare, and her Winnie the Pooh costume from cousin Olivia to trick or treat.
Hmm, I seem to be having some trouble getting pictures to upload--I'm just going to publish and try again later!
Thanksgiving details to come, along with pictures!
Gabby is crazy - climbing up stairs, stepping off! She's amazing! My guess is that she'll be walking by Christmas (if not sooner). Go Gabby, go!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right. Sometimes I think, wow, that's an Angela expression. And then other times, Gabby is a little Brian. :)