Nine months old!

Natalie turned nine months old this week. Now she's been out in the world approximately as long as she was in me. And what an impressive change! Looking back, I feel there have been clear stages - at least, certainly, in how she looks, from newborn (alien-baby) to infant to baby to almost-toddler.As if to underscore this point, we bought her a new car seat this month. Her old one is good to 32 inches and 32 pounds. While we don't think she's anywhere near that on the weight limit, we fear she might be getting close to the height limit. She looks like such a big baby in it, no?In other milestones, Natalie is crawling! She'd put together two moves before we left for San Diego, but that third kept vexing her: she forget to put her first arm down, pick up her second arm, and promptly face-plant. Unfazed, she'd get up and try again. Eventually, in our little enclosed "baby jail" area of the living room, she'd manage to arrive at what she wanted. But the wide-open expanse of my grandmother's living room presented a serious challenge. And Natalie made the best of the opportunity! Now she's a little crawling and climbing machine - and quite destructive, especially with her sharp little kitten-claw nails.(Now, some short movies of her crawling. As will soon become apparent, I lack my brother's cinematographic skill. But I have a good subject! And I'm learning!)



She's also become an expert sitter and kneel-er. Here she is in "baby-jail".I've also seen her push herself to sitting once, but she doesn't do this all that often.

Generally, she's a little wiggle-potomus. The only way to keep her still, so you can change her diaper or get her dressed, is to give her something to hold.
She'll also give you five when you ask. This, along with waving, is a sometimes-skill, but it's totally cute when she decides she wants to play.
Her favorite "game" is taking off her socks. She loves to put them in her mouth.


She also puts, uh, everything else in her mouth, too.
She enjoys reading.
Natalie isn't really talking or making distinguishable, meaningful sounds yet, but she loves it when we talk.


In the food department, she continues to eat her usual purees-plus-oatmeal. She drinks from her sippy cup with mixed success - although this may be a case where her goals aren't our goals - she loves to spill out the water and smear it around on her tray. She's also started to grab and mush the food in her fingers.
She's also - very slowly - started to get a third tooth. This one seems much slower than first two; we've started to tell people that she has "two-and-a-half teeth." (or, "two-and-a-half teef")

She continues to enjoy baths.
Also, here's a picture of all the generations that missed the last blog post.
And two pictures of Natalie and daddy, just for good measure.