9 months old!!!

 Mila is 9 months old!!!!

I can hardly believe it! People always say that the first year just flies by and they are totally right! 

She is still not crawling and I have to remind myself that she will do it when she is good and ready. The competition between mothers is a very odd thing. I know it isn't intentional (at least, I don't think it is) but I HATE hearing what other babies the same age are doing. It instantly makes me think, "Well, why isn't Mila doing that yet?"

It isn't about me needing her to be ahead of anyone else, but it makes you start thinking that there is something that your baby SHOULD be doing. 

I know she will crawl when she has some place she just really needs to get to.

She can pull herself up and loves standing whenever possible.

 In the meantime...

Mila is very verbal and expressive. She has been saying "mamamama" and even a few "mama"'s--- she looks at me immediately after and smiles so it seems like she is gearing up to say it with real meaning! I will melt.

She has great grasp and pinchers (which she loves to use on Austin's arm hair).

Basically, her fine motor skills are on point!

She loves to point her finger at things and have us "boop" her finger with our pointer fingers.

She definitely seems to get jokes and likes to laugh and make us laugh too.

Also, she loves playing peek-a-boo and goes crazy with excitement when we sneak up on her.

She is a total character.

She loves to eat... 

her morning toast is her favorite, but she also loves cheese, apples, oranges, lemons (weirdly), rice cereal, veggie straws (she goes crazy when the bag comes out), any of her baby puff snacks, quinoa, black beans, rice... anything really.

Oddly enough, she is not a fan of the one food I craved so badly when I was pregnant: watermelon.

She weighs 19.2 lbs... less than we thought but I guess she is just really good at throwing her weight.

She also loves:

remote controls, any of her mama's jewelry (she loves to just hold pieces and look at them), stuffed animals, looking at Fernando or Amelia (the dog and cat), looking in the mirror, looking out the window, grabbing her daddy's ears/beard/face, snuggling with her mama, and biting her mama's nipples.

She is generally really happy but I just had to include the last picture. She had a cold and was pretty miserable. She wanted to be snuggled and was clearly not happy about being posed in a chair.