Ryan: 9 Months

Ryan Cathleen turned 9 months on April 3rd and like I say basically every single month, I just can't believe she's already a month older.  Every month, I look back at pictures and am so amazed at the little girl she is becoming.  She still wants Mom and Dad, but she also desperately wants some freedom too and it is so strange!

Ryan had her first real sickness at the end of the month which resulted in these lovely monthly photos, which were the best of the bunch by far.  Considering she had been running a fever upwards of 103 degrees, I guess you could say that these really weren't that bad.  It was a rough week for all of us, but we survived.

She had her 9 month appointment and her stats are as follows:

Weight: 20lbs 4oz/75%ile

Length: 27 and 3/4 inches/57%ile

Head Circ: 46 cm/93%ile   (apparently my child has a big head...must be for her big brain)

Her head has always been in the top percentiles, but she is actually slowly going down in percentile for both weight and length.  We assume the length is just genetic since both Josh and I are not considered tall by any means and the weight is likely due to all her crawling.

Mobility:
Ryan continues to army crawl like a boss.  She gets her tummy off the ground every once in a while or if there is something she needs to crawl over, but for the most part, she is content to leave her belly on the floor.  We figure at some point she will realize that she will get a lot less tummy burns and elbow burns from the carpet if she would just lift up her stomach.  However, she is plenty fast on her belly!  She has pretty much mastered the art of pulling herself up but has NOT figured out that once up she needs to HOLD ON to whatever it is in front of her.  It makes me nervous but I guess she will figure it out soon enough, hopefully with no major bumps or bruises along the way!

Eating:
Our bug is still nursing 4-5 times in a 24hr period however it has gotten increasingly difficult during the day because she is distracted by everything and because she has decided that biting Mommy is funny.  I assure you it is not funny at all.  Hopefully this phase won't be lasting too long or else I may be done breastfeeding here real soon.  She also has 3 small meals a day of mostly fruit and veggies but we have added in some protein here and there too.  We have gotten to the point where we are getting more comfortable just giving her bits and pieces of our food without worrying too much about an allergic reaction or choking.  It's kind of fun to give her "real" food.  She is also learning to drink water from a sippy cup and thinks that it is a total treat when I bring it out.

Sleeping:
"Boo Bear," nicknamed by Daddy, still sleeps pretty well at night most nights (sick week aside).  However, her new wake-up time has become earlier than 7am which I suppose is okay since I don't always have to get up at night.  But I was REALLY enjoying the 7:30-8am wake ups...oh well.  She still goes down easily at night around 7:15pm and it's only about once a week that we randomly struggle to get her down at night.  Her naps...oh her naps.  I wish for once I could say that my child was a great napper this month, however that just isn't the case.  She regularly naps 2-3 times a day for 30-45 minutes at a time.  Some naps are less (20 minutes) and on occasion she'll take a really great 1-2 hour nap but that is super rare.  On the days when her naps are all 30 minutes or less, it makes it really challenging to accomplish much at all.

Ry loves getting into cupboards and drawers and crawling into things and underneath things like tables and desks.  It cracks us up.  She also LOVES dogs and watching other kids play.  She's quite the people watcher and social butterfly.  Bath time is still one of her favorite parts of the day and usually Daddy is in charge of that.  Speaking of Daddy, he matched into a residency this month and we celebrated like there was no tomorrow!

That's about it.  Ryan continues to be our pride and joy every single day.  She couldn't make us happier if she tried.  We just love this girl to pieces.