Caitin at 9 months

This little girl is on the move constantly. Taking pictures of her has gotten pretty ridiculous... she won't stay still! She also loves to pull all of the hair clips and hair bands out of her hair so I feel like she always looks a bit like a raggamuffin! 

Catie had her 9 month appointment a few weeks ago, so by now she has to be around 21+ lbs. My arms ACHE all the time... but I still love carrying her around and snuggling with her.

Her favorite toys include anything she can chew. Andrew has designated some toys baby toys and some toys big kids toys. It seems there are very few "baby" toys at our house these days. Andrew spends most of his playtime running in front of Cate scooping up any toy in her path saying it is "dangerous" or a "big kid" toy. Sometimes he is right... since he loves to leave marbles, bouncy balls, jingle bells, and mini bowling pins everywhere.

At 9 months Cate can crawl across the room pretty quickly and so now all of our baby gates are up. She can also pull herself up so that she is standing holding onto the couch and bathtub (scares me!). Fortunately she hasn't figured out the toilet yet.

She is called so many nicknames that I don't think she totally knows what her actual name is yet... or at least doesn't respond to it. Cate is very curious but if we say her name and say "no" if she is about to do something dangerous she will actually pause. Sometimes she'll also start crying.

This week her newest skill is waving! It is still developing, but she'll wave at Andrew and sometimes at Kevin if we are saying bye bye. It is so cute!

My favorite thing she does is crawl into my lap to cuddle. I love it! I always expect her to crawl away from me and go out exploring when I put her down on the floor, but a lot of the time she'll crawl away and then crawl back for cuddles.

She is such a sweetheart!

Kevin was working late a few nights this week so he didn't see her from Sunday night until Wednesday night. It was so adorable to see how excited she was to see him on Wednesday night. Kevin and Andrew were wrestling and tickling one another and Cate would not stay with me and wanted to crawl up and be part of the action and get some attention from her daddy!

I love Cate at this stage... even though she is getting into everything! She is much happier and loves to roam around and check things out. I keep forgetting how mobile she is and then I realize that it is really quiet... and always find her hiding out with a piece of paper or tag that she's found to chew on.

Cate at 9 months...

- eats 2-3 meals of baby food (more or less depending on my laziness)
- loves climbing and pulling up (my least favorite time of the day is bath time because she won't splash or play, she just wants to crawl and climb out of the tub!)
- goes to bed between 6-7pm, has a feeding at around 6 or 7am and then wakes up for the day around 8am.
- takes two naps each day (10-11:30am and 1:30-3:00pm)... unless we are on the go and she only gets one
- will not nap in the carseat or stroller when we are on the go
- has 3 teeth (two bottom teeth and one top tooth)
- doesn't like to be in her carseat or stroller too much... she wants to be out and up or down on the floor checking things out
- loves to squeal and shriek... especially during church
- says lots of sounds "gagaga""dadada" "mamama" and then love to just repeat any sound Andrew makes... it is their favorite game and gives me a HEADACHE :)
- had her first fall... or two :( and got a nice big bruise on her forehead
- has finally stayed with a few babysitters and hasn't been as awful to them as in the past
- and quoted by Kevin, "still looks like she could eat other children" (sometimes he likes to joke that Caitlin could eat Andrew)

I love watching Andrew play with Cate. He can get her giggling like none other. She loves to just crawl after him like she's his little puppy dog. Andrew no longer cares about my attention if Cate is around... and gets grumpy if she is not paying attention to him. She is like his dream come true- a 24/7 audience... the ultimate Andrew fan club.

Happy 9 months little cutie! We love you!