Caroline 9 Months

Leave it to me to think of a weird date comparison, but Caroline has been on the "outside" almost as long as she was inside me.... In other words, Caroline is 9 months old!!! I am almost in disbelief that our Sweet Caroline is on the down hill slide to being 1 year old. The first couple months seemed to drag on, but now they have certainly picked up and seem to be flying by at warp speed.

I feel like in the last month, Caroline has just exploded, growth and development wise. We went to the doctor this past Tuesday for her 9 month well visit. She now weighs 17 lbs. 5 oz. A real heavy weight. I swear, I'm not sure the kid is ever going to make it to 20 lbs. She is also now 29.5 inches long, which means that she has grown almost 3 inches in the last 3 months. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and the 87th percentile for length. I asked the nurse if we should be concerned about her weight being in the 25th percentile, and she said not at all, because she has stayed in the 25th percentile since she was born, which means she is growing consistently. So, in other words, she is still long and skinny.

Probably the biggest news for this month is that my darling girl has taken her first steps. This actually happened a little more than a week before the 9 month milestone. Yikes. At Caroline's 9 month visit, I told the nurse that she had taken her first steps and her response was "Ok, so she is starting to cruise now". I had to correct her and say, "No, actually, she has been cruising the furniture for the last almost 2 months, she is now actually taking steps without holding onto anything. In other words, W-A-L-K-I-N-G." The nurse didn't quite know what to say. I actually didn't quite know what to say either after seeing Caroline take those first 3 steps. The good news is, she isn't too interested in walking to really get anywhere. If she really wants to get somewhere, she sits down and does her crazy side-winder-crawl to get there. But, she is getting braver every day. I am so not ready for this.

Sweet girl

Still can't leave the bird alone

Drool box. This is pretty much the story of Caroline's life right now. The nurse noticed the other day that she had a tooth that was riggghhhhttt on the verge of popping through. Since we are spending Christmas in Lafayette, I am sure that tooth will choose the most inopportune
time to pop through. But, as of now, she is sitting tight with just her bottom two teeth.

"Cheese!"

"What?"

While we were doing her 9 month photo shoot, Daddy came home. I love how excited she gets when he gets home. It is just too cute.

Daddy's girl

So, I mentioned Caroline's side-winder-crawl above, but here it is. It really is too funny. It is like she has a kick-stand. But, it doesn't slow her down a bit. In fact, Steven and I have discussed that it actually makes her faster because she gains a few more inches each "crawl" by sticking that leg out. What is funny is that she started out crawling totally normal, but as soon as she started pulling up, she started the side-winder. And, she can still crawl normal, because she still does it from time to time, but she just chooses not to. Who knows.

There's the kickstand

Crazy little leg.