Erica Lea Photography

9 Months Old

11/13/13

Helen is 9 months old today!

Here are some highlights from this past month:

She now has two teeth (see third photo).
She’s a little better about cuddling now – she’ll actually lay her head down on my shoulder! One day she laid her head down on her favorite blanket and cooed (see second photo).
She’s definitely trying to copy my words now. When I fix a smoothie for my breakfast, I say “Brrr, cold!” and let her touch it. She says “Buh, kuh,” in response. There are several more sounds that she tries to copy, but I won’t bore you with the details.
Still not sleeping through the night. When will it end?!
She can walk with a little walker that Dad made for her (see this video). She stood for half a minute unsupported before sitting down yesterday; she took half a step yesterday as well.
She started banging two objects together earlier this month, and yesterday she clapped her hands for the first time. She also learned how to wave earlier this month.
Helen loves books. She’ll sit on the floor and turn the pages all by herself.
She loves animals. When I was watching a video while nursing her, the lady in the video picked up a kitten. Helen immediately recognized it, sat up and started cooing.
She still doesn’t love food. Some new ones she’s tried are carrot, apple and cream.
She definitely has a preference for me, and no one else will do sometimes. I’m glad to feel needed, but it can get a bit annoying when I’m trying to cook supper. :)

And that’s all the mommy bragging I’ll do for now. ;)

5 Responses to 9 Months Old

Beth
November 16th, 2013 at 9:10 pm
I like the shoes in picture four! ;) It’s fun hearing all the updates . . . isn’t it amazing to watch them learn and grow?
Judy
November 17th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Have you tried the “sleep training” method where you just make sure all is well with her when she wakes and then simply don’t go to her when she should go back to sleep? It can be a couple of nights of a learning curve for her (and you too) but eventually she will figure out that she’s in charge of soothing herself back to sleep. There are lots of resources and discussions on this on the web, just google “sleep training for babies”. Hope this helps Erica! Thanks for the cute photos of Helen!
Megan
December 9th, 2013 at 10:55 am
Traveled over from pinterest–this post is a few weeks old, but I just wanted to encourage you that you’re an awesome mom :) And to link to an article I literally just read that I hope is a word of encouragement from the Lord:
http://breastfeedchicago.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/5-cool-things-no-one-ever-told-you-about-nighttime-breastfeeding/ . You may have heard most of them, but just an uplifting reminder that you’re always the best thing for your sweet babe :)
Erica Lea
December 16th, 2013 at 1:14 am
Megan: Thank you so much for the encouragement! And that was a very interesting article – I hadn’t heard quite a few of the facts. :)
Erica Lea
December 16th, 2013 at 1:18 am
Judy: We’ve actually just started to sleep train Helen. It was becoming obvious that her nighttime feeds were a habit. It’s been two nights (only one FULL night), and so far so good. She cried a bit the second night, but nothing too horrible. Fingers crossed that this works – I would love to be able to sleep more than three hours at a time. It’s been a long, long time.

I’ve seen a few bloggers do a series called “Awkward and Awesome” where they highlight some of their funny/happy moments from recent weeks. I thought it would be fun to write about some of the things that have happened to us lately.

Almost all of the awkward things involve Helen. :P

Awkward:

As seen in the photo above, Helen managed to open a bag of coconut sugar and spill some of it on the floor. She licked some of it off of her fingers before I had a chance to stop her.
While I was shopping at Claire’s for some small hoop earrings the other day Helen managed to get her hands on a piece of paper that had fallen out of my pocket. She soon had a piece ripped off and was gagging on it. I reached my finger into her mouth and pulled it out, but that made her gag even more. So of course she puked on her shirt. I didn’t have a spit-rag with me, so I used my glove to scoop up the vomit, wad it up and shove it into my pocket. Ew.
On the same shopping trip, this time in a thrift store, a little baby started crying. Helen responded by cooing and laughing. No sympathy!

Awesome:

I have been enjoying lots of cocoa lately. Whipped cream is a must in my book.
I figured out how to give my hair lots of body for an updo: braid your hair while it’s still a bit damp and leave in all day and night. The next day, brush it out, bump it up and twist into a bun. Voila! See an example of it here.
New yarn in the mail! I’m knitting a hat for my sister as a belated birthday present, and I’m planning on knitting a hat for Helen.
Another new thing in the mail: this tulip shirt. I likey.
I finally got around to editing some more of the photos I took of Katelyn. I might have to share them here sometime. Here’s a sample photo.

What sorts of funny/interesting/awesome things have been happening to you lately?

2 Responses to Awkward and Awesome

Heather
November 9th, 2013 at 5:55 pm
I can’t think much of an awkward/awesome moment. But, I do have a gross moment you reminded me of when you mentioned Helen was gagging on some paper. When my daughter was about 9 months old I gave her a magazine to distract her, not thinking about how everything goes in to the mouth. I caught her when she started to choke on the paper she ripped out. I swooped her up, telling her to ’spit it out, spit it out, Nicole. Open, Nicole, open your mouth, spit it….’ and that was all that came out. While my mouth was open and forming the rest of the sentence, Nicole finally dislodged the wad of paper, along with all of her recently eaten meal. I’ll give you three guesses where it all went…
Ewwww.
Erica Lea
November 9th, 2013 at 11:40 pm
Heather: Oh, wow, I thought my experience was gross! Yeah, I’ve let Helen play with magazines only to have her start to eat them. It’s really too bad because it would keep her entertained for quite some time otherwise! :)