Eliza at 9 Months

Yesterday, Eliza reached the ripe old age of 9 months!

Eliza spent much of the past month crawling around. She can crawl on all fours or army style, depending on her mood and how much of a hurry she's in. She pulls herself up to standing sometimes, but hasn't mastered the balance thing. She also added clapping to her bag of tricks. She used to clap whenever we said "good job," but now she is stubborn and just claps when she wants to. She loves to hit her open hand against her open mouth to make "Indian" noises.

Thanks to her new crawling workout plan, Eliza has lost a little weight. She is only 24 lbs 7 oz now (when we were in 2 weeks ago she was 25 lbs). She's still above the 99th percentile curve for her weight. Her height is 29.5 inches, which is in the 96th percentile. Her head circumference is also the 96th percentile. So basically she's huge but proportional. But be careful saying it to her face. She might just bite you with the 8 teeth that she has! They are razor sharp. Ask Mike. She just bit his toe tonight!

Eliza is a great eater. She still gets mommy milk 4-5 times a day and 2-3 times a night. She eats 2-3 "meals" a day of mostly fruits and veggies. She also gobbles down Cheerios. I am impressed by her coordination and speed at self-feeding.

Eliza is a better sleeper than she used to be. I think she slept through the night 5 nights this month. All in a row! She's also been doing better at napping in her bed!

Today I took her to her well-baby check-up. I assured her that there would be no needles at this visit, but I was wrong. She got her second dose of the flu vaccine, as well as the Hib vaccine (there was a national shortage when she had her 6 month appointment). She only cried for about 15 seconds with those. Sadly, she also had to get some blood drawn for a few tests (one of them being lead, since our house was built before 1970-something). That one was the bad one. I got teary as I held her tight and listened to her wail. It took her longer to recover from that one.

The good news from the appointment is that her ear infection is finally gone! The doctor found her ear infection at her last well-baby check-up (2 1/2 months ago). The first antibiotic didn't work. Neither did the second. Waiting it out for a while didn't work either. I was beginning to think the doctor was crazy, as Eliza never had a fever or fussiness or any other symptoms of an ear infection. Finally, antibiotic number three did the job.

A few other pictures from the month:

"If you would hurry up and finish getting things unpacked, I wouldn't have to do it for you, Mom."

This is a "Grandma toy" that usually stays at Grandma's house, but Eliza fell in love with it, so Grandma let her borrow it. I was amazed at how well she stays mounted on it. She will go a good 10-15 minutes before she falls, and her feet don't even touch the ground! She rides her "bike" everyday. She is so excited and full of energy the entire time. The bike sings lots of songs, teaches letters, and does other fun things.

She is still enthusiastic about getting her bath each night.

Boy, do we love this little girl!