Countdown to Baby Harrison!: Nine months old!

Again, this post is late-coming. There are a number of reasons for that, ranging from happy: it's summer outside - I don't want to be in the cold basement at the computer; to not-so-happy: my great sleeper has turned into a crappy sleeper and we are in just-the-basics-and-cannot-handle-anything-more mode. Starting almost three weeks ago Mairi has been consistently waking up twice or three times a night, often the first time before midnight. We chalk it up to a combination of things, including: she's teething - pretty sure it's an eye tooth on the top; she's in a growth spurt - after sitting at around the same weight for months, she's put on 10 ounces in two weeks; and she's at an age where babies are learning to do so much that I think her brain is a little hard to turn off. From the reading I've done it seems that this is likely another sleep regression, and a very common one due to all the developmental milestones she's working toward right now. The adult analogy is the inevitably terrible and restless sleep one experiences before an important event the next day (starting a new job, writing an exam, getting married) because they are going over the steps required and wondering about the unknown and find it difficult to turn off. Well, as it turns out, babies do that too. Mairi is thinking: "Get up on those knees, fine. But how the heck do I move them forward?" Hopefully the sleeping returns to normal soon. At least she is easily put back to sleep by nursing. I am only up for ten minutes and she's back fast asleep. But I have trouble getting back to sellp. Thank goodness for podcasts from CBC, BBC, and NPR. I have listened to so many hours of Wire Tap and Ideas! I only had to get up once last night, at about 2:15, so I am hoping this trend is on the downswing.

In other news, Mairi is getting super fast with her army crawling and so is getting into lots of stuff she's not supposed to but it's neat to see her zoom. She is very motivated by Puffs (aka Baby Crack) and will go from puff to puff all around the house.

She's still not doing the traditional up on her hands and knees crawl. She easily gets into that position but does not go forward and just goes back down into the army crawl position because she can go fast. I wouldn't be concerned and would just say that's her way of crawling but after our last visit to the physiotherapist this month, we were told that we needed to work with her to ensure she did crawl in this way as it would resolve the last bit of tension in her neck and shoulders. Until she crawls properly she will have to keep going to physio, though only once a month or so. It's good motivation. So I've been getting her on stairs, elevating her hands while she's in the crawl position and other positional tweaks to try and ease the burden on her shoulder, making it not so uncomfortable for her to put weight on her arms. Hopefully she'll just take off soon.

She is very motivated to stand and get started with walking. The other day I left the living room for a minute and left Mairi sitting on the floor. When I came back she was standing up at the coffee table. So she has learned to pull herself up to a standing position now and loves to practice this move, especially holding onto my hands. As soon as she's up she gets a big proud smile on her face and does a little dance. She is cruising back and forth along the coffee table and couches. She learned to do corners last weekend and can even reach out and walk from the table to the couch and from couch to couch. She can balance with her back against the coffee table and can stand without holding onto anything for a couple of seconds. She also loves to walk holding onto anyone's hands and behind her dino walker.

Mairi continues to be a social and happy baby who is happy to play with other babies and let anyone hold her. She is a good snuggler when she's sleepy too. She loves to giggle and is quite ticklish. All in all, she's a very good-natured little lady.

We've had lots of outings lately, to the Cathedral Village Arts Festival last weekend, where her dad wore her in the Mai Tei and she was great for two hours in there (though they were both pretty sweaty in the end), lots of walks, out for lunch and suppers and she's been really great. We are looking forward to lots of time at the lake soon. Last weigh in was yesterday and she was 18 lbs, 5 oz. She was only about 17 lbs, 4 oz. three weeks before so I was wrong about her being 18 lbs last month. She has three teeth now and so can chew. She's pretty much past wanting purees and so we are moving more toward finger foods. Current favourite is watermelon!

Driving her car at the Canadian Tire

Beautiful evening walk around the lake

Getting into the shoes (almost daily)

Daily rearranging of the DVDs

Bath time is so fun now!

DVD rearrangement again

Checking out the shoes

Kickin it with Violet

Getting into the books in her room

This is so my kid - what a toot!

My first Mother's Day was so special! Mairi gave me a card and tulips (my favourite!) and Jeff made me an amazing breakfast of breakfast sandwiches, fruit and mimosas. Being a mom is the best! I am the luckiest.

Perfect crawl position, just needs to press the go button.

A new trick Mairi learned: pulling off the bib and throwing it on the ground!

Just standing, eating a hairbrush.

Getting into the fridge. Think she's going for the Hot Maggi sauce.

Loving that watermelon. Her eyes in this picture just get me. She's so beautiful.

Our May Long Weekend: three baby girls all in one cabin! It was a great time with lots of laughs and relaxation. Only downside was the terrible sleeps our girl was having there.