9 Months Old!

Blakeley is 9 months old!  It is hard to believe as each month passes how fast it goes by and how much she grows and develops. 

She weighs 17 lbs. 10 oz. and is 28.5  inches long....she is long and lean.  And her hair has finally started to grow-I know hard to believe based on the pictures, but it is so much longer than it was just last month!  And, big, happy news, she is finally sleeping through the night, IF we are at home...when traveling, she is up all night long!  

Blakeley's personality is starting to develop more and more each day...she is observant and cautious in new places and around new people, she is loud, bold, and excited when she is in a familiar place.  She is so sweet and loving; she loves to give hugs and kisses...ALL DAY LONG.  She quite often will stop playing, crawl over to me just to give me hugs, and then go back to what she was doing.  She hugs and kisses her toys too.  She snuggles when she gets up in the morning, cuddles before and after naps, and likes to snuggle before bed too.  She is so sweet and we love it!!!

She loves animals: both real and stuffed; she screams in delight and I think she is making a consistent sound each time she sees a cat or dog.  She is really loving baby dolls right now too (more to come on that in a following post). She points to things she wants to know about and things she wants to have.  She waves bye but only when she wants to.  She can find her toys when I ask her where they are.  She opens books, pretends to read, turns the pages, takes them off the shelf and puts them back (or atleast tries to). She is starting to prefer eating what we are eating instead of her baby food, although she will eat the pouches of baby food by herself, again only when she wants to.  She is such a helper: she likes to help in the kitchen when I'm cooking (which means she takes everything out of the cabinet, bangs it around, drags it around, puts it in her mouth and then puts it back), helps with the laundry (which means I fold it, she unfolds it and throws it around and on the floor), and helps unload the groceries (which means she pulls things out the bag and drags it around the floor).  She likes to be outside: going for walks, swinging at the park, watching the dogs in the park across the street from the front porch and exploring things on the back porch.  She is crawling everywhere and climbing everything, she most often wants to stand instead of sit, although she has only balanced standing alone for a second or two a few times, she is still timid when it comes to standing by herself.  She can climb up the stairs and is getting faster and faster each day.  She has been getting some bumps and bruises from all of her activity though.
As always, we are having so much fun and are so blessed!