Kira's 9th Month

Kira has been gracing us with her presence for 9 months now.  9 months is such a nostalgic baby age for me.  I spent last week looking through all of the photos that we have of Kira so far, and reminded myself how much she's grown and changed in such a short period of time.  And then I went back and looked at all of the photos that we have of Quinn at this age as well.  The similarities between these two is astounding.  Anyhow, to celebrate Kira's nine months we had a small photo shoot with her.  

She enjoys checking herself out in the mirror.

And she's so darn kissable she just can't help herself.  I don't blame her.

Kira has been exploring sounds a lot this month.  She started by saying "baba", and then blew me away with "mama" next.  She's also saying "dada" and "lala" and blending consonants that I wouldn't know how to capture with letters on paper.  Even these word representations are vague.  The vowel that follows each consonant sound varies.  For example, she tends to say something that resembles "muh muh" more than "mama" often.  This is her word of choice when hungry or eating, which she does quite a bit of.  It's so fun to hear her explore the use of her voice.  It'll be interesting to see if she picks up speech quicker than her brother did (who didn't say mama until 18 months).  

This girl likes to be on her feet, and she is cruising around using anything in sight to assist her with balance.  Most recently she's discovered that Quinn's little table or the laundry basket are great walkers.  She uses the toy versions as well.  Quinn's not incredibly supportive of her trying to climb up on him, but that never stops her from trying.  In the middle of the month I counted 12 seconds that she stood unassisted, but that only happened once.  She prefers to be holding on to someone or something for support.  I'm telling myself that she's not quite as brave as Quinn was, but I think that might just be wishful thinking.

Towards the beginning of the month, Kira seemed to be throwing temper tantrums.  Developmentally, I thought she was too young for this.  But it happened consistently enough that I have to wonder, and it only happened while interacting with Quinn.  If he had a toy that she wanted but he wouldn't share, she'd throw herself back and scream until he gave up and just gave it to her.  It never took him long to give in, but his preference was to give her something that he wasn't interested in playing with (naturally).  For a couple of days she acted very strong willed and surprisingly (and thankfully), Quinn did give in to her.  Lately she's been content with whatever he has to offer her, and these fits haven't been occurring.  I hope this trend continues.  I'm not ready for two children who throw tantrums just yet.  

Kira learned how to clap this month and when she's pleased with herself or something around her she just can't help but clap about it.  I've been doing little workout videos around the house and she's quite the cheerleader, encouraging me with her clapping.  It's the cutest.  She also waves her arm a little, but I can't figure out if she's trying to wave purposefully or if she's just flailing limbs.  She also bounces a little to music while sitting.  It's as if she's trying to dance.  I just can't get enough of her cute little antics!

Yes, this is Quinn trying to hold her back from crawling.  It doesn't work.

She's at the stage where everything is in the mouth, and when set free to roam her favorite spots are where we keep the dog and cat food.  Poor Lucy and Jerry are having to go without food and water when Kira's up and crawling around these days.

Kira's favorite toys right now are books that sing.  It just occurred to me that perhaps this is because I don't sit down and read to her very often.  She has to find the books that'll do it for me.  Hmm...  Anyway, she loves them and knows where to find them in the play room.  Quinn knows that this is a favorite of hers as well and will oftentimes bring one to her when he doesn't want her touching what he's playing with.

Another cute thing that I don't want to forget about this time is the way Kira tries to interact with me when I change her diaper (particularly in the middle of the night).  She'll let out a fake laugh and just smile, sending me the message that she doesn't think she'll be going back to bed at 4am.  I'm not into that idea and so I try not to make eye contact because I know if I do, I can't help but smile at her.  And that's when she knows she's won.  Speaking of sleep, Kira's been doing fairly well lately.  She's still not sleeping through the night, but she tends to wake up sometime around midnight and then sleeps until anywhere from 4-6 again without eating.  I feel like she should be sleeping 8-12 hours without food by this point in her life, but I'm not willing to fight it just yet.

Miss Kira Lynae, you bring such light, love, and laughter into our home.  We are so happy you're ours and we're yours!  Happy 9 months!