9 Months: You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

Wearing Daddy's Jersey

I feel like I just wrote your 8 month post.  What on earth is going on?  Someone please tell me that someone stole a page from my calendar.  You can't really be 9 months.  Yet here you are...all nine months of you.  One thing is for sure; you are the least content nine-month-old baby I've ever had.  Gone are the days when I could possibly accomplish something when you were awake.  You are into everything.  Climbing, squirming, exploring non-stop.  I spend all day waiting for your naps so I can shower, do dishes, or sweep.  Seriously.  Not that I'm looking forward to those things.  Well...maybe the shower.  Luckily you are cute enough to get away with this little spell you're going through.  Actually, you are crashed out behind me on the sofa right now, blissfully unaware that I'm dishing up all of the dirt on you while you snooze.  

What to do with too-blurry, but still cute, photos of us playing under the sheets?  Black & White, Baby!

We've had a pretty low-key week around here thanks in part to more rain.  Such a rainy summer!  But also thanks to a rather expensive household week.  Four new tires, a new dryer (the old one was taking all day to dry laundry), and a pricey tv repair makes me reluctant to spend money running around town.  Besides, summer is all about kicking back and enjoying mother nature, right?  So what to do when mother nature hands you rainy day after rainy day?  Well, one night we took you, Sydney & Kylee to the movies for a special feature of "Singin' In the Rain" (how appropriate, I know).  I have always loved that movie, and the opportunity to see it on the big screen was too much to pass up.  I loved being able to share it with my girls.  And the best surprise of all was that you found it to be hilarious!  You laughed at the funny parts and grunted every time they tap-danced.  You didn't fall asleep until the unnecessary "Broadway scene", and I don't really blame you there.  The next day we took Ashley to get her hair cut.  When we stepped out of the car the rain puddles were so deep they covered our toes.  Sydney started humming the melody to "Singin' In the Rain" and swishing her feet around, wanting to tap.  I love the little dancer in her.  

In other "news" I finally joined Instagram and have posted a few pictures.  I feel like I'm learning a new language though with all of the hash-tag nonsense.  I don't get it at all.  I just like the way some of your pictures look on there, so I'll continue to post there until it doesn't amuse me anymore.  Maybe someday I'll figure out how to use it properly.


And I know you've been wondering:
What Finnlee's Digging: 9 Months

• Paper: Any paper will do, but typically it's the Sunday paper sales flyers that I hand you as I flip through them.  You never try to eat them, but you crumple them and rip them to shreds.  Who needs a document shredder?  Not me!
• Noises (specifically bodily function noises...sorry, but it's true): Every time someone sneezes, burps, hiccups, yawns, etc., you try to imitate the sound.  It's so funny!  Kylee will even "fake sneeze", and you follow up with a two-syllable-raspberry sound.  
• Hats: Just not on your head.  You love them.  You really love taking them off of people.  And I can't get you to leave one on your own head for anything these days.  But you will hold one all day and put up a good fight if I try to take it away from you.
• Touchy-Feely Books: I might have said this last month also, but it's still true.  Fortunately our library has a pretty extensive collection of them.  We've checked several of them out three library trips in a row and haven't had a repeat yet. 
• Standing: Now that you can pull yourself up to stand, you are trying out your new trick every chance you get.  The only problem is that you don't realize you have to keep holding on.  I guess I need to let you fall once or twice so you get the idea.  But that sounds awful.

You are definitely seeming "bigger."  Sunday you started saying "Da-Da" along with some "b" sounds as well.  So funny, because those were all of your sisters' first consonants.  You are your own person, and I love it.  Just when all of the books and magazines tell me you should start experiencing some separation anxiety, you actually are starting to come out of your shell a little bit.  You don't burst into tears at the sight of me walking out of the room any longer, which is a great thing.  However, your unfortunate combination of fearlessness and lack of coordination makes my trips out of the room few and far between.  At least you don't cry every time someone tells you how pretty your eyes are in the grocery store anymore.  And while in some ways you've grown by leaps and bounds, there have been a few steps back lately also.  Suddenly you hate your bath.  I moved your tub into my shower lately for practical reasons.  I don't know if it's the acoustics or what, but you now scream all through your bath.  I don't know how to make it stop!  You are also become choosier about your foods.  That doesn't keep me from feeding you the ones you turn your nose up at.  But it definitely makes meal time more of a challenge.

I've been trying not to panic about summer whizzing by.  The department stores are trying to trick me by posting back-to-school specials already.  I'm torn between wanting to be prepared and refusing to acknowledge them until I'm ready to think about school starting.  I see plenty more park days, beach days, sunsets and lazy days in our future.  Hopefully we do something more interesting than the "nothing" we've accomplished lately.  This weekend, we are off on a quick road trip for the Dave Matthews concert.  Now this should be interesting.