Nine months

Happy 3/4 birthday, Annika!  This month, she has perfected both crawling and pulling to stand - both *much* earlier than Maya did!!  We finally have our first sign, which (most surprisingly!!!) is "more."  She still can't point to any person or body part on command (i.e., she has no idea what "mama" means), but she somehow understands the abstract concept of "more?"  How is that even possible???  So clearly, we have a ways to go before we have any real communication, but maybe this next month will see some exciting progress (because you know moms always worry until the skills finally show up!)

Annika has also started playing games, including her own version of peek-a-boo where she hides her face and waits for us to say "Where's Annika?"  Then she pops us, we give the obligatory excited "peek-a-boo!" and she dissolves in a sea of giggles.  She also loves to roughhouse with Maya, which causes me a lot of anxiety as well since they are anything but gentle.   In probably the first of an entire childhood of this, she wants to do everything that Maya does even though she's completely outgunned.  It's good to see them having fun together, but ack, so rough for such a little baby!

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we don't have Annika's 9 month appointment until Wednesday, but I gave her an unofficial set of measurements yesterday: 23.5 lbs (yep, you read that correctly - TWO POUNDS heavier than Maya was at nine months, goodness), 30 inches long, and 17.5 in head circumference.  I mean, it's insane.  This child is so, so enormous!

My only real complaint about Annika (who is otherwise an excellent and fun baby) is that she sleeps like total shit.  I thought Maya was a terrible sleeper, but Annika takes it to a new level.  For posterity, I need to record that two nights ago, Annika woke every 20 minutes (::scream emoticon::) all night long - literally from 7pm-7am - except between 12-2am when she was simply awake and screaming.  She had also puked (real puke, not milk puke), pooped, and peed all over MY bed - the trifecta of squalor - by the time I crawled out in desperation once morning came.  I cleaned the best I could as each occurred, but it was the middle of the night and I was so, so tired from being woken every 20 minutes, so I still had to do hours of cleanup the next day.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Again, Maya was a horrible sleeper, but she *never* did that.  This particular night was a special kind of hell that I had never even thought a child could be capable of.  I have no other phrase to describe this besides truly defying belief.

I have not yet recovered.

Things Annika loves:
- Maya
- "putting on" clothes
- nursing all night long
- Abby
- baths with Maya

Things Annika hates:
- her crib
- face wiping
- diaper changing
- being poopy
- not being able to do the things Maya can do

It's a milestone when you come in to get a baby up from nap,
and they are routinely standing up in the crib when you enter :)


Grandma time!!

Post-Thanksgiving dinner (pre-puking in the bed)


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