So my darling daughter is now 9 months old. And I have to say, despite her sudden attachment to me and having to know where I am every second, she's really beginning to develop quite the little personality. She can now clap and will sit there and start randomly clapping before laughing her head off like her hands coming together is the funniest thing in the world. She will wave bye-bye if someone else does. She LOVES her touchy-feely books and knocking over her tower of stacking cups. And boy can she babble. When she's in a great mood, she's all da-da and na-na and ba-ba. Rarely do I get a happy 'mama', that's reserved for grizzling cos she wants mummy to make whatever is wrong better again.
She's got the rolling thing down to an art, which means we better have everything we need for a nappy change beforehand (I change her on the sofa because I have a tendency to get tendonitis in my knee from kneeling on the floor) otherwise she'll gleefully test your reflexes by attempting to pitch herself sideways off the edge of the sofa the moment she thinks you're not paying attention.
However now that she can get herself onto her tummy, you'd expect for her to start playing around with the crawling thing. And she is, kind of. She's one of those kids who is AWESOME at pushing herself backwards with her arms. But of course that leads to screams of frustration as the object she was trying to grab is suddenly even further away than it was before. She just can't seem to grasp the idea that she needs to push off with her knees - she keeps trying to get up on her toes and push off with her feet. And this is despite myself and her daddy demonstrating and even helping her get up onto her knees. As soon as she tries to move, her knees slide out from under her and she winds up back on her tummy, whining in frustration.
If I stand her up in front of the couch however and let her lean on it, she can stay standing and has excellent balance. Which leads me to believe that she may just skip the crawling thing and go straight to cruising along the furniture, because she seems so much happier and comfortable on her feet than she does on her tummy. I'm going to keep trying to provide opportunities for her to crawl, but I'm equally going to let her stand against the chairs and couches to practice her standing/walking.
For the most part, aside from the clingyness, she's a happy, playful, squirmy, ticklish, fun little girl. When hubby brings her to me before he has to go to work in the morning she'll play a silly little game where she rolls onto her stomach on my bed before flinging herself back onto her back and giggling. It's moment's like this I'll treasure when she gets too big for that sort of silliness.
Oh and she LOVES music and loves to dance with her daddy. And by dance I mean he sets her on his hip and then sways back and forth with her. It makes her laugh and she gets so excited by it. Not to mention when he finishes work for the day and walks into the living room, her eyes light up and she lets out an excited "Da-da!". She loves her daddy. And I suppose she loves me too, even though sometimes I feel a little smothered by her love and need for me.
But then, that's what being a mummy is all about.
Dinner time for the darling girl. Mashed potato and beef bolagnaise. Yummy. Hopefully most of it winds up IN her mouth rather than around it. It's adorable she wants to feed herself, but her hand-eye coordination is still a little spotty at times. Still, it's giving me ample fodder for her 21st birthday photo board.
Sneaky mummy, signing off.
