Lookin Fine at Nine

9 months old
3 teeth
18 lbs 1 oz
29 inches

Activity

-Pushes Luc's cars around like a pro
-Waves back to you
-Claps her hands
-Smacks her lips or says "muah" to give kisses
-Switches toy in hand to get arms in and out of sleeves
-Still loves to climb on people when they are sitting 
-Loves to play shy and turn away, but quickly looks back to give a smile or tease
-Learning to play games with Luc
    *they've communicated with their bike horn/bell: One of them will honk/chim and then the other answers back
     *banging on the toilet seat or tables together
     *Luc making funny faces to Aria in the car to make her laugh
     *pushing cars around next to each other
-Likes to touch and play with shoes
-Drinks water out of a sippy cup and water bottles (though tends to take too much and spittle the rest down her shirt)
-Will crawl over to you when you tell her to come
-Slept a few nights waking around our bedtime, then not making a peep until morning. Literally, sleeping the whole night through.
-Stood by herself for up to 10 seconds

Food

Aria now prefers little bits of real food to puree foods. We tried avocado this month- she did not like it. She did love rotisserie chicken.

Words

-Mama
Some people will say a baby at 9 months cannot talk to communicate. They make sounds that sound like words, but they have not made the association with the object. Not true for Aria. She can say "Mama" and she knows that means me, and she says it when she wants me. 
-Cat (hah-t)
There is a cat on the bottle Aria uses at Grandma's house. Grandma has been pointing to it and saying "cat". One morning Aria was drinking at home (the bottle is plain purple) and she grabs it and says "cat".
Aria is starting to repeat other simple words you say. (Light, Muah, Hi)

Favorite toys:

My two teeth!

-Balls
-Spatula (to teeth on)
-Octopus teether
-Luc's monster truck
-Whatever Luc is playing with

Mommy's Girl

Aria is my shadow, my mini-me, my appendage, my partner in crime. She is attached. It's flattering, but sometimes a little annoying that I can't walk away from her, sit near her without her having to be on top of me, or that no one else can really hold her (even Daddy) when I'm still in the room. When I'm not in the room, she's totally fine. If I'm there and she wants me, she starts to cry and say "Mama".

Personality

 Aria in many ways is so different than Luc. When Luc was this age and you told him "No", he listened. Don't play with the door stoppers, don't unroll the toilet paper, don't touch the potty, don't grab the trash, etc. Aria looks at you, smiles, and turns around to keep doing it. Over and over and over- No, Aria. -Smile. -Turn around to do it again. She has very strong determination to do what she wants.
In Aria's eyes, Luc is hilarious. His funny faces, tickling her belly and neck. If Luc laughs, Aria laughs. It's like they're creating their own language and secret signs.

JBA Air Show

Saturday we met up with Nick, Erica, Blake & Briley to go to Andrews Air Force Base to the JBA Air Show.
We had to park at the Redskins stadium and be shuttled to the base by school buses. It was the first time Frederic or Luc had been on a bus (Aria too, of course).
It became to be a very hot day. And since it's on a field, there's not much shade or breeze. One hanger was open with veteran organization tables that provided shade and a sporadic cross wind. Of course, I forgot Aria's sunhat, so I tried to go into the shade as often as possible. And since I was so worried about the kids getting sunburned, I protected them, but forgot about myself and my face got a little fried.
There were tons of planes and helicopters out and open to the public to see and walk inside of. At the same time, there were all sorts of planes showing off their speed and air tricks. At the end, the Thunderbirds came out for their show. Some of these planes were pretty loud for the kids.

Luc said his favorite part of the day was here, "Sitting next to my friends on the school bus."

And after a long day in the sun, there's nothing like getting stuck in traffic on the DC Beltway on the way home...at least the kids fell asleep in the car.

What's Next?

It's kind of amazing, still with the second child (maybe because we forget these little things), how within a few days or a week, a baby starts doing new things that are clearly a step up in intelligence. These will be old news by the time her 9-month update comes around.

Waving. All at once Aria figured out how to wave to people. She does a variation of Queen Elizabeth's side, cusped-handed wave, backwards hand waving at herself, and the arm wave. She will do it in response to a wave (if she feels like it).

Pointing. Aria was up a littler earlier than I would've liked this past weekend. I tried holding her in my lap on the chair for a little while just to get some more rest in before heading downstairs. She wasn't starving and it was still dark out, and I just wanted to not move. She rested with me, playing with my hair, fidgeting. Then she would sit up, point her arm/hand out toward the door where alittle light was shining in, and bounce in my lap to say "Let's go downstairs." It's funny how they learn to communicate things other than crying. I got a total flashback of Luc figuring out and doing this same exact thing when he woke early and wanted to do downstairs too.

Standing. Aria's a pro at pulling herself up to stand now. She will stand in place for long periods of time before her legs get tired and she plops down. She's also started to try to move from one thing to another or shimmy across the length of the table/bathtub/toy box ottoman. She's also testing the one-handed standing and leaning against the surface to free both of her hands. There have even been a few instances of standing completely unassisted for a second or two.

Hair playing. Aria's new habit, soothing technique. Her hair will substitute sometimes, but mine is her favorite. I'm the only one she's around often enough that has long enough hair to actually grab hold of and play with. And that's all she does when I hold her. It's nice to know I have something so powerful to soothe her.

Smiling. No longer a simple emotion. Aria now uses smiling to answer your questions: "Are you hungry?" Smile! "Do you want some milk?" Smile! "Do you want more?" Smile! I'm starting to use a few sign language words now with her like we did for Luc to make life a little easier down the road.

Separation Anxiety. This hit like a brick wall this week. Aria's always been pretty attached to me at home. Mostly because Daddy goes outside to play with Luc a lot and to keep Luc occupied when I need to attend to Aria. So it's just Aria and I a lot in the house together. Now this anxiety is creeping into the night time sleeping. She will continue to cry if Frederic picks her up. When I take her, she stops. I cannot move out of her site during the day without a wail. And when I pick her up, she holds onto me like she'll never let go (and then starts playing with my hair. See above).

Manipulation. Aria's still a good eater. She will try everything at least once. She will eat almost anything. But if it's something she's not a total fan of, she will tolerate to eat half and then in order to get her to eat the rest you have to play back and forth with a rice cake or puffs or cheese. If you don't play this game, she cries and won't eat anything. She plays a good game.

Outside. When all else fails, go outside. So much like Luc, going outside for a walk in Luc's old tricycle instantly calms her down. She gets so excited to sit there and look around and honk the bike horn.- the absolute one toy I regret buying.