{9 months}

My sweet Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen has changed so much in the last few months. She has become way more vocal, still shrieking with glee all the time, but she's also added more consonant and vowel sounds to her vocabulary. Her latest adds are "gah" and "huh."

I cannot imagine having a more joyful, happy baby. God knows how many times I have thanked Him for sending me such a sweet, jovial spirit to care for. I'm not saying that Miss Mary Ellen doesn't have her own set of demands because she does. At nine months she loves to be held and loves to have attention more than anything; she's a baby, after all, but her smiles and her laughs and getting her to be content come pretty easily. I am glad to be her mama.



She has recently developed separation anxiety and takes it personally when I leave the room. I remember this stage with Hattie, and I must confess I won't miss it when it's gone.

Mary Ellen loves her sister so much. Hattie can make her laugh like no one else can. But I also am starting to see an aggravating side to Mary Ellen that's developing. She loves to try and get whatever Hattie is interested in when Hattie's not looking. She's very sneaky. She waits for the split second that Hattie looks away and then goes for whatever it is. She loves to get a rise out of her big sister, not so different, I must confess, from her mama who loved getting reactions out of her own sisters!



Just yesterday she threw her very first drag-out fit, and the reason for her monstrous fit was that she dropped a cookie from her highchair that I had just given her. She was MAD she couldn't get to and eat that cookie. But Mommy rescued it from the floor and all was well with her little heart again :). I guess my kids don't kid around when it comes to cookies!



Mary Ellen is still working on crawling. We have a ways to go, I think, before she's up on hands and knees, crawling like a big girl. Right now she is content doing the inching thing. She kind of rolls to her side and scoots. It works for her, but I'll keep working with her.



She recently got her pincher when picking up puffs, and she can hold and drink from her sippy cup. She loves her fruits and tolerates her vegetables and a few meats I've given her. I'm still not giving her yogurt just yet because she gets stopped up easily, if you know what I mean, so we're gonna take dairy slow.



Baby girl still has just the two bottom teeth, but I can see the top two front teeth wanting to push their way down.

As far as sleep goes, Mary Ellen usually takes 2 naps, each about 1.5 hours long. She goes to bed around 6:30-7 pm, and we are still working on her not waking at 4:30 or 5 a.m.! She doesn't do it every morning, but more than Mama likes, and she won't always go back to sleep either. No more early morning bottles, and we just leave her in her crib to play and/or whine until 6:30 a.m.



I love her so much, and I go back and forth between wanting her to stay little like she is and wanting her to grow and be able to play more with Hattie and talk because I just know the things that are gonna come out of her sweet little mouth are just gonna crack us up all day long.