The Mama Adventures of Kijjet: Your Ninth Month

Hi Nugget,

As usual, I am in a bit of shock that your ninth month has come and gone, that you are officially a full 9 months old. Baby and Me classes have started, which you LOVE by the way, but all the tiny babies in the class just remind me how incredibly much you have grown in such a short time. I think this state of shock might be a permanent fixture of parenthood. It goes so fast.

Your ninth month started out with a bang! Your first day into your ninth month we went to the Cities for a family reunion. You were passed from aunt to cousin to aunt to grandma and grandpa over and over. You had a good time, smiling at all the new people. You were quite over-stimulated but your cousin Katie managed to rock you to sleep. You liked her quite a bit! After the reunion, we went to our friend Leah's house and played with her girls and visited with one of her friends that was over. Her friend had a baby that you enjoyed hanging out with. Then the next day we visited with more friends throughout the day before we headed home.

Ok, so this next part you might find to be overshare when you are older, but I'll try to be as vague as possible. (LOL) You got an owie/scratch in your diaper area and it got a little infected this month. Why am I even mentioning this? Well, because it caused some very FUN afternoons for you. Why? Because you got NAKEY time. We spread a sheet down in our living room, put away toys that weren't very easy to clean and just let you be nakey for as much of the afternoon as possible so you could get some fresh air and heal. And lets just say, you thought nakey time was quite a bit of fun. We were lucky it was still nice and warm. It was warm enough even for you to fall asleep on a towel during nakey time. Sorry, but as a mama, I can never get enough of your cute little baby rolls so of course pictures were taken.

There were two other developments this month. The first is DUCKIE LOVE. You officially have a favorite toy. Your bath duckie that is meant to tell you if the water is too hot. Well, that duckie is around pretty much all the time now. In your crib, during diaper changes, out in the living room. It is the sure fire way to get and keep your attention. You love your duckie. I always envisioned a favorite toy being something plush that you could cuddle with, but nope - not for you. You want something bright that you can chew and slam on the ground.

Sometimes you even share your Duckie!

The second development this month is your love of the piano. Your dad will sit with you almost every day and let you bang on the keys. You even love to pull yourself up next to the piano, stretch real high and play the few keys you can reach. If this trend continues, we'll have to get you into some piano lessons when you are young. Your dad took piano lessons for 12 years. Maybe you'll enjoy continuing that tradition.

This month you also moved out of your 9 month clothes and into your 12 month clothes! We are very lucky that Auntie Alicia provided lots of lovely hand-me-downs for you. It took what felt like a week to get everything sorted, washed and put away but I think we are finally done with the great Clothes Transition of Sept. 2012.

This month also saw a transition that is a little more sad, at least for me. We've started to introduce you to formula in a bottle so we can start weaning. I love breastfeeding. I love being able to provide that for you and I am so grateful I have lasted NINE whole months! But it's time. My arthritis and psoriasis are getting worse and I need to go back on medicine soon. So although I am proud at how well you are learning to take a bottle, I'm also a little sad to see our breastfeeding days come to a close. This picture represents all the beauty of breastfeeding. All the joys of the last 9 months. The colors, the comfort, the closeness. I loved it all, Nugget.