Happy Holidays!

We had a great first Christmas with Emily! We drove to Minnesota on Thursday the 22nd (Emily's 9 month birthday) and stayed at Great Grandpa Paul's house along with Nana Ellen and Grandpa Lee for three nights and then went and stayed at with the Comer's after that (Grandpa Joe, Mary, Aunt Julia and Aunt Rachel).
Emily did really well on the 4+ hour car ride even though she still only sleeps for 30 minute naps while in the car. She adjusted to her new surroundings pretty quickly, only waking up a few times at night, but not needing to be picked up or anything. She was around so many family members and did a great job being around people she didn't know and staying happy. Being around all those people gave her a chance to improve her mimicking skills which she is getting very good at.

She also loved spending time in some houses that had more room for her to crawl around and explore. She is so curious about everything that is going on around her and wants to watch what everyone is doing. She has really perfected her crawling and is great at standing up while holding on to something. In addition, she is getting better at transitioning between crawling and sitting and vice versa. She did miss her gym/jumper station while traveling though and has been bouncing a bunch since we have been home. We did have to cut our visit short unfortunately. On Monday the 26th Emily woke up with a big rash on her torso, arms, and thighs. We think it was hives that she got in reaction to something she came in contact with, but aren't sure what exactly caused it. We left on Monday just because we were concerned about what was going on with her and wanted to be at home. By Wednesday it was pretty much gone.
On Wednesday she had her 9 month well baby visit and weighed in at 23 pounds 5 ounces (99%) and 23.5 inches (96%)! So she is a big girl for her age, but at least proportional, so no concerns. Everything else looked great at the doctor's office, she is developing fine. Still no teeth. Almost going to start wearing the 18 month size clothes we got for Christmas! Working on taking more and more solids to start weaning off the formula and even though she's had a sippy cup for a couple months, she is finally drinking from it regularly.

We're In The Army - Nine Months

We are happy to report that Emily has been crawling for the past couple of weeks. It looks more like an Army crawl with one or both legs dragging behind her but she's getting the hang of it. She's also responding to our prompts with babbling or loud but happy screams. Our updates include:

• Eating food three times per day at 7am, 11am, and 5pm supplemented by formula after each feeding. She hasn't eaten a food she hasn't liked yet. We've added rice rusks and yogurt bites to her diet and she does well with them even though she doesn't have any teeth yet.
• A couple weeks ago she dropped her evening nap and now sleeps for about an hour in the morning and two in the afternoon on a good day.
• She can get wherever she wants to be including the stack of books on the bottom shelf of one of our end tables. Her "crawling" makes for a very dirty belly no matter how many times we clean the floor.

•  Her vocalizations are becoming more varied and loud. She makes noise to mimic us, when she's happy, and to get our attention.
• She's still a very happy baby who loves to sleep at night. She's usually asleep by 7pm and wakes up between 6-7am.
• She enjoys daddy's goofy dancing partially because she doesn't realize how bad it really is.
• Baths are fun for her no matter what her mood is. She loves to splash and play with her rubber ducky when she doesn't have it in her mouth.
• We're excited for some new toys at Christmas because she needs more and more stimulation these days and can get bored and whines more easily than she used to. Her new favorite toy is a plastic key chain with keys and a fob that plays car sounds. She loves to put it in her mouth and push the horn sound button over and over and over and...
• The Hicks' came to visit for Thanksgiving and provided Emily with a new audience. She appreciated their willingness to travel all the way to Iowa to celebrate the holiday and her dad's birthday. She even got a onesie from her Granana Mae with her photo on it.

• We head to Minnesota for the Christmas holiday tomorrow and have her nine month appointment when we get back to Cedar Rapids. We're excited to see how much she has grown and developed. As with many of us during this time of year, her pants (12 month size) are growing tighter every day.