Nine is Nifty

I know, we’re shocked too. How can she be nine months already?

Here is a little snippet of Holland as a nine-month old:

• Has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom, all of which she used today to bite Grandpa Craig’s finger. (Sorry Grandpa!)
• Loves to stand and will pull herself up with anything in sight – we found out about this on January 1^st, which you can read about here.
• Says “Dada” all day long – but we’re pretty sure she hasn’t actually connected that to mean Dada quite yet. But Tyler still loves to hear it!
• Waves bye-bye and has mimicked us saying “bye-bye” a few times.  First time was on January 21^st while Grandma Lucy and Grandpa Chuck were here – must have been Holland’s little birthday gift for Grandma. We were all SO EXCITED to hear those cute little words come out of that cute little mouth. And, coupled with a spastic wave of her hand makes it doubly presh!
• Crawls super-duper fast in a semi hands-and-knees/army-crawl style.
• Eats dirt from “Mother” (my Mother-in-Law’s Tongue plant)
• Still chews, rather than sucks, on her pacifier, and is happy to just have one in her hand at all times if we would let her. But she is definitely not attached, if we took it away I don’t think she would miss it at all.
• Has a love-hate relationship with her Exercauser, and she’s not afraid to let us know which one she is feeling at any given attempt to put her in it.
• Is easily entertained by our phones – either watching videos or scrolling through pictures of herself (of which there are a ton!) 
• Finds pure enjoyment in emptying the contents of any box, drawer, cupboard, bag, etc. 
• “Helps” daddy build fires in the fireplace by pulling herself up to the hearth and intently watching (yep – Sheri – I said hearth. “Don’t step on my hearth!”) 
• Is the Bell of the Ball every Sunday – she is definitely adored by the members of our ward and she really is a pretty reverent baby. 
•  Still nursing about four times a day and eating baby food and anything else we will give her – her fave is daddy’s “Secret” Rice. 
• Not afraid of heights or adventure, which you can read about here. 
• Sleeps from about 7 or 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 or 7a.m., then nurses and sleeps again until 8 or 8:30 a.m. Love it! However, sleeping in the day time (aka naps) is a whole other story. She does take two naps a day – one around 10 or 11 a.m. and another around 2 p.m., but the lengths and/or the energy to get her to do so are greatly varied.  
• Very curious, attentive, alert and independent little girl. We often times wish she were more cuddly (cuddlier?), but she’s just not.  So, I have to sneak those moments in at the end of nursing her before bed – because honestly, that is the only time she will lay her head down and just be still. All other times she is on the go, go, go!

 We love this little cutie nine times nine times nine times nine...times infinity!!!