9 Months of Lil: Steppin' it up!

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LilliAnn McKenzie is 9 MONTHS OLD!

Yes, that's right! Our baby girl turned 9 months old on the 6th of this month and she sure is growing fast! These past few weeks she has really hit some major developmental milestones...the most exciting being WALKING! LilliAnn started taking a few steps when she was 8 months, so we knew she would probably be an early walker. I thought it was crazy because she could just stand up right in the middle of the floor without pulling up on anything. The day before she turned 9 months old she took four steps and then clapped for herself! As of today, she's been walking more than she's been crawling. It's so funny to see her short little self just walking around the house. Reid started taking steps around 9 months, but didn't start officially walking until the day after his first birthday. I think Lil's walking a littler earlier because she has a big brother that she has to keep up with!

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We took these pictures a couple of weeks ago and I was a little worried with how they were going to turn out. LilliAnn is usually very smiley and we can make her grin really big for pictures when we talk to her, but on picture day she was Miss Serious. She just cut her top two teeth so I think her teeth were bothering her this day because she kept making this expression in all of her pictures...pursing her lips together with this little "up to something" grin! She was still recovering from being so sick the week of Christmas, and although she was more serious than usual, I LOVE these pictures. Especially the one below...I just can't get enough of this precious little face!

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We had her 9 month check-up last week and her growth is right on track. She weighs 18.5 pounds and is  on the 50 percentile for her weight and is 28.5 inches tall and is on the 75 percentile for her height! However, she is anemic, probably because she is still breastfeeding and my iron tends to run low and she's not crazy about her iron-fortified baby cereal anymore. We've started some iron drops, so hopefully when we get her hemoglobin up she'll have even more energy! 

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Her little personality is really starting to show. I would describe LilliAnn's personality like this: sweet as honey, full of joy, with a dash of spunk, and a pinch of ornery! She follows Reid around all over the house and gets so excited when he talks to her or plays with her. She'll just squeal with excitement. In the mornings she can't wait to wake him up. After she nurses she talks to him to try and wake him, then tries so hard grab his face or hair! She's really starting to show-off this month too...especially with her dance moves. She stands up in the middle of the floor whenever she hears music and bounces up and down. And now she claps, then waves her arms and tries to sing along! Every time Dora the Explorer coms on, LilliAnn heads to the living room as fast as she can, stands right in front of the T.V., and dances to the entire theme song. Then she'll turn around, look at Reid and I, and smile really big. My Papa Glenn has always played patty cake with her, so now whenever she sees him she starts patty caking. She can even "roll 'em up, roll 'em up" with her little hands. She tries to "sing" and has added several words to her vocabulary. She knows what the word "kiss" means now and loves to give kisses! For Christmas we got her a Barney stuffed animal that plays "I Love You" when you squeeze his tummy. When the song says, "and a kiss from me to you." she'll put Barney up to her mouth and give him a kiss. It's super sweet!

LilliAnn's Vocabulary

-mama

-dada

-bubba

-nana

-papa

-drink

-bite

-that

-milk

And my mom thinks that she repeated backpack and Diego while watching Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go the other day, but I think that might be a stretch! You know those Nanas...they think their grandchildren are SO smart :)

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She's starting to eat more table foods and not breastfeed as much, except at night. She's been sleeping in her bed, but still wakes about twice a night. She'll usually fuss for a second then fall back asleep the first time and the second time is usually around 5-6 in the morning and Jeb brings her to our bed so she can nurse. She'll fall back asleep after she eats and sleep until about 8:30-9 a.m. Favorite foods include blueberries, apples, bananas, chicken & dumplings, turkey, and any kind of pasta. Lil loves to feed herself and always makes a HUGE mess. She'll hardly let you put a bite in her mouth because she wants to do it herself! She's even started giving me bites now. She'll say, "bite" then put whatever it is she's holding in my mouth. 

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To sum it all up...She is wonderful. She's my little angel baby. 

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I actually have two wonderful children and I feel extremely blessed that God chose me to be their mother. They are everything I always wanted. They fill my days with laughter and my heart with joy. No, it's not always easy...and no, it's not always fun, but I LOVE being a mommy more than anything else. As a mother...I try to overdo, I try to do everything, I try to do too much, I try to do whatever needs to be done to give my children the best life possible. And yes, I get stressed out...I get tired...and I get frustrated, just like any other mother, but I also get unconditional love, hundreds of kisses, tons of "thank you mommy" and "I love you mommy," enormous amounts of snuggles, and a satisfaction deep inside myself that words cannot describe. God is good! Thank you, Lord, for giving me Reid and LilliAnn.