Addison is 9 Months Old!

Addison Marli Mae Jennings is 9 months old today! Or, as I like to call her sometimes Miss Addi Marli Mayberry!

She is 9 months old. Amazing. She is beautiful, stubborn, strong, sweet, cuddly, squirmy, impatient, persistent, giggly, happy, determined, easily excited, and she still has that sweet soft slightly floral pure baby drool smell. Oh I just love the smell of her, particularly the smell of her little cheeks and mouth. Man, she is sweet.

She lights up like the sun when you come near her, flailing her arms and smiling from ear to ear, bouncing on her little bottom. She has the most contagious smile and the brightest blue eyes.

She seems to change so much from day to day. As soon as I share something she's doing with someone, within just a couple of days she is doing the total opposite! A week ago, when we were in St. Louis visiting my sister's family, Addison wouldn't eat a single bite of any solid food. For four days she refused everything but my milk. The day we got home, she started eating double what she would have eaten before our trip. She's just always keeping us guessing! She has two teeth now! She got her bottom right front tooth on July 31st at just over 8 months old and she got her bottom left front tooth August 10th. This seems to be the age for major milestones! She started really crawling around August 15th. She had a couple of weeks of getting up on her hands and knees, but only going backwards, then a few days of moving forward a couple of feet, but not really mastering getting her knees and hands to work in the right order to consistently move forward and would end up scooting a bit. Then when we were out at my sister's, she really figured it out!

Addison is 19 lbs 9 oz and she's tall like her Momma. Her 9-month appointment is actually in another week so I don't have her exact measurements, but we got her weight a week and a half ago when we were in to see the doctor for double ear infections (poor girl!). She has a long torso just like I do. Although she can wear 6/9 month pants, her onesies are almost all 12 month now and one-piece sleepers and jammies are also 12 month. I think she'll be in bigger sizes for her age just like Gavin was. At 4 and a half years old he wears size 6/7 in shirts in order to get them long enough. He can wear size 5 pants although some of them are slightly too short. 

Addison still wakes up once or twice during the night, but she's getting better about putting herself back to sleep. I'm still getting up to nurse her at least once during the night, but it's so much better than it was even a couple of weeks ago. Of course now that I say that, I'm sure she'll change that up too! She's still completely uninterested in drinking from a bottle or a sippy cup, but at least she is eating her solid foods really well! She's a growing girl and needs all of that energy!

She loves to pull herself up on things and thankfully is learning that she needs to hold on. She had just a couple of little head-bonkers when she pulled herself up on something and then just let go, but thankfully they were on the living room rug, so she just fussed a little and then got back up again. Soon she'll be able to let go and keep her balance! Wow! 

I ordered the self-latching magnetic gate latch that I wanted and Cliff picked up a new self-closing hinge for the gate at the top of our stairs and it couldn't have been more timely. I think it was a day or two after the new hardware was installed that Addison really started cruising across the room, not just a few feet at a time. It gives me such peace of mind to know that the stairs are secure and we can't accidentally leave the gate open.

This little girl sure is a blessing to us and we are having so much fun with her these days. Gavin just loves her (when she's not climbing on him or messing up his games on the iPad!) He plays with her and sings to her and really is so, so sweet to her. What a blessed life we have!