Highlights of Month 9

Life continues to fly by. In month 9, we continued to battle illness and Abigail has still not kicked the cough she has had since November. The doctor put her on a nebulizer twice a day for the next 3 months to see if that will help. We have had fevers and coughs and stuffy/runny noses, oh my! They say the first winter with kids is the hardest and everyone gets everything passed around. I say, come on spring!

In more fun news, Abigail is standing alone these days, including standing up from the middle if the floor. She had also taken a couple of steps a couple of times, but still prefers the speed she's got with crawling.

I had fun making these fabric letters for her with magnets sewn inside where she can't eat them!

My dad visited in the beginning of January for a few short days, but got to enjoy some time with Abigail and see how big she's getting! And we enjoyed cooking and eating good food together!

She also cut her first top tooth, which somehow, even more than the bottom teeth, makes her look shockingly like a big kid and not my little baby anymore! This month, she also became aware of and very interested in shadows. It makes for a new and helpful distraction technique as we try to get her to stay on her back for the 2 minutes it takes to change her diaper.

We also had a nice visit to see Aunties Mari and Michelle in PA. It was nice to see where they live and hang out with the animals. Mari and Michelle watched Abigail Sunday evening while Claude and I drove to another part of the state for a wedding of a friend of Claude's from Senegal. It was nice to see him and also spend time with the best man, another good friend from Dakar. I also enjoyed chatting with the groom's mom, who came over from Senegal for the wedding.

Auntie Mari teaching Abigail how to do stairs - she liked going up but not going down!

The Best Man Cedric, Claude, and the Groom Jules

The groom's mom was beautifully dressed in a Senegalese outfit

A few more random photos from this month and quite a few short videos:

Abigail's first Christmas

The only other picture I have of her on her first Christmas...oops

The yogurt drink that she loves

Big girl drinking out of a big person cup!

The hunt for small pieces of anything on the floor that she can put in her mouth. Her specialty is little tiny pieces of onion peel that fall on the ground. 

Still looking

Cheering on their favorite team!

One of her favorite things to do - take all the books off the shelf!

Crinkly paper and her shadow

Abigail and Daddy playing call and response in the car - she does this when she's tired

Abigail laughing

5 minutes of Abigail at 9 months - are you tired yet?

Random facts about 9 months:
Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz (35%) Height: 27.5 (50%)
Wears: size 3 diapers, 6-9 month pants, 12 month jammies, 6-9 month shirts and onesies, size 3 shoes
Teeth:  2 on bottom, 1 on top!
Loves: bathtime, snuggles in her warm towel after the bath, playing with Daddy, looking at shadows, finding the tiniest pieces of things on the floor, picking them up, and putting them in her mouth!

Hates: having her diaper changed and her nose wiped

Brags: she's going to be an early walker!

Foods she loves: yogurt, kefir, cheese and hot pepper chicken, eggs, beans and rice, puffs

Foods she hates: not a big fan of corn - she picks the peas out around the corn if we give her mixed veggies, but the peas might just be easier to see!

Favorite toys: books, but mostly when she is pulling them down off the shelf, anything crinkly or shiny, the popup toy, but she only likes slamming them down not trying to figure out how to pop them up