Wonder Baby is 9 months old.  I can’t believe my baby girl is getting so big!  She is crawling well on all fours now, and pulling up on eeeeverything!  She had just learned to pull up when I realized that she’s slowly cruising around the furniture.  She’s getting into a whole new level of mischief these days, and she’s very interested in everything.   She has a lot to say to the world and isn’t quiet about her opinions.  Her babbling is getting more sophisticated and is usually more of a yell (second child, anyone?), but she also sometimes whispers her secrets to me, which is adorable.  She is currently screaming with joy at the cat.  And just woke up her sister, who really needs the sleep (it’s around 6:45am).  Thanks baby.

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It’s been a bit of an exhausting month as she started it in a Wonder Week (a three week long Wonder Week) and from there moved directly into teething again.  She’s currently cutting tooth #6 and it seems to be bothering her a lot.  She bites constantly, sometimes while nursing (which has me very tense while I nurse) and sometimes she’ll just crawl by and bite your foot.  The other day she was in the ergo on my back and took a big bite out of my shoulder.  It therefore comes as no big surprise that she is sleeping very badly, even for her.  Falling asleep is difficult because she keeps pulling up and getting stuck and yelling for me.  Staying asleep is difficult because of the teeth (and her generally excitable nature).  Naps are a mess.  She also flat out refuses to nap while we are out anymore, even in the ergo with the hood up.  Mr SH and I take turns sleeping in with earplugs to catch up, but sometimes she’s just too crazy.  I miss being able to take her outside to play when she’s so loud, but it’s been a cool, damp, October.

Wonder Baby is generally eating three meals of solids a day, and seems to need them more now.  Sometimes if she has just nursed she will tell me (in a loud tone) that she’s still kind of hungry if it’s a meal time.  If she naps through a meal, I feed her when she wakes up.  I’ve really been trying to get her to nurse more during the day, to hopefully cut down on night wakings, but she’s so distractable that it’s hard to get much into her unless she’s really really hungry.  She also refuses to nurse in public (too much going on).  This is a bit annoying, but she’ll eat solids to tide her over (I was on a shopping trip with her for 6 hours this week, and she didn’t nurse or nap), and it means that I can wear a regular bra out and about, which is honestly a lot more flattering.

In short, she’s exhausting and a bit cranky, but also awesome and hilarious.  She has the biggest smiles, and shrieks so loudly with laughter that people sometimes stare when we’re out.  She’s also started to reach for us, snuggle, and get really excited when she sees her daddy.  Wondering why she’s rocking the vintage baby dress this month?  Check it out, that’s me on the left

And Toddler Girl is 32 months old! (you might notice that I said TG was 32 months last time, but I was  bit off, she’s actually 32.5 right now, but closer to 32 than 33?  It’s slightly more accurate).  What to say… her speech is still improving in leaps and bounds.  We are constantly surprised by the complexity of her sentences, as well as how funny she can be.  I sing to her every night at bedtime and the other day she would wait for me to start singing her lullabye and then start singing “happy birthday.”  We were both laughing so hard that I had to leave the room or she never would have settled down to sleep.

I don’t know if Wonder Baby’s rough month is affecting her as well, or if she’s just doing her own developmental thing, but she’s been taking forever to fall asleep again.  Sometimes she’s up chatting at her toys until midnight. The first week after soother weaning was totally fine, but now I worry that she can’t figure out how to fall asleep on her own.  I know that she’s done this before, but it still worries me.  It’s especially hard as the baby wakes her up earlier in the morning than she would like.  She’s obviously tired, and has started doing this pathetic crying thing that really annoys me because it seems very fake.  She obviously wants more attention, and I don’t blame her, but it’s rough with a teething baby to deal with as well.  She’s been getting more time outs than usual, and they are all related to her sister.  They usually play nice, but TG forgets to be gentle (as in, pushes her over, or hits her when she’s annoyed with her).  Now, to be fair, the baby is driving us all insane, but that doesn’t mean you can hit her!  She also sometimes pulls all her toys up on her bed, where Wonder Baby can’t reach, which leads to baby tears.  I sometimes think that if she was an only child, we would think she was perfect.

Even though they’ve been a bit much this month, I still have to remind myself how much easier it is than a few months ago.  They both play well independently (and usually with each other), which allows me to do things like cook dinner a lot more easily.  It’s so fun watching them grow into their personalities, they really are fun to spend time with.