9 Months

9 month stats....

Weight - 17lbs 11oz - 41%ile

Height - 28.25 in - 72%ile

Head - 18 cm - 92%ile

At least she's consistent....long and lean with a big head :)

Dr said she looks just perfect. Her "vocabulary" has exploded just recently. She's always been chatty but holy cow does she make the sounds now. Constant chatter of some sort. She loves shopping/going out to eat/the library/any place there's people to watch and talk to. 

She's now doing laps pushing her walker toy on her own and she's into doing her version of yoga...some downward dogs/cobra/plank.....I think she's trying to motivate me....

Brian took her in the snow today since we finally got her snowsuit. She was a bit unsure, so hopefully it will warm up a little again so we can play more. She is very excited about her big girl car seat (thanks to her aunts and uncle) and she'll get to try it out next week as we head to Dwight for Christmas with the fam. Our Christmas here will just be the three of us opening a few gifts and hopefully playing outside if weather allows. 

Thanksgiving

So much happens in three weeks! We celebrated our first Thanksgiving, first Christmas tree hunt, first standing on her own, and first introduction to the world of yummy food all in the last three weeks. Make note-still no new teeth. I've decided they are all going to come in at once the way she chews on stuff. She also either went through or is going through now her 9 month growth spurt. Clothes that fit her last week (I swear) don't fit anymore. We have her 9 month we'll check on Monday so I'll post her stats then. 

Thanksgiving was great! Frannie got to be with not only mom and dad, but meemaw, gramps, and her two favorite uncles Ben and Alan. We had such a nice visit chatting and eating and laughing. She had her first taste of pumpkin pie, cream cheese frosting, quince sauce, and Indian food. Loved it all. We all went on the Christmas tree hunt, which scored us a grown up Charlie Brown tree....so small it fit in the back of the CRV. It's decorated simply and I love it. And the best part is Frannie seems to have no interest in touching it. She's much too busy crawling like a wild girl, chatting, and standing up when at all possible. She stood on her own about a week ago with me and then again today with Brian. Her personality comes out more and more and she laughs all the time now. She's really a happy little girl and she makes us laugh every day. Here are some pics.

8 Months

Frannie is already 8 months old! Crazy. She is so much fun (and funny) and is just really happy. The only thing that brings her down are those damn teeth. She still just has the bottom two and I wouldn't be surprised if there were three that pop on the top anytime. She is not just chewing but raking things across her top gums and she is having a hard time sleeping...even crying out in her sleep :(

She also had her first ear infection. She must actually like the medicine because it hasn't been to awful giving it to her. We all got hammered with a never ending cold and hers led to the ear infection.

She is loving bath time and is a speed machine. She crawls like crazy and is pulling herself up on everything. She just discovered she can stand up in her crib so she stands there and "talks" til I come get her - she's quite proud of herself. She still loves being around people and likes going places to watch (and chat with) others. She's also gut laughing more now finally, which I love. And she will even play games with us...she'll crawl toward this one outlet and I'll yell "Frannie, what do you think you're doing?" And she'll stop, sit, look at me, smile, and then speed crawl to the outlet. She stops just before she gets to it to wait for me to grab her and take her across the room. As soon as I put her down, she's off to do it again. Super cute.

Sick

It's her first real "sick". She's got a terrible little cough and she's teething on top of it. I'm a little worried about an ear infection. Why is it with babies the symptoms of two things are totally the same??! Yet despite it, she is in pretty good spirits. Maybe it's because we are in our 7th living space in 18 months and this apartment is very open and long so she has tons of room to crawl. I think she likes the freedom. She's got an independent streak and is also not afraid to tell you when she's mad. That's really the biggest news and other than that she's growing fast and is standing up all the time on everything. You can see her in all her standing glory below. She also has been more into reading and books lately too. She was on a book boycott but especially when she's tired before bed, she'll sit still and listen to a story. Plus she loves turning the pages and holding it herself.

Stillness

Being still? There is no time if you are Frannie. She is on the move. She's speedy at crawling and is pulling herself up on anything she sees. She's in to EVERYTHING. And boy is she happy about it. It's like she's been biding her time til she could be independently mobile and now that she can go where she wants she wastes no time. She has even figured out that if she sits up on a slippery wood floor and kicks/wiggles her legs in and out, she can scoot/slide from room to room. That's a sight to see, and she looks so proud. 

I'm certain those top teeth will arrive any day now, and with her teeth has come more chewing and her enjoying more chunky foods. She loves yogurt and cottage cheese and likes tofu too. :)

She's also quite cultured. She's a regular at the library, zoo, aquarium, and has been to the animal shelter. Thank goodness for a dad that likes to take her places and a up for anything nanny.

We have so many great pics of her, here are a sample of some recent ones.

Halloween (early)

Saturday we had two events that encouraged wearing your Halloween costume - Boo at the Zoo and the Cooper Trick or Trot. The Trick or Trot is a run/walk fundraiser for my school so I pushed Frannie in her stroller and did the 1 mile walk with my friend Sarah. Boo at the Zoo is an event at the Lake Superior Zoo where kids can dress up and there are community vendors giving out candy throughout the zoo. 

It was a pretty cold day, in fact we saw our first snow flakes so we didn't stay either place very long, but it was fun to see Frannie in her costume and she got to see lots of people which is always fun for her. 

And a side note, she is a crawling machine now and pulls herself up on anything she gets a hold of. And those bottom two teeth are slowing coming in and I'm fairly sure the top two must be coming shortly. She's doing all the same stuff she did before the bottom two popped.

Crawling

No rest for the weary. Frannie is 7 months old and she's added crawling to her milestones. The girl never stops moving. If she's not crawling, she's rolling or grabbing on to stuff to pull herself up or trying to stand or standing while holding on to stuff. Amazing. 

Here are two pics I like to call angel and devil.

Pumpkins

It's fall, my favorite time of year. The color change, sweatshirts, and festing. Due to crappy weather, Frannie did not get to experience her first CranberryFest but we all made it to Bayfield for AppleFest. It was not ideal...misting, windy, and chilly...but we had a fun time at the pumpkin patch. Every year we go to the same place to pick out our pumpkins and this year it was even more fun cause Frannie was with us. She helped pick out our pumpkin family (4 pumpkins-one for each of us plus foxy of course), although we ended up with a tall skinny one, a round squat one, a small skinny one and a very flat one. I'll let you determine which pumpkins represented which of us. Some of us found this funnier than others..... I'll have to take a picture and post that later. Here are some good ones of Frannie tho....

It's Not a Race

I keep telling her it's not a race. You really don't need to walk before you are supposed to I say. Take your time. Crawl around. I get a resounding No (or Frannie's version of a No which is a pissy yell/screech). The girl can't sit still. She wants to stand all the time. Now I will say that she can sit for about 10-15 minutes and happily play which is awesome but the majority of the time she wants to be moving. She also likes to talk and is babbling a bunch now and laughing more. If you laugh, she'll laugh too, and her laugh is adorable. She loves eating real food and is quite good at drinking juice or water from her sippy cup with a straw. Much to my dismay she is also still drinking lots of formula mainly at night which means sleep hasn't been so great. It's truly unbelievable how much she's growing.

Teeth!

They have finally arrived.....or at least they are on their way. Frannie's two bottom teeth are coming in. You can feel the point of one of them when she chews on your finger. She hates when you mess with her mouth so it's nearly impossible to get a good look but they're there. When they are in far enough to get a glimpse, I'll post a pic (if she'll allow it) :)

On the Move

Apparently, I'm in for it. Frannie is at 6 1/2 months and she just pulled herself up to standing from sitting on the floor. Crawling? No thank you. This girl wants to walk. She's close to pulling herself to sitting from laying down too. Although, if she's laying her new favorite thing to so is roll over multiple times or get to her belly and then do a downward dog kind of yoga move (she's hoping to stand up) and then lay like she's going to crawl...and she does- she just goes backward.

She met her Aunt Beth and Uncle Glenn this weekend and had them wrapped around her finger at first sight. However both they and my mom made multiple comments referring to how I'm "going to have my hands full" and "you are in for it" delivered in a gleeful tone and accompanied with giggles. These comments came due to Frannie's need to move and near constant busy-ness. 

Here are some pics showing how Frannie keeps so busy ......