9 months.

Holy cow. It happened. We've started the third page of monthly stickers (there are 4 on a page, and I've been dreading/not believing we'd get to the dreaded third and final page). Our girl is 9 whole months old. I say it every month, but I cannot believe how quickly the time is passing! It seems like every single week she changes, grows, and does amazing new things. Her personality continues to completely enthrall us, and we say literally every day how incredible she is and how in love we are.

On our flight to KC, E was sitting in my lap, and as people boarded and walked by, she was waving and smiling at them all. I think her personality right now was best described by one woman who walked by and was particularly entranced - she's charming. Everyone is her friend, she giggles, waves, tilts her head to one side, and is just generally sweet to everyone she sees. She's pretty fearless, which somewhere in my head I want to partially attribute to her feeling safe and secure to explore the world and everything in it, which makes me so very happy. (I do recognize that the majority of it is likely just her personality, but I'm going to claim a tiny bit of it as a parenting win, whether it's warranted or not ;)

She's still not crawling, standing or walking, and she's still a toothless Joe. At her 9 month check up, the pediatrician was pleased with her verbal development, as well as the waving, clapping, responding, etc. She did encourage us to really work on her standing (she's not at all concerned with her lack or crawling), so we've recently become the proud owners of a little play table so E has something exciting to play with, look at, and hold on to while we try to strengthen those little legs. The good news is she LOVES it.

Mom is getting much braver in the food department, and we're really picking up the pace with new foods in Ellie's belly. Pieces of all kinds of fruit, steamed zucchini (which she loved!), puffs, bread, eggs, beans, cheese, applesauce, turkey, and cottage cheese (her current fave). We're still doing the occasional cube of puree that I'd made - I don't want them to go to waste, and it makes me feel better to know that even if a good chuck of the finger foods end up in her lap or on the floor, that she's getting good protein and veggie from a few quick bites of homemade puree.

Her 9 month stats and more of what's making her special these days is below:

As of 9/9/15...
Weight: 17.11 pounds (42%)
Height: 27.5 (44%)
Loves: baths/water, mom, when dad comes home from work (usually her biggest smile of the day comes when he walks in the door), Penny, her paci and bear, cottage cheese, turkey
Hates: having to sit still when she's tired (she's gone a couple of days sans afternoon nap, and was actually somewhat pleasant until she found herself stuck in her carseat with the car not moving - we were in a parking lot waiting for someone)
Size: working our 6-12 month baby gap clothes (with a few of our 3-6 month pieces still fitting), and our 9 month carter's lot. In size 3 diapers.

-She's REALLY found her voice! She talks all the time and it's LOUD. There are moments when she's going a mile a minute and I can already picture her at 3 years old, just chatting non-stop :)
-Really loves her toys, especially her stacking blocks - big fan of knocking down a tower when mom builds it. Also loves rattles.
-Loves animals - saw her first cat and got just as excited as she does when she sees dogs.
-Loves people - she waves and smiles at everyone everywhere we go. She also loves watching the "big kids" (ie: the toddlers) while she's at the daycare gym.
-She makes some amazing faces and sounds: she squishes up her face and breathes hard out her nose (my fave), she blows tons of raspberries, she will intentionally blink slow and hard, she tilts her head to one side very coy.
-Little scares her - even when she gets startled, she doesn't cry right away. She looks around first and if everyone around her seems ok, she continues on as normal.
-During bathtime she's starting full force shoving her face in the stream of water from the sink - no holds barred. It's so funny/incredible to watch.
-Down for bed around 7 pm and sleeping soundly through the night (I'm waiting for a regression, but we're on quite the roll as she's been doing this now since she was around 5 months old!)
-Two solid naps a day

Dad's favorite things about Ellie:
1. Her laugh and wave
2. Bath time and bed time
3. When she entertains herself
4. Her #1 finger
5. When she snuggles her bear while going down to sleep
6. Giving smooches

Mom's favorite things about Ellie:
1. Her VOICE. It's loud and I love it. There's just something so amazing about a baby letting it all out - no reason to know she should be quiet, nothing to be worried about, just expressing her joy in all its glory.
2. Her kisses. In the last week or so, she'll just lean back to me, and go in for a smooch. I die.
3. Seeing the smiles she can get from strangers.
4. Her smooshy face.
5. How she's starting really nestling in my shoulder when she's sleepy.