My how quickly they grow up

It seems like every day, Miss C does something that amazes me. The most recent? See the photo below:

We were sitting in the downstairs living room, just having a nice morning when Miss C went over to chase the kitty. Normally she pushes herself up on the bottom step and hollers at the cat. This time, DH and I both about screamed because Miss C was climbing up, no problems. Not sure when or how she figured it out but boy is she fast! Because of her recent exploits, DH had some work to do. As you can see in the photo below, he made fast work of getting a gate up.

Miss C now plays peek a boo from the bottom of the stairs!

We've also discovered that Miss C really does like her bread and cheese so she got to have a grilled cheese sandwich with lunch yesterday.

Yummy!

Does anyone else realize that it was only a month or so ago when Miss C actually started on solids!?! Wow!

I heard a rumor that its spring but based on the weather yesterday, I think it might be a little while before we see it here! Hope ya'll enjoy this quick update!

Did I just get yelled at?

Miss C has been signing a lot more lately, at least trying to. Compound that with the transition to formula and my work schedule, boy you have some interesting conversations! This afternoon, after I had a nap following my mid-watch (basically 11pm to 7am, sound familiar Alphagal?!), I sat on the couch with Miss C. She was sitting on my lap and started pulling at my shirt collar. I smiled down at her and said as well as signed "are you hungry? Do you want some milk?" Her response was priceless, she signed milk, hard and fast with not one hand but two! So, my question is, does that constitute being yelled at? :)))

Transition

OK, so in my last posting, we had comments talking about transitioning Miss C from only breast milk to formula. As i mentioned, I have to pump 4 times a day to meet her demand. We have been using formula in her cereal since we started because my output was not sufficient to meet that need as well as that of the bottles.
Well, I started today since its a day off for me. I am off today because I am working weird shift work. When Miss C got up, i nursed her like normal. No problem, same as always. That was a 6am. Around 8am, after breakfast, Miss C let me know she was hungry (she signs milk for me too). I went in the kitchen and made her a formula (100%, taking a chance, but who knows) bottle and brought it into the living room. I put Miss C in my lap and she immediately reached out for the bottle, put it in her mouth and ate. She apparently prefers to hold her own bottle rather than have someone do it for her, that's my big girl!
Well, despite my trepidation and everyone else's concerns over her willingness to take a bottle and even formula from me, Miss C did great. She had no problems and ate that bottle like she was starving. I don't think this transition will be near the trouble I feared it would be.
Now I just have to come up with a plan for the rest of the transition. I think I will alternate nursing/breast milk and formula/bottles (for me, anyway).
In other news, Miss C is taking steps with her push toy here at home and at Mrs J's. I keep telling her she can slow down, no need to try and walk yet, but she is discovering how big the world is and wants to explore it. When she wants to get to something fast, though, she crawls. When I went to pick her up from Mrs J's yesterday, Mrs J was helping her walk to me. Miss C seemed to get a little mad though, since she knew she was much faster crawling so she basically let that be known and speed crawled to me.
She is also adjusting her crawling on the wooden floors in our downstairs to more of a "thump swish" that E-baby displayed when crawling on anything but carpet. Its so cute! What a smart girl.
My question for ya'll today is... did your kids go through a 9 month growth spurt? Miss C's appetite has grown by leaps and bounds over the past week. She plays hard, eats a ton and sleeps like a log.

Miss C is 9 months old today!

Wow. How amazing! Has it really been 9 months already?

Ok, I am busy as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest so here goes:
1. Miss C talks. Not all the time and not sentences but she says things like "kitty cat", "clock", "dada" etc. She also signs. The other day when I was at work, Miss C crawled over to DH, pulled on his pant leg and signed milk. Yep. She has been signing it to me and to her but this was really the first time DH realized she knew what it was.
2. Miss C is a speed crawler. She chases us around the house and laughs when we stop and give her a "boo" or a "peek a boo!"
3. Miss C practices standing up everywhere! Yep, her crib, the floor, holding on to the stairs, everywhere. She terrorizes the cat because she stands there at the bottom of the stairs hollering at the cat "hey!" "hey!" and that wonderful giggle while standing on the floor holding on to the second step. Eventually the cat gives up and hides up stairs!
4. Miss C loves mac and cheese. She is so her father's daughter. DH introduced her to mac and cheese for snack the other day since she was already good for pasta and cheese. Wow! She loves it! She gets such a cute yellow/orangey face when she eats it. She started out licking off the cheese and kind of spitting out the mac but then she realized that there is cheese on the inside and Woo hoo! She eats the whole thing now.
5. Miss C likes "baby food" much less than before. She puts up with us giving her cereal for about 1/2 of her meal then she fusses and demands finger foods. I guess this is the transition point, eh?
6. Miss C naps less now than before. Bummer. Actually, it’s not horrible. She tends to take one nap around 9 or 10 and one again in the afternoon around 2 or 3. Her naps are a little longer, between 40 and 60 minutes, than before. She basically combined the two am naps into one.
7. Miss C is testing us. She has started to "cry" for attention. I say "cry" because she is making the noise but there are no tears and nothing wrong. The problem is, she does this and we respond. Any ideas?
8. Miss C loves her swim class! Well, it’s our swim class but she has been hopping into the pool and just having a great time. We are scheduled to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays this month so hopefully we will be able to make most of the classes. They are offered here at the pool in town. I like the Mommy workout too! It’s so much fun to see her grow and develop.
Well, that's pretty much it. I am jammed with work and another project coming due so I have to be quick. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, we would greatly appreciate it. Even if the comment is only "yea, that's the normal transition."

Sleeping Beauty

My oh my, what a busy day!

Today was a very exciting day. It was Miss C's first swim class. We signed her up for Mommy and Me Swim classes; they are every Tuesday and Thursday at 1000. It is one of the benefits of being on a silly watch rotation, I get to spend lots of time with Miss C during the day when I am either off or on an eve watch. So.. she had a great time! Apparently she is quite the natural. She used her arms to go and retrieve a floaty buddy we were playing with (I think this is primarily since she is crawling but whatever, right?) and she had no major issues with me putting her head under the water. I did it with her each time so she knew it was ok. She enjoyed floating on her back and splashing with the other kids. There are three of us in the class so it was fun for me to get to meet other local Moms too.

After our lesson, Miss C went in for her nine month check up. It was about a week early but it was the only one we could get that worked with our schedule. Her most recent stats: 29 1/8 inches tall (yep! That's my tall girl!), 21 pounds 5 ounces (she seems to have slowed down her weight gain a bit, probably because of her crawling). She is 90th percentile for height and weight (same as before) and her head circumference is in the 50th percentile so we are tracking right along from the same place we were before. I will give her 9 month update on Sunday.

That's pretty much it for now. Since we had our swim adventure then the doctor adventure right after, Miss C decided to skip lunch and have me schedule it for after her nap. Poor tired little one.

We all had a great day! Hope ya'll are having a great day too!

Just a minute

Hey all,
I have just a couple of minutes to post. Miss C is doing great. DH got home a couple of days ago to hear Miss C perform her latest "trick." She is in the "dada da" stage where her conversations are primarily using the syllable "da" with changes in inflection that reflect how we speak. DH, like other dads of course, thinks she is simply in love with his name! Too funny!
Miss C is crawling like a fiend. She is so fast its crazy. We've found that there are both pluses and minuses to this. One plus is that she no longer freaks if you leave the room, she can follow. One minus, however, is that if you do leave the room, she might be in a completely different room when you get back. You always have to look down before you move because she might be just behind you. In any case, its so exciting!
I just got her down for her second nap today. This morning, after 12 hours of sleep, two nursing's and breakfast, she took an hour plus nap. She got up, played, nursed a couple of times, had her mid-morning snack as well as some lunch then went back down for another nap. I think that she might be going through another growth spurt. I know for sure that she has that third tooth on the bottom breaking through (ouch!) so she is sleeping a lot!
Well, that's about all I have time for. Miss C is waking up so I have to get. Be sure to check out the updated photos on the flickr and the new videos on our you tube page (the links are to the right). I will try to update again soon!