Air Force Wife Life: 9 Months

This month started out rough, Lena was still sick and cutting her first two teeth. But this month quickly became our favorite so far! Lena is crawling everywhere, eating food like its her job, sleeping MUCH better, and just observing and soaking in the world around her. She's so happy and she makes us all so happy.

Lena has proved this month that she can crawl with her arms alternating in the traditional way, but she prefers doing her funny bouncy inch worm crawl. She's really efficient and fast! She can go from laying down to sitting up and back down to crawl again. She's also really starting to like waving at my husband and me. I've caught it on video but she won't perform for strangers just yet. We recently gave Lena a big girl bath solo, her first! She usually always bathes with her sister, easier on mom that way! This time, she had a bath all to herself. I took pictures (of course) and sent them to the grandparents (of course). My mother in law asked if she was having a good time splashing and such. She was having a good time for sure, but she wasn't splashing or really moving around much at all. Nana says her father is/was the exact same way. Quiet, VERY observant, and cautious. This would definitely be the opposite of her loud, talkative, dramatic sister who takes more after her mother (and Nana says her Uncle Kit!) I say it a lot, but we just LOVE watching their personalities blossom and seeing similarities and differences.

Man, can this girl EAT! She still nurses about 6-8 times a day, but she's also eating 3 solid meals a day and sometimes snacks in between. I think she becomes bored with eating long before she becomes full. It's still pretty apparent that she has some sort of allergy/intolerance to citric acid and DEFINITELY citrus fruit. So we avoid those things, but she eats pretty much everything else. I'm curious to see how her avoiding those foods affects her developing taste in food. Ellie always loved fruits and ate it a lot at Lena's age. We have yet to find a fruit that Lena can safely eat, so she just doesn't. Mostly vegetables, grains, meat, and of course baby/toddler snacks. She's a big fan of puffs and Cheerios. Girl can eat her weight in Cheerios.

Lena is sleeping much much better lately. We are getting way more full nights. We still get nights with more crying than we would prefer. My husband and I get frustrated knowing we will never know why she keeps waking up at night. Even her sister eventually gave that up. We both hold out hope that time for Lena is just around the corner. Of course, now that she's sleeping better at night, her naps have suffered. But I would definitely prefer good night sleep to good nap sleep! It's been wonderful to have evenings with my husband (or even just myself when he's gone) back. I am the type of person that really craves and needs time to decompress before bed. Whether it's tv, music, reading, or hell....even cleaning! I need it. Now that I'm getting it, I'm feeling much more like myself. The happier, healthier version of myself.

My husband and I marvel all the time at how happy and content Lena is everyday. She's not the screaming, talking, attention grabbing type of baby at all. She's can be VERY focused on her tasks, will watch you forever, and gives the absolute sweetest, softest smiles we've ever seen. We were saying the other night how Elise has a personality that you can't ignore, while Lena requires your full attention to see. It takes a little work to get to know her, but when you do....it's the best thing ever. Totally worth the wait. She really does remind me a lot of my husband. We decided that if Elise is like me, and Lena is like Josh, then the two of them will be very close best friends.

At our last doctor appointment, our pediatrician ended it by saying "See you in 3 months! Birthday time!" I about passed out! Is her first birthday really so close? Lena is my baby. My BABY baby and the last one. I'm already feeling emotional about her turning 1 and I know I'll be a mess on her birthday. Until then, I intend to make the most out of these last 3 months of her baby-hood.