9 Months!!

Our Lauren is already nine months old.  Time continues to march by, but sometimes I think the "march" is more like a brisk run!  Lauren is becoming more expressive with each passing day.  She's learning to wave, she loves to splash in the bathtub, she smiles and shows a mouthful of teeth (well, 4 of them anyways), says mama and dada and there are times that I swear she's saying "Hannah" -- she loves to smile at Hannah.  She is one of the fastest crawlers that I've seen.  When she wants something, she is headed there in no time flat.  She is into everything -- especially the things she shouldn't be into....like dog food, the pantry, folded laundry, etc.  When you tell her no she looks back at you and laughs!  We could be in trouble with this one!  

Lauren has been enjoying her summer home with Daddy, although she has him convinced that she needs rocked for her nap every day.  Well, in some ways, Jon needs to rock her so there will be a nap everyday. She is so curious that she doesn't want to sleep!  She wants to see what Hannah is doing, she wants to see what Abby is doing.  Poor Jon has had a tough time this summer getting her on a good sleep schedule where she can just be "tossed" in the crib and you walk away.  She is also not exactly enamored with the bottle.  We think that her view of the bottle is that she'll tolerate if it is required for her to survive, but if not, she'd prefer to just gorge herself when I'm around.  Fortunately, she is eating more and more "people food" which at least makes us feel like she's getting enough to eat.

Of course, just look at her and you can tell she's getting enough to eat!  Lauren really isn't that big, but compared to the peanut of a baby we had before, she just seems huge.  At her 9 month check-up (which didn't occur until 8/22) Lauren weighed 20 pounds & 3 oz and was 27.5 inches long.  She's in the 75th percentile for weight and in the 50th for length.  Her length is exactly the same as Hannah at 9 months, but her weight...well, Hannah was almost 18 months old before she hit 20 pounds!  It is so weird to see a "baby" wearing some of the clothes that Hannah was wearing at 18 months when she was walking around and talking.

Speaking of walking.....we don't think Lauren will be waiting until 15 months to walk like her big sis because Lauren is already pulling herself up....cruising won't be far off.  It is just amazing to watch her grow up. It seems like she learns something new every day.

Here are some pictures I took of Lauren at 9 months! 

All smiles, crawling after Mommy

And she's off!

(Look at how determined she looks)