Onto Month Nine and Zoë's Doin' Fine

The other day as I held this beautiful, brown-eyed girl in my arms, I was suddenly hit with the realization of how quickly time has passed, how quickly Zoë has grown from a little newborn who only ate, cried, pooped and slept, into a lively crawler and silly chatter-box with a sweet and charming personality. Zoë is her own independent person (and a stubborn one at that...I wonder where she got that from??) who loves to explore every single nook and cranny, and doesn't want to miss a thing. And yet, she still is wholly dependent - and loves to be held, played with, conversed with, read to, and will do just about anything to get our attention. Oh, how we love her!  

This past month has not been filled with quite the same smiles and giggles as the previous months. The concerned/pained expression Zoë is modeling above is pretty common thanks to those nasty teeth. Four have made their way through on the bottom, and the two front top teeth are making an appearance. I think she is currently working on some back teeth, which seem to be causing a great deal of trouble - including a couple days of a fever and lots and lots and LOTS of crying. I have often wished that Zoë would be a little quieter and a little less squirmy; well, that day came with her fever and it was AWFUL! I missed my squirmy girl and all of her (loud) babbling and (piercing) squeals.

Other culprits to blame for the increase in unhappiness were the 2-week bought with constipation (poor thing) and separation anxiety. Yep, this little girl has it BAD - to the point that she will not let anyone else hold her even when I am standing right next to her. When Zac is playing with her while I prepare dinner, she will come crawling into the kitchen, crying "mamam, mamam!" That being said, church nursery is out of the question for a little while, and almost any daytime babysitting. She WILL cry until I come back. :s Once she is out of this current teething season, we will do some practice runs and see if we can get her more comfortable with others.

There is always a little good with the bad, and there have been some very good things about this month! Here are some big ones:

- Zoë is crawling like a pro!

- She already has pulled herself up by the first shelf on our bookshelf

- Zoë has shown comprehension of a couple signs, like "star", "hello/goodbye", "elephant" and maybe "all done"

- She so far has been healthy this winter, even avoiding the flu and cold when mommy got hit. Praise the Lord!

- We have the best babbling conversations in the van ("Bwaaaah?" "Bwa-bwa-bwa-bwa" "Bwa-bwa-ba-waaa!" "Bwa")

-Zoë says "mamam" and "ghiiidjiiii" (much to daddy's chagrin :)

Happy 9 months, baby girl!