Zoe at 9 months

I know how cliche this sounds, but I can’t believe how fast Zoe is growing up. She is full of personality, incredibly loud and babbles like a drunken sailor. Here’s a glimpse of Zoe at 9 months.

Sleeping

What can we say, we love our little sleeper! Down at 6:30 pm, wakes up for a bottle around 3 a.m., is up for the day between 5:30-6:30 a.m. Even though she wakes up in the middle of the night, there are no complaints here. She takes her bottle and goes right back to sleep. It still feels like a miracle to close the door and be met with silence. Clearly we are still traumatized from the pre-sleep training days with Max. Aaron and I love being the first one to get her in the morning because she is always in the best mood.

The first time Zoe sat up on her own was at night. I’ll always remember because it was the night she almost gave me a heart attack. On that night, I walked into her room, barely awake, to her quietly sitting up facing the door staring at me. After reviewing the nest cam footage, we learned she had sat herself up then quietly reveled in her accomplishment for 30 minutes before making a sound. Looks like it’s time to lower the crib.

In other sleep news - Zoe naps on the weekends. Last week after we went to the pool, she took a 3 hour nap!

Eating

Not a lot of updates in this category. Zoe loves sweet potatoes and carrots. To our surprise she shies away from some of the sweeter options like bananas, pears and apples. She is also a big fan of puffs, although has made very little progress at feeding herself. Lucky for her, Max’s favorite activity is putting them in her mouth. He squeals in excitement each time she opens her mouth for another one.

Doing<

Zoe spends most of her waking hours either jumping, looking for someone/something to hold her up to jump, or yelling so that someone will help her jump. Luckily she likes being in her jumperoo, otherwise our arms would be a lot more sore, but in much better shape.

Maybe the cutest thing Zoe does right now is clap. When she hears music or sees someone clapping she stops in her tracks and joins along. She gets a huge smile on her face whenever she does it as if she is proud of herself and we love it. Side note: Zoe’s super cute outfit is from Aaron’s aunt Eileen!

We started putting Zoe in the bath with Max and she could not be happier. Now when she hears a faucet turn on or a shower curtain being pulled to the side her head jolts up and she starts kicking her legs in excitement. She especially LOVES this bath faucet which means if we continue giving the kids a bath together we need a second one.

Zoe is such a water baby so it’s a no brainer that she loves the pool. Lately Max has really enjoyed pulling her float. Sometimes when Max starts to pull too fast, or splash too much, Aaron and I get up to intervene, but then we hear Zoe shriek in excitement. She definitely loves her big brother.

Milestones

• Claps
• Top two teeth just broke through (teeth count: 4)
• Sits up from a laying position.
• Picks up her belly when she crawls

Zoe 9 month stats

(Max’s 8 month post here.)

• Weight: 17.5 lbs (34%)
• Height: 27.5″ (44%)
• Head circumference: 18″ (91%)

My favorite things about this age

• I love how she grabs my ponytail when I hold her.
• I love the way she rubs her eyes with her tiny fists when she is sleepy.
• I love the way she breaks into the biggest smile in the morning when we first walk into her room.
• I love the concentrated way she rubs a mum mum down the front of her face until she gets it into her mouth.
• I love the face she makes when she is deciding whether to smile or scream in anger.