Last night, as I lay her down in her crib, her eyes fluttered open briefly. She saw me and gave me a big grin, then closed her eyes, sighed, and settled back in to sleep.

Her father sleeps with a CPAP. Sometimes it slips off his face in the night, and the hissing of escaping air combined with his snoring often makes me unable to go to sleep or get back to sleep, or relax while nursing in the middle of the night. So I will hiss at him, trying to wake him up from across the room without waking the sleep-nursing babe in my arms. Often, she will stop nursing when I do this. Not wake up, not entirely, but stop nursing without actually unlatching. Eventually Dad will get himself situated and I can stop verbally prodding him. After a few moments of silence, it’s like she decides, “Okay, that’s over, nothing to wake up for” and will snuggle into me, sigh, and resume nursing.

When I pick her up from daycare, as soon as I have a hold of her she starts waving goodbye to everyone else. Or perhaps hello to me? Perhaps it’s both.

Just one or two things this week, but they’re big ones! Walking is still underway.. It’s a slower process than i thought. But there’s plenty else:

– Social smiling! Smile at her and often you’ll get either a squinty eyed grin in return, or the open mouthed giant excited smile that I never realized I greeted her with until she started doing it back.

– social lots of other imitations, too. Blow raspberries, wave, clap, and she’ll often repeat the gesture back and forth with you. Stick out your tongue and you’re guaranteed at least a couple minutes of her sticking hers out repeatedly until she gets distracted by trying to grab it (which she can’t, because it’s a tongue, and they’re slippery devils).

– speaking of hands in mouths, she’s doing something less fun: frequently sticking her hand in her mouth until she gags and eventually throws up. Where she once was getting multiple outfits per day due to diaper blowouts, it’s now due to vomit :(. The doctor thinks it’s her molars, which she’s trying to reach. As long as she’s getting enough to eat, and otherwise seems fine, no big deal. I bought her some new teethers that are easy to get to her molars.

– current favorite toy: any ball, any ball dispenser.

– current favorite food: avocado all the way.

– currently dislikes: strange men with beards, diaper changes.

– Waving! She loves to wave hello and goodbye.

– First step! I got a blurry video of it :). She has taken a couple more beyond that first.

– imitating. She will now imitate some of the things you do, like stacking out your tongue. I showed her sniffing the flowers inPat the Bunny, and instead of tasting them she also sniffed, and then giggled.

Not much this week. This weekend Dad went out of town and I had a lot of errands to run.

– Waving! She now waves hello and goodbye! Sometimes. But she does it so enthusiastically! She waves her whole arm up and down! Hello! Hello over there!

– Toy interactions. We have this gumball dispenser looking thing, where you put these plastic balls in the top and then you can pull a little lever to make music happen and the balls come out the bottom. I’m not really a fan of toys that make noise, but this one only makes noise when you trigger it, so it’s not so bad. Anyway, J loves putting the balls in the top and then pulling the lever to have them come out again! She’s also figured out that other toys don’t so much work, as she experimented with a number of other toys, but now will only use balls. It’s so fun to watch her obviously forming hypotheses and testing them.

Lots of changes this week! I think having visitors and going to a few new places has really sparked another cascade of brain connections.

– Squinching shut her eyes when she smiles big. This is so adorably cute, I wish I could get a video or picture of it.

– Clearly intentionally biting off smaller pieces of food in order to eat them. I think she’s getting the hang of those teeth.

– Feeding herself using a spoon. Her record of transferring food from spoon to her mouth is only slightly above what would be pure chance, but I think it’s mostly intentional.

– Giving things to others. Is this a milestone? I dunno, I guess Milestone Monday has really become What New And/Or Cute Thing J Is Doing Monday. But anyway. This weekend Grandma and Grandpa T were in town, and J spent a good 30 minutes playing a game (with a small camera bag) with them that consisted of the following:

• Grandpa gives J the bag
• J turns to Grandma
• Grandma asks for the bag saying “please” and holding out her hand
• J gives her the bag
• Grandma says, “Thank you!”
• J watches Grandma and holds out her hand
• Grandma gives J the bag
• J turns to Grandpa
• Grandpa asks for the bag, with a please and holding out his hand
• J gives him the bag
• Grandpa says thank you
• J holds out her hand
• Grandpa gives her the bag
• J turns to Grandma
• Rinse, repeat

So basically the three of them passed this little camera bag back and forth, over and over, with big smiles and very emphatic pleases and thank yous. It sounds like a pretty dull game, but watching J grinning and giggling and learning about handing the bag to and from people was so much fun that everyone really enjoyed it.

– Understanding words. She definitely responds to her name, and I think she’s learning “all done” and “more” and “up” and “snuggle.” She’ll also high five about half the time. We’re trying to sign more with her, and so far I think she throws both hands up in the air for all done. She definitely will put both hands in the air and go, “uh! uh!” when she wants to be picked up.

– One step before/as she falls. She’s trying to walk. She is so close! Similar to when she would rock back and forth on her knees, she will now bend her knees and butt as if she’s trying to figure out how to redistribute her weight onto a single leg. Every once in a while, she’ll manage to take a step as she’s falling.

– Dropping things to see what happens. One of the more irritating things babies learn to do, I think. She will drop things repeatedly. This is adorable and not at all irritating when the thing she wants to drop repeatedly is within her reach after she drops it. So far this includes: cups, wooden blocks, plastic balls, other toys, cheerios, and wipes. She’ll drop it, then grab it and look at me and give me a big grin, then drop it again and often chuckle to herself. It’s more irritating when she drops something and then can’t reach it, but still very much wants to drop it again! This usually happens at dinner time, when she’s strapped in to her high chair, or in the car, when she’s in her carseat. Included items: her cup full of milk, all possible food items (including yogurt, that didn’t go well), and the only toy that will entertain her on long car rides. When we’re at dinner, I’ll pick up whatever it is a few times, but then I’ll take a break and put it out of reach for a while until I think she needs it again and is ready to not drop it immediately. Unless it’s chicken, in which case the cats always get to it before me. When we’re in the car, she’s usually out of luck and has to fuss until we get home.

– Paying attention. I’m sure she always has been, but it is now obvious that she watches *everything* we do. She pays special attention when something new or rare happens. We occasionally fight when she’s in the room, and it’s quite clear that she knows Something Is Up and watches us very closely, as if she’s learning how to interact with loved ones during a disagreement. Unnerving and frightening… Best behavior, everyone!

I think we’re about to see another spurt of advancement. New things in this post might not all be new this week, but are things I’ve definitely noticed.

– she clearly now has expectations about the world and is surprised and curious when reality doesn’t match what she expects. I can’t remember any specific examples just now.

– peek-a-boo! She’s definitely playing by herself. We have a book called, ” Where is Baby’s Bellybutton” that’s basically a bunch of peek a boo with paper flaps. It’s always good for a smile. So is peek a boo with Paul in Pat The Bunny.

– speaking of Pat the Bunny, I think it’s her favorite book right now. She loves to pat the bunny and play peek a boo, and on the page where you smell the flowers she’ll grab the book and hold it up to her face. She then tastes the flowers, but oh well. She doesn’t like daddy’s scratchy beard, so whe real Daddy is around, we rub his face instead :).

– so talkative! Still no definite first words, but there are patterns. When she’s concentrating on getting somewhere or something she whispers, “Tah tah tah t t t teh teh tah” and when she’s clambering on me she will often say “Na na na” which is a phrase we otherwise barely hear. Lots of da da da still, and a new one that is almost a giggle: “heh! Heh! Heh!” When she’s really excited about something she’s doing. Clearly proud of herself sometimes. Still no sign language.

– I mentioned last week that she’s done with bottles, right? Because she’s done with bottles and sippy cups. She knows how to use a straw and definitely prefers it.

Ok I think that’s it for this week.

Things still relatively slow. I imagine they’ll pick up again once she’s walking, but it seems like all her energy is going to that.

– First extended, unsupported standing. She went about a minute all by herself!

– 2 full seconds underwater. Little fishy loved it. The swimming instructor plans to keep her at 2 seconds for a while so we don’t push her too far too fast.

– Hates having teeth brushed :(. Before she had teeth she didn’t mind. Now that it’s important, brushing her teeth might as well be torture. It’s almost as bad as diaper changes. MOM I HATE THIS WHY ARE YOU SO CRUEL TO MEEEEEEEEE! Et cetera and so forth. Poor girl. I think she’s not getting enough sleep. I have to wake her every weekday morning and I can’t get her to bed any earlier. Daycare naps need to be more than 20-30 minutes twice a day :(.

– This one is mostly me… For the first time in my (adult, I presume) life, I tasted something to see if it was poop. I had just taken it out of her mouth. A squished raisin covered in cat hair and dirt has never tasted so good.

I think more teeth might show up soon. She’s drooling a lot and chewing on her hands, and her chin rash is back. We will see what happens!

It seemed like not much was happening, and then there was another explosion!

– First full water submersion. She went under for one second, three or four times at swim class! She loved it each time.

– Teeth numbers 3 and 4, her upper left and then upper right incisors broke through, a day apart. Finally, the biting has started to ease up, and I think it’s because she finally cut those two teeth. She had bruises and blood spots on her gums from them. Owie.

– Cruising. She can now walk along a piece of furniture, switching hands as needed to reach what she wants. She can also go from one item of furniture to another (or a person)

– Standing by herself! 30 seconds at a time before she loses balance! If she has even one of someone’s fingers to hold on to, she can go much longer.

– First blood draw from her arm vein :(. Because I’m not giving her iron drops the doctor wanted to check her iron levels at her 9mo appointment instead of 12. And since my vitamin d levels have been consistently low, I was worried about hers despite her daily vitamin d drops. So, blood. I held her still in my lap while a nurse held just her arm still, and the phlebotomist got her blood. The phlebotomist had a lot of trouble finding her vein, and dug around for probably 30 seconds (it felt like an eternity to me). She finally found it and then it was high fives from everyone for my brave little girl. She definitely expressed her displeasure during the whole thing, but didn’t cry or even fuss. More like whimpered a few times. She handled it better than I did! Oh, and her results came back looking great.

– 9 month well baby visit: she passed with flying colors. Here are the vitals:
Length: 29.5″ the same as her 6mo?? The pediatrician thinks they mismeasured at her 6mo. 99th percentile.
Weight: 24.5lb she’s thinning out as she grows taller. 95th percentile.
Head circumference: 45.5cm. 88th percentile.

– She’s been out as long as she was in! As a snarky coworker mentioned, that means she’s 9 months old (she isn’t quite yet). But this Saturday was as many days out as in. I thought it was a fun that half of her life has now been outside the womb, and that time when we were literally a single being (in many ways) will be a vanishing percentage of her life. As of now, more of her life was spent outside me than inside me, and that’s a strange milestone for me.

– Babbling includes, “nanana”

– For the first time this morning, when I went to hand her to Dad so I could go to work, she wrapped her arms around me.

– Bruising :(. I’m beginning to understand how bad teething can be. J has a purple bruise on her gums, as well as two little spots like blood blisters. She’s been chewing on everything and biting me for a week or so, and I’m hoping this tooth comes soon. I’m scared the biting won’t stop when it does though.

– Fear of strangers? She’s started crying every time other parents show up at daycare. No idea what that is about. She is usually wary, but I wouldn’t say afraid… Babies, who knows.

Not much to report this week! Improvements in standing and balance, and she’s clearly ready to walk, if only her body would cooperate.

– First nursing strike/major sleep regression. I dunno if it’s teething or what, but she’s having trouble both nursing and sleeping. It seems like she wants to do both but something (pain?) is making her stop. No fun for anyone, poor little girl.

– On day 2 of swimming class, she figured out that kicking in the water will propel her forward (any kicking, currently, because when she kicks, I’m supposed to move her). This has made bathtime a much splashier, wriggly affair.