9 Months!

I knew it had been awhile since I wrote on here but I had no idea it had been almost two weeks!  The reason I have been missing is because we had visitors for most of the week last week and in between the visits my sister AND my sister-in-law (brother's wife) had babies!  My new niece was born early in the morning on August 7th and my new nephew was born early in the morning on August 10th!  I have been busy visiting babies!  So I have a lot to catch up on and I will probably do a big photo post next but today happens to be Tessa's 9 month birthday!  I have missed all the other month "birthday's" and I finally caught one.  It is 3:03 p.m. right now, which means that nine months ago I was hanging up the phone after getting my call that there was a room for us and to report to the hospital for my induction!

Tessa is a big girl now who loves to stand and cruise around the furniture and open drawers and make messes.  In the last few days I have caught her splashing around in the toilet, with one hand on the top step ready to crawl down the stairs (EEEEEK!) and with a mouth full of rocks.  She wears 9 month clothes but recently got a new 12 month sleeper and it is not very much too big!  Her brother has decided that he likes to carry her around (EEEEEEEEEK!) and I regularly catch him hobbling toward me with Tessa in a hug hold saying "Ben hold Tessa!".  At least she seems to enjoy it and is usually grinning as I try to calmly remove her from his clutches.  

She is an expert at yelling and crying with her pacifier in her mouth and often we will be in the car or will be awakened by her at night and frantically look for it only to find it already in her mouth.  She just yells around it.  She babbles a lot with her favorite words being "gee", "gaa" and a loud, tongue rolling motor sound.  She has started saying "Mamama" but I am not yet convinced that it applies to me.  She also is starting to wave and it's so cute! 

But...most exciting for me...she eats!  She actually eats food and seems to enjoy it.  She eats more in a day than Ben ate in a month.  She will eat a whole piece of bread, many handfuls of cereal, and as many fruit of vegetable pieces that we put on her tray,  I am just fascinated by this!  It is delightful!  Just in time too, since she consumed the last bag of frozen pumped milk in the freezer two Sundays ago.

Here are a few big girl pictures!

 

The one hand stand...

 

I took her and Ben swimming at the pool where I spent most of my summer playing when I was a child and working when I was a teenager this week between baby visits.  She could "touch the bottom" at the edge of the wading pool and loved standing there and splashing with one hand.  Ben liked to pretend he was pulling her on a kickboard (or surfboard in his imagination!).  Don't worry, I was holding her on there!

 

Her she is with her new cousin Claire!  They have matching kitten jammies!  Tessa didn't know why Claire didn't want to cruise around and make messes with her! 

 

It's hard to imagine that I was pregnant for nine months and now she has been here for nine months!  She has a doctor's appointment next week and I look forward to seeing how she has grown.