My Nine Month Old Girl

She has her own mind and knows what she wants -- yesterday I held her on my lap, facing outward. She pushed herself forward, down my legs (I held onto her hips so she didn't SPLAT on the floor), and crawled across the floor to her Daddy. He picked her up and she grinned SO BIG.




She's been outside of me for as long as she was inside of me. She was an explorer even when she was Inside -- her little crawly fingers traveled the length and breadth of my uterus, when she wasn't busy pumelling my bladder. Now she sees something she wants and she GOES.

I like to hold her hand ... she likes to hold MY hand. See the difference? My hand can't be on top; she'll pull away and put HER hand on top. I'm trying hard not to draw any conclusions from this.

She eats everything she's given. Last night we offered her not-really-Cheerios for the first time, and she was enthralled with their tiny roundness.




She still has some trouble falling asleep on her own; she still is working, sporadically, on that third tooth. But she's giving real hugs and kisses now -- two days ago Geoff handed her to me, and she aimed her open mouth right at my nose. And I said, "Baby, this is so adorable, but if you bite me I am going to be SO unhappy!" She didn't bite though -- she just gave me a baby-kiss on the nose and then pulled her face back to smile at me.

And even though she'll always be my baby, there's no one she loves better than her Daddy.