Nine Months: Waving, Clapping, Posing, A Cold Snap & An All-Girls Road Trip

This post is a little late, but Happy Nine Month Birthday Ann Maxwell! Three-quarters of a year - doesn't seem possible! Ann Maxwell is at such a fun stage. Her personality shines through everything she does, and she is learning, developing, and gaining independence with each new day. She is happy all the time and very feisty and determined. She's adventurous and loves people! And she's talking! That's right, my little angel can say, "Mama," "Dada," "Bye-bye," and what sounds like, "Baby." It's incredible to hear her call out for us. She's learned (the little master manipulator) that calling out "Mama" in the middle of the night breaks my resolve every time! When Chris comes home she crawls to the door shouting, "Dada." We're total suckers for it, but oh well!

Thankfully, riding in the car is improving. We still have the occasional crying in the car, but it's such a major improvement that I feel like I've been freed from prison! At the house, she's still crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. No walking yet, but she's trying. She's cruising around the furniture really well, so I'm anticipating a step any day now. I keep my cameras within reach at all times! The sleeping is going a little better, although we're not quite back to the whole night uninterrupted again yet. I'm completely eating my words, though, as I've allowed Ann Maxwell in our bed in the middle of the night out of desperation. I swore I'd never do this, but as major sleep-deprivation was consuming me I gave in. It seems to have helped her get into a better pattern though, and she's sleeping most of the night in her bed again. She's also eating really well. She wants whatever she sees us eating and will try anything. I've been giving her anything she wants that is safe, and so far she hasn't turned down a food yet. She's beginning to feed herself more and LOVES biter biscuits. Sometimes they're the only thing that will calm her down when her gums are sore, so we keep them handy. They can get messy, but happy and messy is better than fussy and clean I've learned!

"I'm not wiping my face, so you can forget it!"

Some of the cutest things Ann Maxwell is doing these days are clapping, waving, and posing. She's been doing these for a while now, but it's when she does them that makes it hilarious. Any time she hears music she sits down and claps. This goes for any music - toys, TV, radio, my singing, anything. It's so cute! She just immediately stops and starts clapping. This is usually accompanied by a giant smile, and it makes me laugh every time. She is also waving. Her wave is so cute because it's never a full-arm wave; it's just the hand - very dainty and precise... and she waves at the cutest moments. She'll open up her toy box and wave at her toys first thing in the morning; she waves at me from across the room; she'll wave hello at people in the grocery store. It's so adorable! One person told me she looks like the Queen of England because her wave looks so practiced. Probably as a result of having a camera constantly in her face since birth she's also started posing. When she sees the camera flash pop up she stops, scrunches up her nose and makes the funniest expression. I think she thinks she's smiling, but it actually looks like... well, I'm not sure what this look says. What do you think? Whatever it is, it's pretty cute.

Clapping to my singing

Waving at her toys when we got home from the doctor

Waving at me

This is the posing face! How funny is that?!

More posing

Still playing with Little Bit every chance she gets. This is Little Bit "playing/fighting" back. Little Bit has no claws, but she'll pop Ann Maxwell's hands rapidly, like she's boxing, and then run away when she gets annoyed. Ann Maxwell thinks this is hilarious and usually laughs so hard she falls over!

As everyone knows it's been COLD here the past few weeks. We've mainly stained inside, but when we've had to venture out I wrapped Ann Maxwell up like the kid in A Christmas Story. Thankfully, she loves her hat and never tries to take it off. It keeps her little head and ears warm, so I'm glad that's one less thing to wrestle over!

I think this get-up speaks for itself.

In the midst of the cold snap we traveled on our first ever all-girls road trip. My mom and I took Ann Maxwell south to Magee and Jackson to visit my sister and grandmother and celebrate Sara's baby shower. It was a whirlwind trip, and we were worn out when we got home, but we had a great time. We made the most of our travels and did a lot of visiting! Ann Maxwell made the trip very well and considered herself the life of the party everywhere she went. She played with her cousin Walker in Jackson, explored every inch of my grandmother's house in Magee, and kept everyone at the baby shower entertained!

Ann Maxwell and her cousin, Walker, hanging out. They had a lot of fun playing together, but would NOT smile for pictures! This is the only one I could get of them looking at the camera. They were both SO over having their picture made 100 times!

Walker commandeered Ann Maxwell's cereal puffs and was sweet enough to feed them to her. She patiently waited as he picked up puffs and put them in her mouth. This could be the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Laughing at Aunt Meredith - she's so silly!

Walker... one cool dude!

Enjoying a biter biscuit with Mamaw Joyce

Ann Maxwell with an MSU Bulldog! Shhh... don't tell Daddy, but she loved it. Also, we finally got a picture of those tiny bottom chompers!

At Sara's baby shower. When we were little we both had matching baby dolls. Mine was called "Yellow Baby," and Sara's was called "Linny." I brought mine for a game we played, and Sara's mom unknowingly brought the same doll. We had to pose. We can't believe we're about to pass them on to a new generation of girls... three generations of best friends!

Ann Maxwell was such the life of the party that we wore out chasing her around. We finally put her in a laundry basket we used for one of the games and fed her cake! Don't judge - you weren't there chasing her! Haha!

Yesterday I took Ann Maxwell in for her nine-month check-up. She weighed 19 lbs., 8 oz., and was 27 in. long - 75th percentile in everything. The doctor pronouned her perfectly healthy and then entered the nurse... Ann Maxwell took one look at this poor woman and went ballistic. It may sound crazy, but I know she recognized this lady and knew what was coming. The shots were pretty terrible as the nurse had to hold Ann Maxwell down through a hysterical screaming fit. As big fat tears rolled down her cheeks she looked up at me screaming with a look of panic as if to say, "Why are you abandoning me, Mama? Please rescue me!" It pretty much broke my heart! However, as soon as I picked her back up she calmed down and then waved to the little boy she saw in the hallway, so it is was a short-lived crisis at least. When I checked out I was asked to make my next appointment - for her one-year check-up. I almost cried right there in the doctor's office - one year? She can't be that old so soon!

I would love to freeze time right now and keep my sweet baby a baby forever. We're having such a good time with her right now that I don't want this time to slip away so quickly! This age is so precious, and I just want to hang on to each moment because it's going by so fast. I came home and started thinking about a birthday party. I'm going to try to keep it under control, but how do you begin to celebrate the greatest year ever? I'm not sure what we'll do yet, but I know I have to make myself think about it because it'll be here before we know it! In the mean time we're just savoring the last days of having a non-walking baby in our house and waving and clapping with joy every day!

Goofing around with Mommy

Goofing around with Daddy wasn't as much fun... he's tall - a little scary up there!