Today is Grace’s 9 month birthday! I feel like I’ve always known her, yet I feel like this first year is slipping through my fingers.

I’m trying my hardest to savor every moment with her. Memorize every expression she makes, every curl of her toes, every strand of her hair and every sound from her lips. She’s the most precious thing I’ve ever laid eyes on and I cannot believe she is mine. I feel overwhelmed and totally blessed.

Here are some of her current stats:

Still drinks 4 bottles (6-8 oz) each day (sometimes she “chugs” them and other times she couldn’t care less about them and we have to coax her to finish them)

Eats 2-3 solid meals per day (again, sometimes she eats like it’s her last meal and other times she purses her lips and that’s that)

Favorite foods right now are avocado, mango, banana and sweet potato. She also eats asparagus, pear and cantaloupe. We mix each of these with organic brown rice cereal so that she gets a calorie boost.

We recently bought some organic veggie “puffs” which she is GAGA for! She loves to pick them up with her little thumb and forefinger and put them into her mouth. Then she works them over to her side gums and chews them up. So cute!

She’s still wearing 6 month clothes. We’ve recently purchased some 9 month pieces and while the shirts fit, the pants are incredibly baggy. Her 6 month sleepers are almost too short, but she swims in the 9 month sleepers.

She loves to sleep on her tummy with her butt in the air. I recently went to check on her and she had busted out of the snaps on the legs of her sleeper and she crossed her little bare ankles :)

She is an absolute social butterfly. She might be cranky at home, but the minute we are out and about she delights everyone we encounter.

She has two teeth (middle bottom teeth) and it was NOT FUN getting them to break through. She got really red, raw cheeks and had trouble eating or sleeping. Praise the Lord that there is a reprieve between bouts of teething!

Her hair is starting to fill in, so we don’t call her “Baldilocks” anymore :) She does have a patch of cradle cap that we’re all intrigued (read grossed out by). Hopefully that clears up soon.

She will not keep socks on for very long. She has a habit of rubbing her feet together and anything short of a knee-sock is no match for her! We lost a sock during a recent Costco trip. I carried her around the store in the Baby Bjorn and when we got to the checkout I noticed she had one bare foot :( At that point there was no way I was going to re-trace my steps to find it.

She’s crawling!! It’s still not super fast, but she gets up on all fours and creeps forward. Sometimes she belly flops and fusses, but she’s able to get back up and move forward. I think she’s close to being able to go from crawling to sitting. She pulled herself up from a kneeling position to a standing position at the side of the ottoman too!

She loves being outside and having the wind on her face. She’s not bothered by wind, cold or rain. All the more adventurous for her!

We just abandoned the infant carrier as of yesterday. She’s now in a big girl car seat and so far she loves it! It’s trickier for her to sleep in since it sits up more, but she’s getting used to it.

I could write a book, but it would never capture the magic that she is. I love her to pieces and cannot believe how she has enchanted me.

Happy 9 months Boo!