The Third

You're the third child.  I'm sorry!  I just can't keep up with you!  So here is your 7 month picture.  I can't remember exactly what was happening when, but I will do my best. 

At seven months she was sitting unassisted and that meant she could sit up in the shopping cart.  She was really close to the weight limit on her infant car seat and I was sick of lugging it around, so she got to move up to Vander's old seat.  I finally got around to feeding her solid food and she accepted it immediately.  I have been very laid-back about feeding my third kid, so instead of making baby food in the blender or buying it from the store I have just taken a little of whatever we were eating off of my plate, cut it with my fork into little bits, and let her feed herself.  She makes up for the rest of it in breastmilk.  Sooooo easy!

 
At eight months she was able to stand up against things for short periods of time and she started army-crawling!  Neither of the other two kids ever army-crawled, and their real crawling didn't come until month nine, so she was really ahead of the pack.  I think she's just trying so hard to keep up with her siblings!  She outgrew the bouncer and the doorway jumper this month, but we started using the walker and the activity station, which she merely tolerated.

By month nine she was definitely crawling and getting into everything!  I had to put out the pokey plastic to keep her out of the dog's food and water.  She was feeding herself really well.  Her favorite food was Cutie mandarin oranges (cut up really small).  She could eat two or more Cuties in a sitting!  I guess it's true that you are what you eat!  She was really starting to find humor in things, laughing at our antics and slap-stick. Sneezes, hiccups and burps are hilarious!  She laughed herself silly when she heard me throwing up!

 

 
 


At ten months Bellana was starting to cruise along furniture and really get around.  We had to put a gate or the footstool at the bottom of the stairs to keep her from getting up, but a few times we forgot and she climbed all the way up both flights of stairs and started playing with the gate at the top!  Really gave my heart a jolt!  She is less of a baby and heading toward toddler.  She doesn't want to cuddle as much, preferring to be active and playing.

Eleven months--can it be?  In less than a month she will be a year old!  I wonder, will she ever have enough hair to put a clip in? Somehow we skipped the 12-month sized clothes and went straight from 9 to 18 month.  She is 22 lbs and really solid.  She loves to crawl all around outside in the warm weather, eating mud and watching her brother and sister.  She is so happy to be outside that I can stop her from crying just by carrying her out into the sun.  She sleeps well
through the night, from 9 to about 7:00 a.m. She takes a long nap around 9:00 a.m. and another shorter one around 4:30.  She says "Mama," "Dada" and signals "more" in sign language.  One thing that I find fascinating is how good she is at mimicking sounds.  So often, we will say something and she pretty much repeats it without understanding what she's saying.  For example, we'll say "All done!" as we get her down from her high chair once she said "Ah duh" back.  She has done the same with many other things that are not typical baby words.

She is a lightning-fast crawler and wants to climb everything.  She can climb inside of a tote or laundry basket without tipping it over if it has clothes in it.  I watched her climb onto a mattress on the floor and then onto Vander's bed too!

She finally got a tooth this month--I was wondering if they'd ever show!  She's gotten them really late, compared with the other kids.  It's her bottom left tooth.  Still no sign of the others.

We love our little stinker!