What Leslie's Doing

Since Leslie will be 9 months old in less than two weeks I thought I should document the things she's doing before she gets much older.  It's hard to believe that in just a few months she'll be a year old.  Gosh, next time I turn around she'll be in kindergarten.

Skills:  She's not crawling.  She sits up great.  She'll put both hands and arms out in front of her as far as she can get them, but she hasn't learned to lift her torso off the floor yet, so she's still immobile.  She does wind up on her tummy a lot, which I don't get, because she doesn't like it.  She will put some weight on her legs if you stand her up, but she's not really interested in staying in that position. She still likes to lie on her back and grab her feet up by her face.

Sleep:  She's been in a weird pattern lately where she doesn't go to bed for the night until 11:00, 12:00, or even 1:00.  Then she'll sleep til maybe 5:30 or 6:30a.m., and she'll usually go back to sleep right after she nurses.  Then she'll sleep another two to four hours.  She's been taking an evening nap around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. and sleeping until about 8:30 or 9:00.  Most of the time she does better if I just lay her in her bed instead of trying to rock her.  Her first nap of the day is pretty consistently two hours, and she'll let me rock her with that one.  I miss rocking her to sleep, although I don't miss all the crying that used to go along with it.

Food:  Breast milk.  She eats baby food, but she's not at a point where she'll eat a whole jar in one sitting.  It usually takes three to four days to finish a jar.  I don't think she's anywhere near ready to be weaned.  She seems to like most every baby food she's offered, and carrots are probably her favorite.  She likes pears, mangoes, mixed veggies, and apple sauce, too.  Mashed potatoes don't sit well with her, though.  She has started eating the Gerber Graduates puffed cereal.  When I first introduced them about two weeks ago, she had a hard time getting the little pieces into her mouth, and they gagged her sometimes because they were just a little bit too big.  But now she can almost always get them to her mouth and she doesn't gag anymore.  She really likes them. Mommy gave her a tiny bite of brownie the other day, and she loved it.  She searched for every crumb that fell on her shirt and she was looking for more!  That's my girl.

What she likes to do: She likes Mama to carry her around and hold her.  She's going through a clingy stage where she cries if I put her down, and she screams if I leave the room.  If both Mommy and Daddy are around it's not so bad.  But during the day it's hard to put her down and get anything done.  When both Mommy and Daddy are home, she likes to sit on our bed with us and play.  She loves other kids, especially little ones.  They call her the Social Butterfly at the church nursery.  She really likes to make eye contact with other people and smile at them.  She likes to watch our kitties and "pet" them.  She likes to ride in the stroller.  She likes to look at colorful pictures on the computer.  She likes to watch a wildlife video on the computer.  She pays attention to shows like Dora the Explorer more than I thought an eight-month old would.

What makes her laugh: She laughs when Mommy makes exaggerated faces and exclamations at her.  She likes Peek-a-boo.  She likes to look in mirrors, by herself and with Mommy.

Favorite toys: She likes the real TV remote control, the real phone, the real camera, and cords and plugs.  She has toy substitutes, but she knows the difference and wants the real things!  She likes board books.  Anything can be a toy to her.  She likes paper, boxes, cloths, anything she can handle.  Of her real toys, she likes her toy cell phone, her Sophie teething toy, and her plastic keys the best.

What she's wearing:  She's easing into her 6-12 month sizes, but a lot of it is still big on her.  She can still wear some of her 3-6 months things.  Some brands come in 6-9 month size, and she can wear them pretty true to size.  Mommy has bought her some super cute fall/winter things.  She looks really pretty in orange, and I don't say that only because we're in Tennessee!  She still won't wear socks for any length of time, but they do manage to stay on for half an hour sometimes.

What she says:  Ma -ma, Mom-mom, ah-dah, dada, apple-up, um-gak, nee, bah, random stuff I couldn't begin to spell 

Quirks:  She's got a temper.  She still has no teeth.  She scratches her head a lot.  She doesn't like anyone to hold onto her arms.  When she gets excited she stretches and straightens out her arms and legs. When she's happy or excited she makes a growling noise.  She's like her Mom - she doesn't want to practice new things that she's not good at.  She'd just rather not do them at all if she can't do them well.