The Gulbas Years: 9 Months!

Sweet Jillian is now 9 months old! What a fun and precious soul she is. Such a constant source of joy and laughter in our lives. Her personality is becoming more evident everyday. In new situations/places she sits back and observes for a while - like a wall-flower. Jeff tends to be like that too. After she has observed everything and feels comfortable, then she'll start playing and getting active. She always looks to me for comfort and to make sure I am smiling and enjoying the activity before she will.... so cute.

Here's the latest on Jillian:

~ Still no teeth :) Jeff's side of the family didn't teeth till close to 14 months, so it could be a while longer.... time will tell! I'm lovin' the gummy smile as long as I can.

~ About 3 weeks ago, she started saying consonants. She started with ba-ba and da-da. Now she says moma, dada, baba, and nana. It's one of my favorite milestones, listening to her jabber is the cutest thing!

~ We are in the process of transitioning from 3 naps down to 2. This has been some-what of a struggle for her. Some days she still needs the 3rd nap, other days she doesn't. Soon she'll drop it without being tired.... I'm counting on it!

~ Over the past week, she's seemed more hungry. She must have hit her 9 month growth spurt. Now she drains each of her 8 oz bottles and every bite of her 3 meals. If this keeps up, I'll start introducing snacks.

~ Tuesday she successfully fed herself for the first time! She was eating puffs and actually got it into her mouth. For weeks now, she would get frustrated with herself because she couldn't quite figure out how to release the puff into her mouth. She would try and eat her fingers/fist but couldn't get the puff out. I was so happy for her!

~ We're Army Crawling. The hiney is in the air, the knees come up, but she hasn't quite gotten it all together to start crawling at a fast pace. She's still using her arms and elbows to pull herself around. This is as far as we've made it:

~ Stranger Anxiety seems better - for the time being. New people used to send her into a dither and she'd start crying. She is so much better now.

~ Wears either 9 month of 12 month clothing. 9 month is starting to get a little snug, but 12 month is a little big.

~ Weighs exactly 19 pounds and is 28.25" tall.

~ It's probably way to early to tell, but she definitely uses her left hand a lot more than her right.... so she might be left-handed??

~ When she's sitting and playing with her toys, she somehow manages to get them all behind her. I guess she tosses them.

~ At the perfect age where she loves to sit in the high chair at restaurants. Here she was today at Snuffers; she was in a fantastic mood so we took advantage of it and went out.