Nine Month Snapshot: Alexandra

by biscuitsspace on April 15, 2019

I cannot believe it is already time once again to do another post, Alex’s nine month blog post! The time is going by so quickly right now! Alex has now been an ‘external baby’ as long as she was an ‘internal baby!’ The theme this month, summed up in one word, is teething. Alex’s top, middle two front teeth came in! As of this writing, both of her front teeth have cracked through the gums, thankfully! She has been uncomfortable with these two teeth coming in. This month, she has even ‘personalized’ her crib — she has made teeth marks all along the top perimeter of her crib. Had I known, I would have bought some protectors, but it is too late now! Victory also had issues with her teeth this month; she had a recent dental, whereby it was discovered that her middle two lower teeth were loose and they were pulled as a result. Victory healed up well, thankfully. So, one of our cherubs is gaining teeth, while the other cherub is losing teeth! Alex is still really, really into Victory and wants to pet her insistently and crawl after her all the time! Victory, is adjusting more with Alex being mobile! However, Victory is much quicker than her sister, Alex, and can out run Alex in a heart beat! However, Victory still makes her daily morning and evening rounds with Alex, which is so adorable!

Alex is well and she is sickness free, for the time being, which is great! She is standing up on her own for a few seconds, at a time, and she is pulling herself up on everything in sight! She still loves her walker! (Victory is still sacred a bit by the walker!) Alex loves crawling all over our house and getting into everything! She loves our cook books in the kitchen and she loves my photo albums in the living room! She also loves the door stops and Doug just replaced them all through the house to a more ‘child friendly’ type of door stop. She also loves to chew on my keys and crocs, and we plan to get her a pair of her own crocs! She even likes to be crawl around the deck and look out over our neighborhood! We are in the process of getting our decks cleaned, flowers planted, and our outdoor furniture out in the next couple of weeks! Alex has been out to eat several times during this month, and she has done really well! We now have a bag with all of her ‘going out to eat gear!’ We even got Victory out to eat with us a few times, as the weather, for the most part, has been relatively nice here! We have done quite a few walks together, this month, which has been great! Alex still likes to try a variety of foods, which is great! She still really loves vanilla yogurt, probably her favorite food right now! She is also such a big girl drinking from her sippy cup!

Alex is really big in size and she always lets you know how she feels, without hesitation! When we were at the doctor’s at the end of March, for a check, to make sure Alex’s pneumonia had indeed resolved, she was off the charts with her size. She seems to continue to grow and grow! We go to her nine month appointment next week, and we imagine that she will be even bigger! Some mornings, she just looks and feels bigger. My arms definitely get a work out these days, as a result! The doctor said most people will think Alex is over a year old based upon her size! I feel like I birthed a little giant some days! We just ordered her some new spring and summer clothes, as we bought a lot of clothes before she was born, not knowing how big she would be — so our stock pile of clothes did not last as long as we anticipated! We now know what fits her well (she has a long torso like her Daddy) and what type of fabric she likes to wear! We also look forward to the outdoor pools opening next month, and we are signing Alex up for swim lessons since she is finally over all of her sickness and it is now warmer outside! She is enjoying bath time more these days, so we hope that she will take to the water!

Our days are getting more predictable with time, which has been nice. Alex usually takes two naps, or one long nap a day these days. Alex is still getting up once a night to eat, and we hope that we can get her sleeping through the entire night soon. She still goes to bed early and she is an early riser, so Doug and I are on her schedule, as a result. She is also doing really well at her play school and appears to be developing well. She is making different sounds and loves to make her “o” sounds and she rounds her lips when making this sound, which is just really cute. She has learned how to give kisses, which are more like licks, which I love!

We are looking forward to enjoying our spring and summer with Alex and Victory! We cannot believe Alex turns one so soon! We have some fun ideas and plans for her first birthday! This month has been full of some exciting changes and Alex will continue to keep us on our toes. We love our girls and we are embracing it all, and we feel extremely blessed!

A few highlights from Alex’s ninth month include:

-she loves crawling all over and getting into things — she is getting into everything (my purse, photo albums, cook books, Victory’s water bowl, etc.) and putting everything she can get her hands on into her mouth!

-she is pulling herself up and standing on her own balancing herself for a few seconds at a time! She also loves to pull herself up on Doug and myself and then she balances herself, which she thinks is fantastic!

-she is afraid of strangers, people she does not recognize, and she then cries when held by an unfamiliar face, which we think is pretty normal right now.

-she is sleeping well in her crib in her sleep sack, while still getting up one time a night to eat most nights — we hope to get her sleeping through the night soon!

-we are almost done with finishing our baby proofing; and we recently ordered Alex a bigger play yard and play mat for our main floor, which she, hopefully, she will like, along with some new fun toys Doug picked out!

-she is still making lots of different sounds and she loves to laugh and giggle!

-she is still ‘throwing raspberries’ often, and she thinks it is hilarious! It is not so funny when she throws raspberries when she has food in her mouth!

-she has learned to give ‘kisses!’

-she loves going for walks!

-she loves music!

-she still loves to be read to each day!

-she still finds the mirror to be very captivating and intriguing!

-she loves to play with her toys and now she likes to pick out her own toys to play with!

-she is enjoying eating and trying new foods and she likes to feed herself and she likes to share her food with Victory, many food droppings find their way to the floor!

-she is still very alert and observant! She still loves to interact with other kids and observe them!

A few highlights I would like to remember:

-photographing and making videos of Alex — I want to remember and capture as much as I can!

-remembering her pulling herself up and standing on her own (for several seconds) for the first time!

-remembering that she is never afraid to let us know how she feels!

-remembering her determination!

-remembering how she is learning to give ‘kisses,’ which melts my heart!

-remembering her trying the ‘big girl’ swing at our neighborhood park for the first time, shown below!

-remembering how intrigued she is with my buttons on my clothing and necklaces that I wear.

-remembering that she likes to have her back rubbed once we put her in her crib to help get her settled.

-remembering that she likes to hold her bottles now to feed herself and she appears to be right-handed, but time will tell.

-remembering that she always likes to hold a burp cloth while she has a bottle and when she falls asleep.

-remembering her giggling when she gets the soap lathered on her during her baths. She is so ticklish!

-remembering how she giggles so hard when she is tickled behind her ears! She finds this hysterical!

-remembering our bedtime routine where she just laughs and giggles before bed during which she loves to crawl into our laps and give us hugs right before bed.

-remembering our walks together around the neighborhood in her Bugaboo, which she loves!

-remembering how we say, “It’s time for sleepy time,” and then Alex makes the biggest smile!

-watching her explore her environment — which has grown ten-fold for her because she is really on the move!

-watching her ride on her Daddy’s shoulders, which never gets old!

-watching her try to chase Victory in order to try to catch up with Victory!

-greeting Alex in her nursery each morning. It is and adjustment to see her standing and making teeth marks all over the top of her crib!

-loving how she smells after her baths!

-loving how her hair is so fluffy and soft against my skin! It keeps growing and growing! It will be neat if she gets some curls, but we will have to see.

-loving on her long, velvety and smooth body!

-enjoying our morning time together, where Victory joins us each morning whereby she licks her sister, Alex, from head to toe!

-loving her giggles!

-marveling at her smile — she has the most wonderful smile that melts our hearts, and now we can see all four of her teeth!

-admiring her eyes — they are the prettiest deep blue eyes I have ever seen! I think she might have her Great Grandma Rose’s eyes, and we gave Alex the middle name “Rose” in honor of Doug’s beloved Grandma Rose.

-loving her long and lovely dark eye lashes!

-loving her rosy red cheeks!

-knowing on the days that I feel totally exhausted, that I will someday really miss these early days, and I need to remind myself, at times of this fact. The daily exhaustion is improving, some.

-still asking myself what will I miss about this time of my life when it’s all gone? This question keeps everything in perspective.

-most of all, we are cherishing getting to be Alex’s parents!

Doug and I are very grateful for our little girl and our little family! We feel so fortunate and our hearts have grown so much since Alex’s arrival, and I feel as though a part of me has been awakened. We look forward to seeing Alex’s little personality continue to develop and unfold. Below are a few images: Alex’s monthly portrait; Alex and Victory’s monthly portrait; followed by photos of Alex throughout this month; and some iphone images during her ninth month with us! You can read our birth story along with viewing images from Alex’s birth here; you can read Alex’s one month snapshot here; her two month snapshot here; her three month snapshot here; her four month snapshot here; her five month snapshot here; her six month snapshot here; her seven month snapshot here; and her eight month snapshot here.

The monthly photos are getting a bit more tricky; Alex is in her laundry basket this month because she kept crawling away. I tried to use her walker, and she kept jumping up and down, scaring Victory, who started to run away. So, I tried placing her into her seagrass laundry basket, where Alex had to balance herself and it worked! I just have to find a way to capture Alex and Victory for a few more months in order to make it to a year, chronicling this special year via this photo series! It is definitely more tricky to photograph them together these days!

I have been working on further revisions on my long-term photography project with my mentor in between everything; and it has been quite a bit of work keeping up with Alex’s monthly photos; printing of the images; creating her photo book for her first year; creating blog posts; and writing Promptly Journal entries. However, this time will only happen once, and we want to record and remember it, so we are going to keep going with this process through the first year, where so many changes occur, sometimes seemingly over night! I will always continue to photograph our little family to document our time together, but I am not, yet, sure how that will look for us after the first year with Alex!