1. She is a little less than 15 pounds now. I took her to her 9 month appointment right before we left Pittsburgh, and she was 14 pounds 2 ounces. She is STILL wearing 3-6 month clothes... insane. She is in the third percentile for her weight, but she always has been between the third and fifth since she was 3 months old. So before I get comments on how tiny she is, let me answer the questions i KNOW you are thinking:
YES: She is small for her age. And from what my doctors tell me, that is just fine. Mike and I are both small people, so she just may be destined to be small too. Seriously, if I got a dollar for every time I tell people how old Harmony is (they always think she is about 3 month younger than she really is) and they get this surprised/concerned look on their face, Harmony's college would be paid for...
well at least her freshman year.
YES: I feed her. She is purely on table foods now, and for the most part she eats really well. You can't put food in front of her fast enough, and if she even THINKS you are preparing her bottle she flies off the handle because she wants it and she wants it NOW.
Now that we have that all settled lets move on.
2. She sleeps great, for the most part. Her bedtime is 8 and she wakes up around 7:30, with the exception of her 5:30 play time in her crib where she proceeds to talk to herself for about 10 minutes, then goes back to sleep. But since we've moved, she is starting to get up in the night again. All she needs is to be comforted for a minute or two, and then she is fine. Sometimes it's only once, other nights it's two or three times. It's weird. I also think she is cutting another tooth (to bring the total count to 7), so that doesn't help. I'm sure the biggest reason is change. She isn't in her crib, and we aren't in our house, so that doesn't help things.
3. She talks up a storm now. She is constantly babbling, trying so hard to communicate with us, and it's adorable. She says, "ba ba", "ma ma", "da da" , and "uh oh". Aunt Becca taught her "uh oh", and now she never stops saying it. That is what we hear her saying after she wakes up from a nap. SO adorable. "Da da" is her most recent word, and it is by far the cutest thing that she says. She just lights up when she says it. She is very proud to finally figure it out. I don't think she associates it with Mike just yet, but she loves saying it.
4. She is starting to stand on her own, but only when she isn't really paying attention to what she is doing. We try to get her stand and walk and she just won't have it, but if she is playing or concentrating, she will stand on her own for 30-40 seconds before she grabs onto us or a piece of furniture. She is SO ready to walk tho. She is constantly on her feet, whether it's pushing her walker, or just using walls or furniture to get her places. I'm just waiting for the day she just takes off and never looks back. Then my life will officially be over. I can barely keep up with her when she crawls. She is a quick little thing, and she crawls EVERYWHERE. She has mastered stairs, and loves going anywhere she knows she isn't supposed to be (i.e. dog cages, toilets, pantries, DVD shelves- her favorite).
Life is most definitely NOT boring with her around. Like I said, we have seen her personality change so much lately. She is doing so much that she never did before. She waves (and by waves I mean hold her arm up in a "Hail Hitler" sort of way) to pretty much everyone in sight- so we've make lots of friends wherever we go- the store, church, the bank- anywhere. Once she gets there attention, she begins to flirt like crazy. she bats her eyes, she smiles, she giggles- it's hilarious. Becca says that she is the best way to evangelize. All Harmony has to do is real em in with her charm, and we'll do the rest... "yes she is a happy baby. It's because she knows Jesus. Do you?". She's going to be a fisher of men in no time (and I mean that in a biblical way people! No boyfriends yet!)
In the past few days she has learned to clap, and she is so very proud of herself for it. If you clap at her she will giggle and clap too. I LOVE IT! I do it all the time just to watch her. And when she gets really excited she starts flapping her arms like a bird and just squeals. I'm telling you, she can entertain a crowd for hours.
She has been awesome since we've taken up residence at the Keller Manor for the last couple weeks. We've only had a few little "mishaps" (she fell down the stairs, and she fell out of the screen door- both on mine and Mike's watch I might add, but luckily she didn't get hurt either time), but for the most part she has loved having two more people in the home to love on her, plus she LOVES Beckett, and shows her affection by feeding him food while sitting in her high chair. Naughty naughty. We leave on Thursday, and our time with John and Amy went by WAY too fast. I will be so sad when we move into our new place.
Obiviously, I'm LOVING having Becca only a few miles away, and we try to see her as much as her busy schedule permits, and one of those times was this past Friday morning when my brother came up to see some friends in Rochester, and carved some time out to have lunch with us. After we ate we decided to take some pictures (shock), and this was my favorite picture of the day:
Harmony LOVES when Mike tosses her in the air, and we thought we would try to get a picture where you just saw her absolute GLEE while being thrown in the air. I think we captured it quite perfectly...
