Cara is 9 months old!

I apologize for my delay this month. Sweet Nanny went to be with Jesus on June 1, and with school ending, packing up my classroom (yay new job!) and wrapping up the year, I'm really behind. But now sweet summertime is in full swing, I have big plans (conferences, setting up a new room, Vegas vacation, spending time with my girl) for the summer, which also include preparations for Cara's birthday!! Holy cow, that's quickly approaching. Here's a look at our girl  at 9 months old.

Stats: We're going to the doctor this week, but Cara sure is getting long and heavy. If I was a betting woman, I'd guess she is 19-5 lbs and about 27 inches long. She's also outgrown her headbands that are 15 inches of elastic, so I'm sure her head is bigger too. Thank goodness for all her hair so she can wear hair bows instead of headbands now!

Milestones: OH MAN! This month has been the biggest by far in terms of developmental leaps. First of all, Cara is crawling in full force. She had been scooting, pivoting, lunging and rolling to get where she wanted, but last Saturday we were playing in her room and tempting her with toys and with Po, and she put 3 knees and arms in front of the other before she laid back down on her tummy. Unlike rolling over, when she crawled and we rejoiced, she was so proud of herself. She beamed at us and then did her floor-based baby dance. :)

Other milestones include saying "mama", "dada", "daddy", "baba", "hi" and tons of babbles. She's not saying her words on demand yet, but there is starting to be some recognition and connection there. We ask her all the time, "Where's Daddy/Mommy?" and she usually looks around to find us. Love that! She also started clapping recently, and it's just the most precious thing ever. She does it all the time, including first thing in the morning. She will wake up, sit up in her crib and start clapping. It's like she's telling us, "OK, I'm ready to start my day-come get me!" Mama is not a morning person, so this baffles me. :) But I love the clapping, it's adorable.

Cara's legs are getting really strong. When we hold her hands and she pulls up, it's no longer her arms that bear most of the weight; she's putting weight on her feet to push up. I can tell a difference in how she approaches getting up, so that's cool. A few other things she does include looking back and forth between us when she does something new, vocalizing lots of different yells/screams/sounds and dropping her pacifier! We stopped using it for bedtime a long time ago, and we worked with daycare to drop it at naptime. It took a couple of weeks, but she did it. I gave it to her one afternoon when she was fighting a nap, and she just pulled it out and played with it, so I knew she didn't need it for comfort or sleep. Way to go, Cara Beth! As for personal milestones, Chance and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on May 31. Cayce kept Cara for an evening while we went to a nice dinner, and then we went home and watched a Red Box movie--fancy! But really fun. We're saving our big hoorah for Vegas next month.

Behavior: Flirty, expressive, contemplative, flexible, CURIOUS, communicative. Cara is interested in EVERYTHING, whether it's craning her neck to see something in every direction, touching everything she finds (and putting it in her mouth) or screaming at us urgently when she wants to tell us something. Her voice is louder and more demanding when she's bored or wants to eat or wants attention. It's not fussiness, it's just her commanding the focus back onto herself. She is still as laid-back and happy as ever, and loves to just hang around with us. Playing on the floor, running errands, taking walks, as long as we're with her, she seems to be happy. She also has been really happy at school and has adapted to her new classes' environment really well. She barely notices when I walk in to pick her up because she's playing with a friend or a toy. She is about to start getting into everything now that she's mobile enough to check out what interests her. I have a feeling next month's update about behavior will be how BUSY she is.

Sleep: Now that she's crawling and mobile, her sleep got disrupted a bit. She's been waking up earlier in the mornings (sometimes 6:15-6:30 instead of 7-7:15) and fighting her naps a little more. She needs a lot of consistency in her sleeping and has trouble if we put her down in a pack-and-play vs. her crib at home or school. But like I said, she wakes up happy in the mornings and claps, so I won't complain about a few extra minutes of lost sleep. She still sleeps all night, about 8:30-7, and takes 2 naps a day. At home on the weekends, her naps can last 2-3 hours, but they're shorter at school where there are more fun distractions. :)

Clothes: She's straddling the 9 months and 12 months ranges. Lots of her 9-month clothes still fit, but the pants are too short. Her 12-month onesies are a little long, but almost fit. This is the longest she's been able to stretch into both sizes, which means we have lots of clothes to choose from. With the weather being warmer and her getting longer, we've given up footie jammies for the summer. I bought lots of mix-and-match separate sets that are great for sleep or for school. I always select 5 outfits at the beginning of each week to grab 1 in the morning when she gets up, and sometimes I just leave her in what she sleeps in because it's comfy. I've also been stocking up on hair bows in every color (and toying with the idea of making some myself this summer) so that every outfit has an accessory!

Food: Big changes this month! I dropped the earliest "feeding" at 5:30 am (when I was pumping before she woke up)--yay for not having to get up that early every morning anymore! So now my body only thinks we're doing 4 feedings a day instead of 5. Cara eats table food now too! I've fed her shredded cheese, deli lunchmeat, guacamole, beans and crackers. She also eats baby yogurt, yogurt melts (broken into fourths, after she gagged on a whole one--oops!) and puffs like a champ. I'm still making her fruits and veggies for school, but if she's at home, I'm trying to feed her something close to what we eat. Emily gave me lots of great ideas for other finger foods she can eat too. It means more cooking for me, but that means we'll do a good job of eating at home, and I can get used to the time it takes while it's summer and I have more flexibility. I'm going to start sending Cara with 1 bottle of formula to school when she goes 2-3 days a week this summer. I've been exclusively nursing for the last 9 months, and things are just slowing down for me. The goal is to wean myself by the end of July, and then finish off the frozen milk we have stored. I'm only pumping once a day in the summer, and that won't cover the amount she needs to drink at school. So I'll send formula to school, nurse when we're together, pump when we're not, and save what's left for her to eat in July and August. Have any of you done this with success? I'm nervous about introducing formula after she's so used to breastmilk.

Likes: still bathtime--when Po comes in to supervise, swinging outside, playing "where's Cara?" when we change her clothes, being tickled under her arms, playing peek-a-boo, doing her "baby dance" on the floor--where she lays on her tummy and sticks her arms and legs out and wiggles nonstop. It's like she thinks she really is going somewhere, but it's hilarious. She also likes clapping, figuring out "where's Daddy?" or "where's Mama?", playing with Po, standing up on her legs to bounce

Dislikes: having her nose wiped (even more adamant than last month--she shakes her head "no" when we come near with the burp cloth or boogie wipe), being strapped into her carseat when she's not tired, when she first wakes up from a nap, being made to wait to eat (heaven forbid), not being the center of attention (uh oh...), most especially--being in the pack-and-play while we get ready. We tried it once to get her used to it and loaded it full of toys, but she couldn't see us very well across the bedroom and it caused a giant meltdown! We may have to figure out another option because that one wasn't working out.

 Favorite moments: This has been my favorite month, by far. Her sweet personality is really shining through, and she is growing and developing exponentially! It's so fun to watch her hit those milestones, to be proud of herself and to figure things out. She's already gaining independence in movement and eating (sad mommy heart), so I'm proud of her for that. We had a lot of fun at the beginning of the month at Mase's 4th birthday party (Baylor themed!), even though Cara slept through much of it in her stroller. Murphee's 1st birthday isn't far away... And I celebrated my first Mother's Day with lots of sweet mementos from Cara and her Daddy. Plus we got to meet up with some of my nearest and dearest in Dallas--we hadn't been together all at once since Meredith got married in October! Happy heart time.

Most challenging: Cara got another ear infection the same weekend as Mase's party, and that's no fun. I hate when she is sick. This time was the worst, though, because she wouldn't sleep. We would put her in her crib, and she would look at us with these pitiful eyes and scream at us. She said, "mama..." and whimpered and my heart broke. I picked her up and rocked her. She wallered and fussed on me for 2 hours and just couldn't fall asleep. We took a drive around the neighborhood and she just screamed. Nothing would work. We were frustrated, worried, stressed and concerned for her. She finally wore herself out around 10:30 p.m. and conked out. The next day was better, but it took a few days to get out of the woods. Poor, sweet girl. You can see the sickness in her eyes.

Nanny passed away on June 1, so that was really hard for all of us. She had been sick for a long time, and had been telling us she was ready to be with Jesus. She took her last breath late one night, and she was reunited with Jesus, Papaw and Cindy. We were sad to lose such an influential, dear woman, but we rejoiced that she was eternally happy. Cara loved going to visit Nanny, and saved some of her best smiles for her. Nanny LOVED her grandkids, but took special joy in her great-grandkids. It was always a circus at her retirement home when we went to visit because she wanted to show off her kids to all her friends. :) We will miss her dearly, and we are happy she is no longer sick.

Looking forward to: watching Cara explore her world (simultaneously excited and terrified of that), pulling up and taking steps, saying more words, connecting words and meanings. Really looking forward to spending lots of days together in the summer with my girl. Cara is being dedicated at church in July, and that will be great for all of our family. Also getting supplies and making plans for her first birthday party. I'm looking forward to starting a new job at Midway High School in the fall and taking some days this summer to set up a new classroom and attend conferences. Change will be good!