Nine Months Old!!

Avery is nine months old! Another month has just flown by! Avery had her 9-month checkup, and here are her current stats:

Height - 30 inches (>95th percentile!!!)

Weight - 20 pounds, 4 ounches (75th percentile)

Avery is still wearing 6-12 month clothes, but we have sized up on a few things to get the added length. Pulling in the waists tends to be a challenge. Thank goodness it is capri pant season, so we can get away with shorter pants! Just this past week, her feet had a big growth spurt, and she is now wearing size 3 shoes.

Avery continues to crawl around the house and pull herself up on EVERYTHING. Her crawl speed is lightening fast, and she kicks it into turbo gear when she knows you are coming after her. The best part is her cute little giggle when she knows you are about to catch up with her! She gains increased confidence with standing every day. She can now stand for a good 30 seconds or so without holding onto anything. Once she has pulled herself up on something, she has no problem holding on and "walking" around. As you can see, she loves to "help" in the kitchen.

We still get daily comments about how much hair Avery has. Given the hair and her height, everyone thinks she is older than 9 months. We are going to work on a ponytail and pigtails this week.

Avery still has 4 teeth, but #5 and #6 are working their way in on the top. Speaking of teeth, Avery loves to feed herself, and we are transitioning into more finger foods. Cheese is by far her favorite food!!! Plus, we are slowly adding meat to her meals this month.

Avery's new baby tricks include clapping and waving! She has been clapping nearly all of the past month, but waving is a brand new trick. She says "dada" pretty regularly, but we still aren't sure if she is actually referring to Roger when she says it. Avery knows when she is being naughty, and she will grunt an expression that kinda sounds like the first half of "uh oh" when she purposely tosses food onto the floor. Of course, this is said with a baby smirk! I have no doubt that many new words are soon to follow!