I can’t believe that Claire is going to be a year old in three months! It’s a very weird feeling – to feel like time is going by so quickly but, at the same time, like Claire has been here forever. We fall more in love with her every day and are so entertained by her silly personality.

Claire had her first cold right after she turned 8 months old for 3 weeks or so. She had a constant runny nose, big cough, and a fever. We even called the on-call doctor one evening because she had a 102.4 fever and we were freaking out after she threw up twice. She ended up being okay and we are so happy she’s feeling better.

Here’s a rundown of 9 month old Claire:

• Weight: We’ll find out on Friday! Last time she was weighed, which was about 2 weeks ago, she was 16 1/2 pounds. She is a petite little one!
• Loves:
  • Snuggling.
  • Exploring everywhere.
  • She’s going through a mommy phase, so she prefers that I hold her at all times.
  • Fruit purees.
  • To wave with her thumb – she holds her arm and hand up and just wiggles her thumb back and forth to wave. It’s hilarious.
  • Zoe! They’re best friends and are the cutest pair.
  • Playing with her wooden snail from Nana and Papa.

• Hates:
  • Vegetables… she gets so angry when we try to feed her any vegetables. She’s definitely a fan of the sweeter foods.
  • Being separated from Mommy and Daddy. She wants to be near us at all times. We would describe her as independent within a certain radius. As long as she can see us, she’s super independent. But we have to be within a comfortable distance for her.

• Talents:
  • Falling asleep while standing up. Sometimes she fights going to sleep so much that she’ll stand up holding onto the side of the crib and eventually, her exhaustion overcomes her and she falls asleep… literally standing up and resting her head on the side of the crib. Once she’s in a deeper sleep, she’ll slump down but it’s pretty hilarious to see on the baby monitor.
  • Once in a while, she’ll briefly let go of what she’s holding onto and can stand on her own for a couple of seconds. I suspect that she can stand on her own, she just chooses not to. She’s too interested in being mobile to focus on her balance so she’s not quite ready to walk on her own yet.
  • Can feed herself, on her own, from a bottle
  • Can drink from a straw! We bought a new cup for her that has a straw and she loves drinking water from it because she can get much more liquid at once.
  • She can play fetch with Zoe… sort of. She holds the ball up and drops it and Zoe will grab it when it rolls away. It’s so cute to see them playing together!

• Sleeping:
  • Now that she’s not sick anymore, she’s sleeping through the night again. Woohoo! She’s been going to sleep much earlier now that she’s down to 1-2 naps a day. She goes down around 6:30-7pm and normally wakes up between 5-6am.

• Other Random Facts:
  • Her two top teeth are coming in and we might see a third up there coming in too. I’m excited but sad because I’m going to miss her toothless grin. Or her two tooth grin. 🙂
  • Her hair is growing! We love seeing her bed head in the morning.

And there you have it! I really cannot get enough of her and miss her every moment that I’m not with her. We still can’t believe we made such a beautiful and perfect little girl.

Next up, we’ll be focusing on planning her birthday party in May. 🙂