9 Months Old!

I'm 9 months old today!!

Mommy says I'm old enough now to do these posts on my own, and she supposedly has 'a bazillion' things to do anyway so I'm going to write about me today!

I'm getting pretty big .... almost 16 pounds!  I haven't been gaining weight this past week as rapidly as I used to but Mommy thinks (and hopes) I'm just getting longer and the rest of me still hasn't caught up yet.  She changed my formula to give me more calories and I'm not sure I like it.  I've been having tiny bottles every few hours ... maybe cause the extra calories make me full faster, or maybe cause my teeth hurt, I dunno, I am just a baby after all.

My eye is getting better, though Mommy decided to let me rub my face because it's my favorite thing to do, and having my arms bounded down wasn't making me very happy.  So my eye still isn't back to normal yet since I keep rubbing it.  But Mommy just puts Aquaphor on my face constantly and tries to give me my eye medicine everytime I fall asleep.  She says everything in the house is getting covered in Aquaphor; my bottles, the remote, her cell phone ... because she constantly has Aquaphory hands.  But anyway, I've overheard some rumblings about getting me to an eye doctor sometime this week for a checkup and another look-see.  And I need to go see my baby doctor to get my 2nd Flu Shot now that Mommy's leg is better and she isn't hobbling around.  Bleeeeh, doctors.

Mommy says that lately I look like a combination of Rocky and Chase Utley.  Rocky cause my face looks like I've been in a fight, and Chase Utley because I smear the Aquaphor all over my head and grease my hair down.  I don't know who any of those people are.  Daddy says they're Philly people and Mommy loves Philly.

Speaking of Daddy .... I love me some Daddy.

I finally figured out how to hold my super-heavy head up on my own!! Mommy keeps apologizing for giving me a thick Gehring skull like hers, and says that a squishy Turnquist skull like Daddies would be much easier to hold up.  Mommy also says I could've figured this out months ago if only I'd learned to embrace the Bumbo ... or the Summer 3-in-1 seat .... or the Boppy.  But if I could talk I'd tell her that I don't like those things because they could let me fall and hurt my neck, but I know Mommy won't.  So I only practiced it while Mommy, or Daddy, held me or sat with me.  So now I can do some fun new things.  Mommy sits me on her knee and bounces me up and down while we watch Imagination Movers and sing all the songs together.  Kind of like this:

And I just know that I could roll over if it wasn't for this trach.  If I go too far it jabs into my neck and well, lets just say it upsets me.  But I like to lay like this when I get pooped from playing on the floor with Mommy and decide it's nap time.

I sleep in my big girl bed now! No more Pack N Play for me.  Here is my crib:

It's super comfy.  Mommy gave me 3 Z-Flo gel pads and always puts a super soft fluffy blankie on top of them.  Then Nurse Ann always tucks me in so comfy at night time.  And I have all my dollies around me to keep me company.

Mommy gave me a very special 9 month birthday present.  It was her most favorite doll when she was a baby. 

She calls him Cullen Mac, and says he's a Cabbage Patch babydoll.  She wrapped him up in gauze so that he looks like me!!  Then Mommy told me all about Cullen, and how when she was a baby she picked only the bestest and cutest dolls out of the cabbage patch to have as her own.  Then she told me that when she grew up, she wanted a real baby and so she went to the cabbage patch and picked me because I was the cutest and the bestest! 

Here are Cullen and I getting aquainted:

Oh, Mommy wanted me to write that she's sorry that these pictures are all either too dark, too bright, or make me look way too blotchy and greasy. She says her camera 'sucks' and she hates using the flash on it cause it makes me squint and makes me eye look worse than it is. She's going on and on about how she tries so hard to keep the living room nice and dark for my eye to heal but then the stupid camera needs its stupid flash ...... man, she needs a vacation.  Oh well, I'm still cute!!!