Ryleigh is Nine Months!!!!!!!!!

Ryleigh at 9 months (July 15, 2011)

What?!  Not my baby.  I refuse to accept it.....


...ok ok ok...Ryleigh is growing up!!  My little baby is well on her way to becoming a toddler and I have to admit, I'm really enjoying this phase.  She is SOOOOOO much fun!!  Personality just oozes from my little munchkin and she is so independent (but still needy when she wants to be).  She loves to be silly and she loves to be scared.  Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games, as well as watching you hide behind a wall then pop out and yell "boo!"  She is obsessed with blankets and other fluffy things and she will immediately bury her face in them and roll around when she finds them on the floor or on the sofa.  She also loves living on the edge, literally.  She will get as close to the edge of the sofa or bed as possible, then want you to hold on to her legs so she can work her way down to the floor.  She can sit on the floor and entertain herself for what seems like hours and now that she can pull herself up, she seems to always be directly underneath me.  She will look up at and me and give me this look like "Ma, isn't it weird that the place I want to be always seems to be the exact same spot that you happen to be doing something?!"


I'm finding myself saying "no" a whole lot more lately, which is fine.  She is exploring her surroundings.  I wish she wouldn't enjoy exploring Lucy's dog food bowl or the toilet paper roll as much though.  She will usually crawl around and I'll see her turn the corner into another room.  I'll give her a minute then I'll make my way to see what mischievous things she has discovered that I would never think to touch...one day she made her way into the bathroom only to grab one end of the toilet paper and pull it all the way out into the dining room before I noticed.  Good eye Mommy, right?  I'm getting better at disciplining her...I still find is hard to spank or smack my little angels hand, so I've resorted to flicking her hand.  I think she is catching on though :/  She sure is testing lately! 


I'll have to admit, one of my favorite things is when I take Lucy outside, I stand right outside the door (which is all glass so I can keep an eye on her inside) and she will make her way to the door, pull herself up on it and repeatedly bang on it until I look back at her.  And when I do, this HUGE smile appears on her face  that exposes her little teeth and the loudest squeal ever comes out.  It's priceless.     


This month hasn't been as exciting as the last few months, actually, scratch that, it hasn't had as many "new" things happen, but it's been just as exciting.  Ryleigh is still learning to master the skills she has learned in the past few months (like crawling on her hands and knees, pulling herself up using the furniture, walking around the furniture, clapping and giving kisses).  She has learned to wave "hi" and "bye" this month and I have learned that cutting teeth #3 and #4 is a horrific process.  It took her about one week to get 'em through and she learned to really enjoy the taste of baby Tylenol and Motrin ; ) My saviors!!


This month we got to celebrate Fathers Day with Daddy.  He had lots of fun taking Ryleigh swimming.  You can see the pictures HERE.  We also visited Uncle Jason and Aunt Bekah in Buffalo this month.  And an added bonus, Yaya, Poppi, and Great Grandma & Grandpa Elliott were there too!  You can see all the pictures and read about our visit HERE.  Mommy and Daddy celebrated their anniversary this month which meant Ryleigh spent her first night with "strangers".  No, not strangers...but babysitters who weren't family members.  They said she was great, other than a few middle of night cries for "mama", which you know made me smile to hear : )  Other than that, we hung around Greensboro mastering the art of walking around the furniture and exploring how high pitched our voice can go.  We went to the doctor today for our nine month check up and everything looks great...even our wasp sting that we got today : (  Ryleigh weighs 20 pounds and is 30 1/4 inches which puts her in the 85th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for height, so our munchkin is still a tall one!


We have a pretty busy month coming up with visitors, so we should be posting lots soon!  Can't believe time is flying by so fast, but in all honesty, I love being able to interact with her the way I can now.  I hope she continues to stay silly because it makes my days so much better : )

loves her big girl car seat

big baby blues

all smiles at Uncle Jason & Aunt Bekah's house

loves her new toy..she's still trying to figure him out though

Fourth of July spirit

Ryleigh repeats after Mommy

when Daddy's attack!

Mommy & Ryleigh playing with the web cam

for those who would like to see a typical Ryleigh play session...it's a long one

Ryleigh shows off her new "trick"

  

getting to play in Mommy & Daddy's hotel room before they pawn me off for the night ; )

so true

Daddy's attempt at matching PJs...we still love him : )

She got herself up onto the step and got scared when she recalled her last attempt at crawling up the stairs...it would have ended badly had Daddy not been behind her : (

exhausted

"What? Am I not supposed to be in here?"

in preparation for our visitors this coming weekend, Mommy has an air mattress on the floor in the guest room...Ryleigh and Lucy automatically think it's for them to play on

cheesin'

this expression reminds me of a forced school picture...like, "smile for the camera even though you don't want to"