what news of my 9 month old, you ask?  well... let me tell you!

bella turned 9 months yesterday and is cruisin' along.  literally.  she's learned how to cruise on mommy's keyboard, which is set up at bella-height in the living room.  she can make her way up and down the 88 keys ever so gingerly and loves banging on them with the volume on max.  she knows how to turn the volume up herself and insists on keeping it up high.

today she started saying "ma ma ma ma ma ma ma" in earnest.  for the last month it's only been "da da da da da da da da" so i'm pretty happy about this new development.  she also graduated from merely sitting up on her own to now pulling herself up to a kneeling position, which makes for bedtime a whole new ballgame.  i'm sure it's going to get even harder when she learns how to pull herself up to standing, which i think is going to be soon.

this weekend, she started to get a little more clingy and i think she's starting to feel separation anxiety.  for the past two days, she's started crying when i leave the room - even if it's just to go to the bathroom - would only fall asleep yesterday and today if i rocked her... i'm hoping it's a temporary thing, because her schedule was a little off this weekend, and she'll soon be back to her usual independent self. 

dan's been doing acupuncture on me this week, for my plantar fasciitis... man, i'm such a baby about it!  you'd think that i hadn't experienced the pain of childbirth or something.  all i gotta say is, when you're already in pain, and you have needles stuck in your pain, it's not a happy thing.  last night, dan stuck a needle in my head!!!  um... no warning or anything!!!  surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all, but it did feel really strange, when i moved my head a little, because there was a weird tugging that radiated down my neck all the way to my toes, and the back of my throat started itching.  so strange.

bella's much better now - my dad checked her ears yesterday, and her infections are gone.  her cough is completely gone, too... she just has a runny nose, but it's not so bad that she can't nurse.  she's gotten to figuring out how to sit up by herself in the crib, which is kind of funny.  one minute, you look at the monitor and she's rolling around every which way... the next minute, she's sitting straight up, with this stunned expression on her face, like she can't figure out how she got up.  in any case, we lowered her crib a little, yesterday.  we also started opening the door to her room, after she's fast asleep at night and all the lights are off in the home, just to keep the air circulating in there, and so far, it seems she loves it.  for the past 2 mornings, she's just woken up by herself and started gabbing to herself without crying or complaining to be let out... she crawls all the way over to the end next to the doorway, patiently peering out of the crib as she gabs away - i think she likes that there's some light coming into her room when she awakes, rather than it being completely pitch black.

today already seems like it's going to be a beautiful day - it's breezy and cool this morning with lots of sun.  thank the Lord, the humidity has abated, if only for a little while.  we're hoping to make it to the strawberry festival this afternoon, if the weather cooperates.

at the hairdresser on friday, i met a lady who has a son BIGGER than bella!  i didn't think it would be possible... but her son is 2 weeks older than bella and weighs in at 26 pounds.  plus, his hair is magnificent - thick and down to his shoulders, in spite of already having had his hair chopped 6 times.  that's some crazy boob-juice she has.    bella, on the other hand, is starting to thin out more and more.  now that she's no longer nursing at 11pm, she's down to only 4 meals a day and moving and shaking all over the place.  she loves "walking" everywhere and gets so excited when we stand her up.

bella is becoming more and more cognizant of her surroundings and it's starting to dawn on me that she's going to soon mimic... me.  not that i'm having an oprah ah-hah moment or anything, but it's starting to occur to me that i need to start being more mindful about the little things.  like i need to start making more of an effort to take care of myself and stop being such a bum, rolling out of bed and heading off to work not caring about what i'm wearing or how nappy my hair is... and pay closer attention to what i'm eating and the things i'm saying... if i'm speaking negatively of other people or complaining a lot... how i behave if i'm upset...   

... it will really start freaking me out when i start to see myself reflected back to me in her.  oh, the joys and perils of being a mother to a daughter!

i mean, it's really funny right now, when she does simple things like shake her head when i shake my head, or stick her tongue out when i'm doing the same.  but i know she's going to start really understanding things even before i realize it, because she's so dang smart already, and the weight of that responsibility is enormous!

so, no more wandering the house in my pj's all day on my day off, and eating junky food in front of her (or at all, if i can help it... haha), or making fun of people when i'm people watching with dan (i'm soooo bad about that!).  little eyes are watching!