A Girl and Her Elephant--9 Months

She's 9 months old today.  I truly can't believe it.  I know it's cliche, and I know I say it every month (and will most likely continue), but I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS 9 MONTHS OLD! It's crazy.  Here are her elephant pictures!

What more can I say than Samantha is hilarious, fun, crazy, and CUUUUTE!!! No words can adequately describe the cuteness that is Samantha.  Pretty much every night, Derek and I lay awake in bed giggling about how adorable our kid is.  How did we get so lucky?

Get ready for a picture OVERLOAD!!!

Daddy and Daughter

Our trip to Bowness Park to play in the leaves.  

"I think I can reach this..."

This is her "I have leaf bits in my mouth that don't taste good and I'm trying to get them out" face...

Watching the falling leaves. (Super hard to get good pictures of this without a helper, by the way)

What's this?

Getting tired. 

Saying hi to everyone walking along the street.  

Just chillin'.

She seems much too small to be holding on to the door.  And those pants sure are saggy!

Boxes?  I get to play with BOXES?

Just suckin' on my pumpkin. 

Smiley girl!

You'll notice from the above pictures, and from previous ones too, that Samantha LOVES hanging out by the window.  It's her favorite place in the house.  It's a perfect Samantha size.  She can pull herself up on the windowsill and look out the window at all the cars, dogs, runners, etc. going by.  She loves it!!!

I can't say enough how fun of an age Samantha's at right now.  She makes me smile each and every day.  She is just too cute!

She can do so much more now.  She can stand without support (for as long as 10-15 seconds) but she doesn't do it very often.  She doesn't seem to like it.  

She can also walk if you hold on to her fingers, or if she's pushing something that moves, but again, she doesn't do it very often and doesn't seem to like it.  She'd much rather crawl, which is safer!

She learned to climb the stairs.  EEEK!  We have about 10-15 stairs from the basement to the main floor, and she can probably get up all of them in less than a minute.  Pretty crazy.  She hasn't learned how to go down them yet though.  That's a scary thought.  

One of the cutest things she does is DANCE now! If you look up at one of the elephant pictures where she's on her knees with her hands up...that's a still of one of her dance styles.  She'll go up and down on her knees like that whenever music's playing.  She also bounces when she's standing, sways when she's standing, and sometimes, she'll clasp her little hands together and twist back and forth.  She's got some moves, I'll tell you.  So cute!  And, she'll do it to ANY music.  From kid music, to pop, to hymns.  It doesn't matter.  If it's music, she'll dance!

She finally, Finally, FINALLY starting babbling mama!  It melts my heart every. single. time.  I still don't know if she associates it with me yet, but it's a new sound she can make so she does it often.  I love it!

She still doesn't have any teeth.  I'm not too anxious for teeth to come in though.  When they do, I'll miss that gummy smile!

This month she slept 12 hours straight one night.  The key words being "one night." It was short-lived, but we know she can do it, so that's progress.  Right now, she usually wakes up once to eat and goes right back to sleep.  She takes 2 naps during the day and goes to sleep around 7 every night. 

One of her favorite activities during the day is the BATH!!! She's loved it since she was born (for the most part) but she seems to love it even more nowadays.  She'll stand by the tub in her birthday suit, laughing hysterically as she watches the tub fill up.  She gets so excited to play with her toy boats and other toys.  It's definitely a highlight to my day as well!

Well, that's Samantha right now.  She's so fun.  I want time to slow down.  This is definitely my favorite stage so far and I don't want it to end.  As hard as it can be sometimes, to keep her entertained and prevent boredom, it's so fun how active and alive she is.  I get so excited every time she wakes up because I get to play with her and love her and kiss her.  So. much. fun!