9 Months and 5 Miles

Sam is now 9 months old, which is hard to believe! Who would have thought 9 months could go by so quickly, and how much one little being could change in that amount of time? Sam is a happy bundle of energy, and we've been having lots of fun with her. When she's excited to see us, we get the whole body smile. She waves hi and bye. She can clap. She laughs and squeals and blows raspberries. She will, on occasion, give me adorable open-mouthed kisses. She loves her kitty cats, and will pull on their tails, feet and anything else she can get her hands on if they get too close. She can sit like a champ, rolls all over the place, and is definitely going to crawl soon - she's getting up regularly on all fours and rocking back and forth - so close!

She does not yet have any teeth. Green beans are her favorite food (who would have thought?!), and she is getting to be pretty good with the Cheerios we put on her tray. Her hand/eye coordination is solid, and her pincer grip well developed. She loves her sippy cup, and protests when we take it away.

She can sit contentedly playing independently with her toys for long stretches but also loves to bounce in her bouncer. I try to read to her every day and she loves her books, although I think she likes to eat them more than she likes looking through them with me :-) She is not yet sleeping through the night, but she's a tiny little munchkin so I'm not cutting her off from her middle of the night feedings just yet.

We had her 9 month appointment this afternoon, and Sam is weighing in at a whopping 16 lbs. 13 oz., and is measuring 25.5". This puts her in the 10th percentile for weight and 5th for height, so she isn't exactly a big girl, but she is gaining weight on a good curve, and certainly has the appropriate baby thunder thighs and buddha belly. They just happen to be smaller than they might be on a larger baby :-) And like the doctor said, she certainly is cute!

Happy baby

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I snuck in a run on the 5-mile Homeplace loop this morning while Sam took her nap. It was warm out, but there was a good breeze which kept the deer flies to a minimum. I felt pretty good, although tired. My left ankle was a bit sore, but otherwise, nothing hurt. I wore my pink road shoes in the hopes of getting them a bit dirty, but man, they still look pretty bright!