Nine months

At nine months, Brielle is a bustling bundle of energy. She is constantly in motion and gains more coordination daily. She will climb to the top of the stairs all by herself. She will climb a slide. She will climb out of her highchair even when strapped in and the tray is on.

She wants to be held quite a lot of the time, but is constantly trying to reach for something or grab something and straining to be out of your arms. This gives you a terrific upper body workout, especially when you are going through the door and she catches hold of the door frame with a vise like intensity.

She babbles incessantly, mostly lovey delighted baby jargoning. She is signing more and all done pretty consistently, and has signed potty and nurse more than once. She protests mightily when you tell her “no”, and as she thinks broken glass and thumbtacks are more fun to play with than her wonderful toys, we hear these protests regularly.

She claps, points and can stand alone. She responds to her name, and laughs in my face when I tell her “no-no”.

She is about 24 inches tall and 20 pounds. She has 5 1/2 teeth. Her top four are coming in almost all at once, but she is handling this pretty well, as long as a runny nose, biting everything from a wet washcloth to the wagon, eating ice and fussing nearly constantly fits the definition of “pretty well”.

I really want to go on and on about her utter adorability and precious precociousness, but I’ve been trying to get caught up on my blogging since 6 a.m. and I really need to get something to eat and clean out the car for our trip.