Baby News (9 months)

Kara is growing up. We're starting to see her independence, and there is a little part of me that wants her to slow down. It's sort of sad watching her leave the co-dependent blob stage. I can still call her a baby, but the term toddler is creeping up faster than I would like.

It is unlike me to be sentimental about things like this, but it is so weird that she is just a completely different person now. She's constantly on the go (except when she's sleeping...thank you naptime!), she is responding to several words, and she has started to whine and get angry when she doesn't get her way. Yes, she is growing up indeed.

Here are some of her new favorite things to do:

• Waving - Kara is all about waving. She waves to strangers, she waves to dogs, she waves to us when we come to get her up from a nap. I have found that this gesture melts the hearts of little old ladies. I actually make a special effort to wait until Kara waves at them because they always get excited and tell us how we just made their day.
• Feeding herself - Kara has decided that she needs to help us feed her. She can be somewhat insistent about holding the spoon. She usually ends up with more food in her hair than her mouth.
• Find the Puff - Puffs are a yummy Gerber food for babies (like a puffed up Cheerio). They are great motivators for Kara. One of our games is to hide a puff under one of three buckets. I don't know how much she likes searching for the Puff, but when she finds it she loves shoving it in her mouth.
• Yogurt painting - So much fun! We got this idea from our nephew who did it in day care. Sit the kid in a high chair, and drizzle the tray with a mix of plain yogurt and a drop of food coloring. It's a mess, but it's a contained mess, and Kara has a blast "painting" the tray (and herself).

Baby van Gogh