Head Shake

This week Mini learned to shake her head. I'm still not sure if it means no or if she just likes to shake it. It's kinda cute but almost everything she does is cute. I'll try to get a video to post online.

Nine Month Wellness Check

Mini went to the pediatrician's office today and did great. She happily complied to all of Dr. R's tests and even played with him. Her measurements weren't so great though. It seems her head has shrunk, she's shorter, and hasn't gained that much weight. Forgot to ask for the percentiles so don't have those this time.

Head circumference 42.5 cm

Length 27 in

Weight 17 lbs 3oz

Off topic - Mini eats pretty much everything but we discovered a food that she does not like. When we fed her papaya, it was spit out immediately and she refused to eat more. Funny girl.

Mini's Ear Fetish

One thing I have not really helped out with is putting Mini to bed. At night, she always wants Mama to put her to sleep. Usually, I get home after Mini has already gone to bed anyway. Today, for example, I came home before she went to sleep but when I tried to carry Mini, she cried for her mother because she was tired. In the past, whenever I try to put her to sleep she would cry incessantly until Mama came to lay with her. Then she would finally quiet down and go to sleep. During the day, it's mainly been the Grandmas who have done the duty. I've never been able to quite figure out the trick to get her to go to sleep.

However, yesterday, I finally had a breakthrough. Before I went to work, Mini was getting tired so I laid her down on the couch with me, and without fail, she started crying. Then I grabbed her hand and placed it on my ear because she loves to play with ears (in fact, she's drawn blood on both Grandma Chan and Mama). Anyway, as soon as I did this, she calmed down and played with my ear as she fell asleep. I'm going to start trying out this method in the future.

We Have Teeth

Mini's second tooth has popped through. We now have teeth, no longer just a tooth.

Where'd my baby go?

We can't keep up with Mini anymore. It's like she turned into a toddler overnight. In the past month, she's become an Energizer bunny and moves around non-stop. She's a very proficient crawler and plows through everything in her path. She is cruising wherever she finds furniture to lift herself up and has no qualms about planting her hands on your face and using it to push herself up. Over the weekend, Mini even stood on her own for several seconds.

Here's a list of more new tricks:
Shaking and dancing to music, recognizing songs
Giving high fives
Waving hi and bye (this might be a stretch but her hand does raise and move)
Responding to "kiss kiss" and "hug me"
Making clucking noises with her tongue
Recognizing her toy animals by name (Rabbit, Monkey, Flamingo, and Ducky)
Possibly saying Mama and Dada (we're being hopeful parents with this one)

There are two more cute things that Mini does. When you say "Oh yea," she lifts her arms and smiles big. It was pretty funny when she had a group of adults doing the "oh yea" wave with her at a recent playdate. Mini has always liked looking out the window and checking out the traffic. Now she stands on the sill and bangs on the window. Sometimes, a passerby sees her and waves. This weekend, tourists took pictures of her from across the street. Most likely because she was making out with the window and it was a funny site.

Eight Month Pics

My first tooth

The best toy

Here's my business card, call me.

Waving hi

This is MY chair

We can eat real food now

Close-up

Giraffe, monkey, and crazy bed head

Uncle Peter built this custom ride for me

Da-da

Mini started saying da-da...sometimes she'll even say da-da-da-da-da. However, I don't think she knows what dada means, it just happens to be her first consonant.