Letters to Lexi: 9 Months

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Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Dear Lexi,

This is the age! The age when I considered other people’s kids BIG. I look at you, though, and you’re still so small, so fragile, so vulnerable. There’s yet so much for you to learn , so much to master.

But you are growing at warp speed. Mastering one thing after another. One morning you would wake up and just have this new skill. Since the earlier months I have noticed one remarkable thing. I can SEE cognitive jumps in your development. Like, one day you would just be MUCH smarter than the day before. A HUGE JUMP!

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

I have also noticed that you progress in the beginning of the month. I would finish writing Letters to Lexi saying “she is about to…” and then two days after your monthaversary you master that skill.

So this month I have done a pretty poor job of recording all your achievements and the new things that you’re doing, so I will try to write this from memory.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

AH-TENG! – that is your favorite word. I don’t know what it means and you “seem” to say it randomly but you do say it often. You have the most adorable little girl’s voice that you go “AH-TENG” with. I die.

You have all of a sudden developed a few fears. You are deathly afraid of the vaccuum or any noises of that type ( hair dryer, blower). You’re terrified of our cleaning lady for some reason even though she is very nice and always talks to you. You’re afraid of the cat condo when you’re sitting by it. But you’re perfectly fine if I pick you up and carry you up to it.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

I am not sure if you’re displaying a fear here, because I cannot exactly tell by your cues, but you seem to yell at the monitor. When you wake up and see a little green light on the monitor, you turn to it and a say a short little “Ah!” over and over again. I don’t think you know that’s how we watch you but something is definitely up there.

Your Baby Led Weaning is going AMAZING. You eat everything and with such gusto. You literally grab fistfuls of spaghetti, cous-cous, rice (though we’ve stopped giving it to you because of arsenic), salads, vegetables, chickpeas, stews. You love your puffed millet that I give you every time before a meal, so that I could get everything served and warmed up for you. You literally get so excited when you see the bag that you twist and turn and jump in the chair. You love using your pincer grasp with them. You now know the routine. As soon as you get put in the high chair, you patiently wait for me to snap you in, and then you lift your arms to allow me to get the tray snapped in and put the puffs onto the tray. It comes natural to you, it’s so wonderful to see.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You have taken to drinking from a straw cup that I bought you. I ordered 3 different sippy cups from Amazon and this one you liked the best. You don’t need to tilt it to drink out of it.

You have sprouted your 5th tooth. You now have two on the bottom, one lateral on the top and two central incisors are coming now. You look so funky with just one top tooth to the side right now! You have started to nip me more often when we breastfeed. It happens when you’re done nursing and I can tell you know you’re being naughty and having fun. So right now I am “working” on getting you to stop by removing “the boob” from the situation 🙂

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You understand SO much, it’s mind blowing. It amazes me that you’re so little and can’t talk and yet can understand so much. You know “come here”, “don’t put it in your mouth”, a ton more I can’t think of right now, all the standard words like mommy, daddy, boob, food, books, eat, bath, cat, dog, grandma etc etc. All those words you know in Russian, with a few simpler ones in English. The new one is “Arms UP UP UP!” which is what I say (In Russian) when I take your clothes off. The second you hear that, you readily lift your arms up making it super easy to take your clothes off. Daddy was struggling with changing you for a while there, until I showed him this trick. Now he says “RUCHKI VERH VERH VERH!” with such a funny accent I laugh every time, but it works for you.

While taking clothes off isn’t a problem, dressing you is another story. You WILL NOT SIT STILL to get a diaper on you or any clothes. The only way to keep you from forcefully crawling away or bawling your eyes out is to recite you your favorite storybooks and rhymes. You instantly calm down and watch my mouth intently trying to understand and take in every word.

You’ve been cruising all over the furniture and the gates. I think your favorite thing right now is standing. All that practicing and sleepless days and nights when you were too busy thinking about pulling up (because you’d wake up midnap and crawl straight to the dresser to pull up). Just recently you decided that it was cool to just let go when you pull up. It happened in the bathroom for the first time and you were standing on the tile floor holding onto the tiled ledge waiting for me to fill up our bathtub. Suddenly you saw your toothpaste, so you grabbed it with one hand, transferred your other hand onto it and stood there for 5 seconds or so. With the corner of my eye I saw you standing without holding onto anything but the toothpaste and then you slowly started leaning back and falling. Mama’s got some kick ass reflexes because it took me less than a second to turn around and grab you before your butt (or worse) hit the tile floor. Whew! That was my lesson to not rely on your standing while holding onto something anymore.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Even though I prevented this fall, of course, there have been a few others I couldn’t foresee. They kill both me and daddy, we wish we could take them all away. Luckily, we haven’t had anything serious.

We no longer have to pry kisses from you . You OCCASIONALLY give them all on your own when you’re feeling all lovey. It’s the sweetest thing in the world. Makes me sad for the time when you will be too busy to kiss us.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You ARE OFFICIALLY A FIDGETER! And I know what I speak of. I’m sorry to say but you got that from me. Oh man, you toss and turn and move and stick your butt up and roll and sit up and lie down and bury your head… You just can’t find a comfortable position, just like me! Until you do and then you’re finally asleep.

Speaking of sleep, it’s a hit or miss, based on where you are in the developmental schedule. When you’re trying to work on something (pulling up, crawling, walking) you start napping 30-40 minutes at a time and just excited to get back to practicing. When you’ve mastered a skill, you go back to 1-2 hour long naps, which are wonderful! Nights usually depend on whether you’re teething or not. You now wake up about 3-4 times a night, unless you’re teething and in that case you tend to wake up crying every hour.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

We have put our mattress on the floor of the nursery and have been sleeping all together, like hippies, there. It’s actually a really nice arrangement. You love sleeping next to us, naps are easy, nights are easy and you know that room is for sleeping and sometimes book reading. This is the best arrangement we’ve had so far- everyone wakes up rested and happy (most of the the time).

Book reading! Ah, that is BY far your favorite thing in the world! You can sit for hours paging through books, tossing them aside, grabbing another one, looking through it, tossing it aside, listening to books and stories, looking at pictures. You are amazing with them. You handle them carefully, opening the books and flipping through pages. You only tore one page in the Cat in the Hat by accident, the rest of the paper books are intact.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Remember when you were a few months old, daddy kept saying “I cannot wait until she hugs us!” Well, that time has come. You are a snugly girl, especially with mommy. When we go to sleep, you just love head bonking me and giving me kisses and just rolling all over me. You won’t snuggle while lying still, oh no! You move so much when you hug. You love it when I grab you and lift you high in the air over myself while lying in bed. Your whole body slumps, your face gets a sly smile and you reach out to touch my face and then hug. That’s my favorite time with you!

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You have also began putting your head on my shoulder last month, but lately it’s been the cutest thing. When you’re shy or you’re tired or you want some love, you just lean in, snuggle in and rest your head on me. Oh my! I melt!

Crawling quickly picked up speed this month compared to last month. It’s hilarious to watch you chase the cats. You will be slowly crawling and then see a kitty and off you go, just the sound of your palm slapping the tile floor heard in the distance. You can easily crawl on and off the bed (it’s about 11 inches high). It was fun seeing you figure out how to crawl back onto it and within a day you were a pro. You also have enough strength in your legs to do squats over and over again while holding onto something. You also realized that when it comes to chasing cats you’re faster if you walk/run. When I help you walk and you see them, you almost start skipping (I kid you not) after them.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You’re still obsessed with pulling up. Pulling up happened at the same time as crawling 2 months ago and you have literally lost sleep over it. All you would want to do after waking up from a super short nap is pull up. “Going to sleep? Nah! Why don’t I pull up some more?” You pull up on everything: walls, gates, chairs, mommy, daddy, trashcans, air purifiers, even piles of laundry( Yes, they often get that high). You quickly learned to stand with one hand holding whatever it is you pulled up on and the other hand looking for something fun to grab.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Then came the whole “getting down safely” thing. You never really had a period where you couldn’t get down or were afraid to. You did fall on your butt a little harder than I liked a few times, but after that you have quickly figured out to lower yourself first. But from that moment on, you would pull up, sit down, pull up, sit down, pull up, sit down. NON-STOP! Now you’ve mastered it to the point of boping and squating. You love boping to music or just when you’re feeling happy. Or when you’re showing off to grandma!

Oh my, you have begun showing off this month and it is THE MOST ADORABLE THING I have witnessed so far. The second grandma comes on skype, you literally light up! You know the skype ring and you drop everything when you hear it and then you wait and wait for the video to show up and once she is there, oh, there are intentional coughs, and tongue sticking, leg kicking, turning around, pulling up ( all while looking to see if she is watching you). Grandma LOVES that! She laughs at you and with you and praises you for every little thing you do!

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Literally a week ago you ALL OF SUDDEN started walking when you pull up on our arms. Before, if I held your hands and helped you pull up, you would just stand there. And then on day, as soon as you were in a vertical position, you just started taking steps. And you are FAST! It’s incredibly cute! You lift your legs higher than you have to and walk walk walk! I will have to get it on video before it’s too late.

Your last skype chat with grandma you showed off your “walking skills”. Oh how proud and high you lifted your legs and practically RAN over to where I propped my cell with skype on. I think I am going to try and not encourage early walking since you still have a lot of crawling to do for proper sensory and muscle development. It’s better for you to spend months crawling and getting that skill down than rush into walking with my help. { update: it turns out there’s no way to keep you from walking once you started on your own. You can walk up the stairs while holding onto my hands. You know to lift your leg high enough to put it on the next step. Blows my mind.} Though I gotta tell you, every time, you hit a milestone, it gets easier and easier for us. Everyone told us “Just wait till she crawls, you will never sit down” and it’s just so much better now that you do. I could never put your down and walk away from you even back when you couldn’t move, so crawling is not different. But at least now you can a fully active participant in our activities. I like it SO MUCH better! I love seeing you active and playing chasing games with you on the floor.

It’s you favorite to play by the way. I would get on my fours and quickly and loudly crawl away from you while occasionally looking at you. You follow me with a smile on your face. I hide. You stop and watch. I loudly crawl out of my hiding place and then back and you LAUGH!!! Then I do it again, and again and again. Until it’s time to crawl somewhere else. We cover pretty good ground that way and it gives you a great work out and a lot of fun times.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

Another favorite is this tradition we’ve developed. After you’re done with you nap for good, I open the door and you crawl out of the nursery and head towards daddy’s home office which is across the hall. You crawl with a smile on your face anticipating seeing daddy while I sit there repeating “Where’s daddy?” And then as you come around the corner and peek into the office “Ah, here’s daddy!” Oh it’s such an amazing moment!

And then you quickly get distracted by all the mess that he has going on on the floor! haha!

You are my little eater. You breastfeed about 5 full times a day with a few little boobie snacks here and there. You LOVE solids, like I mentioned earlier. And you are obsessed with water. I try not to give you too much water, and nurse you instead but it’s hard to say no when you get so excited.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You are very expressive! Sometimes we can’t tell what you’re trying to say but lately there have been SO many reactions from you. You yell a lot, you make weird sounds when you are trying to get someone’s attention. You make cute little talking sounds. You throw your arms into the air, you shake your head for fun, you’re just very fun and expressive that way.

You like mimicking what we do. Bang a drum, shake a block, stick a tongue, make a sound. Your favorite bathtime activity is to turn the faucets on and test the water with your little hand. I am not sure if you’re just simply copying what we do or you actually understand that each faucet gets different temperature. You will turn on the hot water, test it with your fingers, then turn on the cold water, test it again. Then eventually, you will leave it running and sit back down. You don’t like sitting in the bath without the water running.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You do this funny thing with your arms and crack yourself up. You shake them really wildly up and down with your mouth open while panting and laughing. I copy you and we sit there laughing together and acting like absolute fools.

Your first season of holidays has started. You had your first Halloween party (more on that later), and your first trick-or-treating event. We didn’t take you around, though. This year we sat in front of our house and gave out candy. You will have plenty of years of real trick or treating when you walk and understand it, so this time you had fun watching kids come up to you. And also fun stealing candy from the candy bowl.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

This month we went to get our shot and the second you saw nurse Jenna, you started crying! I have no idea how you can remember that she gives you shots and connect it to this visit, but you did. You were so freaked out and cried harder than ever when she gave you a shot. You kept looking at her with eyes full of disappointment and hurt, like “How could you do this to me?” while crying the biggest crocodile tears I’ve seen. It was HEART BREAKING! You’ve never cried so hard 🙁 I am absolutely scared of taking you for your next shot in 2 weeks 🙁

You have started your first classes, first of many! We’ve been to swim classes and you’re attending two sets of music classes which you adore. It takes you some time to warm up to the group, but by the end of the class you’re smiling and crawling. Let’s work on that before the class ends, ok?

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

You are a FISH! You love swimming more than anything! You wiggle out of my arms to get in the water, even when it’s cold. You smile, you splash, you try to swim. You love going from one end of the pool to the other. From mommy to daddy. Your movements are so much like swimming movements, I bet with some effort you will learn to swim in no time.

Letters To Lexi: 9 Months

I am looking forward to what the next month brings! You will be in double digits! WHOA!

***

For readers,

In this post:

Woven bin: MyHabit ( they often have sales of such things in the home section)
Green Round Basket : Colonial Mills on  MyHabit  ( they often show up there, as well. I got 3 for $35 each)
Stripped hoodie: Broken Tricycle on Zulily
Hand puppets: Zulily ( I don’t know the brand unfortunately but it’s called Blue Martha Sok )

49 COMMENTS

  1. Such a sweet letter! I have an 8 month old and would love your thoughts on two things:
    1) What non-toxic toothpaste AND toothbrush items do you use/ recommend.
    2) what are your thoughts on using fluoride? Do you have any qualms about giving (filtered) tap water that has fluoride in it?
    Thanks and enjoy your little (monthly) birthday girl!

    • OK, kept your post in moderation so that I wouldn’t forget to respond to it.
      1. Nature’s gate, non fluoridated toothpaste for kids. She doesn’t like it through. It’s $13 for a pack of 4 here
      Lexi doesn’t love it though. So I’ve been brushing her teeth without it until she gets used to the idea.
      Toothbrush. I use this one most often and also love this one
      2. I am completely mixed on flouride. On one hand, I grew up in Russia where water isn’t flouridated, so my teeth SUCK ( but that could be genetics), so I like the idea of flouridated water. On the other han I have read enough stuff about flouride and how we are overflouridated and we DO have an RO water filter that we use for cooking and drinking. So I am undecided. My goal is to get to the place where I can sort of do both and strike a balance.

  2. Wow!!! This little girl is growing in big steps hahaha 🙂
    She keeps getting more and more involved in everything! Love it!
    Love her emotional faces 🙂
    Love the books in the basket 🙂

  3. Love your blog! Our babies are a month apart (mine is younger) and it’s been fun following along and seeing the similarities/differences. Question in regards to BLW…how do you deal with salt in your food? I know babies aren’t supposed to eat salt because their kidneys are too young to handle it, but if you’re giving her the food you make for you and your hubby, do you just not put salt in it? We’re doing a modified form of BLW, but I’d eventually just like to get him to where he eats what we eat…I just don’t know how to do that without making our food bland (I love flavor!)

    Also, how do you feel about giving her wheat products when it’s one of the most common allergens? I know the AAP doesn’t recommend waiting anymore, but I’m still hesitant to give my son things like oatmeal and pasta. Have you ever given Lexi quinoa?

    • Hey Julia!

      We cook without salt. I am also a big fan of salt myself. But if you can’t have it, you can’t have it. We spice and season our food well. And most of the time I add salt to our meals after the fact. It’s not the same as cooking with salt but it allows us to enjoy it while keeping Lex away.

      Also, on the taste being bland thing… I’ve gone without salt in the past and your taste buds actually adjust and you can taste many more flavors if you don’t salt your food for a few weeks.

    • Oh and wheat, honestly I have has a sort of nonchalant attitude to food allergies. Neither one of our families have any, and even though I knew it wasn’t necessarily a predictor I just went ahead with all foods (not right away though). I’m not saying it’s the right attitude to have but I was just not concerned with a possibility of allergies.
      I am pretty sure she’s had quinoa. We tend to cook more couscous but we do eat quinoa too.

  4. Your daughter looks super super cute. I die looking at her expressions 🙂
    Also, I guess you took the advice about keeping books in a bin. Looks like she is totally digging it 🙂

  5. Elena, where do you get puffed millet? What brand? I would love to have that for my daughter!

    So exciting how fast she is growing! Btw too funny that she knows “up, up” for getting dressed/undressed – my lil girl knows that, too! Hubby taught her. Makes it so much easier, doesn’t it?? I’m amazed how they understand these things.

  6. I could hear the love you have for Lexi all through out this post and it was so powerful I was crying while reading it walking through the mall. She’s such a beautiful little girl and growing up so fast!

  7. Why do you photoshop out her birthmark so much? One day it will be gone and you won’t have to worry about it, but I think you should leave her face be. She’s perfect the way she is.

  8. Beautiful post! I look forward to your monthly letters to Lexi. They are so sweet and touching–every one of them has moments that make me laugh as well as moments that make me get teary-eyed. Motherhood is so amazing, isn’t it? I’m blown away when I share moments with my son and realize the magnitude of love I have for this little being.

    Question for you–it looks like you may have hard floors in parts of the house. How does Lexi handle crawling on non-carpeted surfaces, if at all?

  9. Your monthly update is very sweet! I do have to ask why you did a ‘photo shoot’ with your daughter in your underwear? It doesn’t seem to be something spontaneous, it looks like it was planned… I guess some might find that cute (you both in your undergarments), but you also have to realize that there are sickos out there that might actually ‘get something’ out of it.

    • Haha! This is funny!

      I had seen a photo of a mother and daughter on Pinterest (mom wore underwear, daughter was naked) and thought it was very sweet.
      I don’t consider underwear shameful or something to hide. It’s clothes like any other. If someone gets off of it, it’s their problem. Some people have a foot fetish, yet most don’t feel the need to hide their feet.

      You know Lauren, in many years of blogging I learned that you just gotta do what you want to do. When your life is public (by choice or not) there’s always going to be someone who has an issue with everything.

      • I can’t help but fully agree with Lauren about this. If someone wants to get off on me in my bra and panties or has a foot fetish (sick lol), then it’s creepy but I’m a grown woman. When a baby is thrown into the mix, that’s pretty shady area. There is nothing wrong with someone being in a bra and panties and having pictures of it with their baby. But putting it on the internet where EVERYONE can see it while holding a baby feels odd to me. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if those types of pictures existed with me and my mom but I wouldn’t want them all over the world wide web.

  10. I really enjoyed this post! So many sweet moments documented for Lexi to look back on. My daughter is 4.5 months so it’s hard to imagine this being her in just a few short months!
    I have been looking for sock hand puppets and yours are super cute! Where did you get them? I also love the green bin next to the book basket….would love to know where you got that too 🙂

  11. She is so beautiful, and growing so fast. I have been following your blog since you were pregnant with Lexi. I was also pregnant, just a week or so behind you, I had our son on Feb 5/12. I see huge similarities in them. This age is so fun 🙂

    Where is that adorable blue and grey striped hoodie from?? Its sooooo cute!

  12. Hi- I was wondering if you could tell me where the green cloth basket is from (in the photos next to the books)? I would really appreciate help, it is exactly what I am looking for!
    Thanks so much 🙂

  13. You know, you get a lot of criticism in the comments, Elena. I wonder why people feel the need to try and bring others down – especially when you’re beautiful and confident. Whose business is it whether you photoshop YOUR daughter’s pictures or not (which I doubt you do) and I’m with you that there’s no difference in underwear and a swimsuit – it’s realistic, I spend much of my day in underwear to be honest lol. And when you have a great body you should be proud of it. Lexi is going to love reading this blog someday!

      • Me too. But when I picture having those pictures, my mom isn’t in her teeny skivvies, on the internet. Ah well. To each their own. 🙂 If you love it, that’s all that matters, I guess. Just be prepared for her to come home in 10 years and say “WTF, Mom?” cause one of her classmates printed these out and showed everyone at recess. That shizz happens. I know I said this already, but just think about the web content you are creating here with the undies/naked bed romp…because that will never go away, and you are choosing that for her. 🙂

        • I’m with you on this, Nat. I’m extremely liberal and not in the slightest bit bothered or embarrassed about nakedness. But I am aware that anything put on the internet is available to everybody else on the internet and will be available for ever. I’d be extremely uncomfortable if there were photos of me in my undies with my baby floating around the more pernicious sites.

      • I asked an honest question in what I thought was a pretty polite way. I wasn’t being rude, nor was I trying to ‘bring anyone down’. It is clear that Elena loves her daughter and has spent a lot of time, money and energy into doing what is best for her and protecting her. All I was trying to point out is that it might be in everyone’s best interest to also protect her from some sick people in this world.

  14. I didn’t think anything of the pictures, actually considered asking where your bra was from hahaha
    The pictures on her in the hoodie kill me!

  15. Elena, I love your house, especially the tiled floors. But, I’m wondering how you’re going to cope when Lexi is toddling. Those floors are going to be lethal when she’s learning to walk and falling over all the time.

    • Really? Cuz I hate our tile floors. They are impossible to keep clean, the grout is ugly and they are cold and cheap looking 🙁 I’d love to replace them with marble floors or something along those lines.

      There’s not much I can do about the floors obviously. There’s always at least one of us watching Lexi at all times, so it’ll just have to be that way (And teach her to be careful)

  16. Question about the puff millet-what exactly is it? How do you serve it? Since hearing about the arsenic is rice I’ve been looking for something for my baby to snack on. I’d love to see a post on what Lexi eats.

    • I’ll be def. writing a post on what she eats! It’s high on my “want to write about” list.
      Millet is a type of grain, the puffs are considered whole grain. Wikipedia millet to read about the grain itself. I was never a fan of rice puffs to be honest even before the arsenic issue.
      They are tiny, so they really help your baby develop a good pincer grasp but if your baby is too young for a good pincer, they do stick to their hands so she/he can always lick them off her hands. Lexi’s friend (same age) who has never had ANY non-pureed solid foods and didn’t really like any puffs her mom tried to give her before just tried them and kept eating them so well, I gave her a whole bag to take home. Lexi loves them too. They taste interesting, not great, not sweet, the only ingredient on the bag is “puffed millet”. But babies seem to love them.
      I buy them in a box of 12 bags of organic ones and they last FOREVER!!!! They are only 25 bucks for the box here: Puffed Millet

      Oh and as to how I serve them, I just poor a bunch of them on her tray and let her go to town.

      • Millet isn’t very nutritionally dense (there’s nothing bad about it, per se, but there isn’t much there nutritionally). I would try puffed kamut or puffed quinoa, they are much healthier.
        Again, the differences are pretty small, but considering the quantities of food that babies/young toddlers eat, I consider it’s important to get the most bang for your buck (no empty calories), nutritionally speaking.

  17. Beautiful post. Elena I was slightly surprised that Lexi has shots. I would have thought she wouldn’t as you are very cautious not to expose her to harmful things. Please don’t take my comment as judging. I myself love organics and am very cautious of exposing my child to things and am fearful of the side effects of shots. I interested in your thoughts on the vaccination debate?

    • Hi Enza,

      Rather than pigeon holing ourselves into a type of parent and doing this only that way, we discuss every single issue and do what we feel is good. So with the vaccines, we are big supporters of modern medicine, not overmedicating but doing things that would actually be of benefit. Vaccines aren’t a bad thing. What they put in there IS a bad thing. Since I believe vaccines are important, we make sure she only gets one shot a a time not to overwhelm her system with a few heavy metals they unfortunately put in vaccines to make them work better. Our body is very capable of that.
      We also get preservative free shots.
      But overall I think the dangers of getting sick from one of those preventable diseases are far greater than possible side effects of vaccines. IMHO

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