Nine Neat-O Months

Whew! Life has been speeding up around us and so I will get back to the details on our Kansas trip in my next post. For those of you in the know, however, you recall that Michaela turned 9 months old over the weekend. We were spending the weekend with Adam's family up in Washington as we always do this time of year. It's a time of birthdays and Mother's Day (this year being my first one - it turns out it's a pretty sweet deal to be a mom!) Thanks to my super-sweet daughter and thoughtful husband!

Michaela posing in the family rocking chair (Daddy has a photo in it, as does Papi - when they were smaller, of course)

While we were up in Seabeck, Michaela did her first real crawling, and since that was on her 9-month-birthday we'll chalk it up to her accomplishments during month #9. She weighs 16 pounds, 10 ounces and is 27 inches long. That puts her on the small side, but the doctor says this is common and perfectly fine for breastfed babies. She also flew on her first airplane, which was more or less a success. Her ears didn't seem to bother her and she was so into the other people and chewing on things that the time went by pretty quickly. Her first hotel stay after said airplane ride, however, was really rough for all concerned. Michaela woke up at 1:45 am to eat, and was unable to go back to sleep until about 4 am. We were loathe to let her "cry it out" in a hotel, envisioning angry phone calls to the front desk, so she finally fell asleep on Nana's shoulder and we all got a little more shut-eye.

During our weekend with the Puckett/St. Clair clan, we visited the Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle). Now, Michaela knows all about zoos because we took her to the Oregon Zoo when she was just 4 or 5 weeks old. This time she was a pro. She kicked back in the stroller we borrowed from Aunt Abbey because we had forgotten our own (we received many compliments on its "zoo-appropriate" pattern) and took in the view. I'm pretty sure she saw about zero animals, as she was so involved in watching the people and children cruising by. She also experienced her first sunblock (as the photo reminds me) and didn't seem to mind a bit. After a couple of hours hanging with the animals, both Michaela and Abbey needed a nap. Luckily it was time to head back home and get a wonderful dinner on the table. Lots of good food and good company made this weekend a great one!