Hello...

...and a wonderful upside-down day to you all! I love shuffling around the perimeter of my Pack 'n' Play, especially with a lovely blue anklet on (an accident, but what a lovely one!). Today is a great day, and most definitely a better one than yesterday when I spent several hours puking my guts out. Poor me. Mommy gave me some soy yogurt to see if my guts were mature enough to handle it...apparently not. That really bit. I was so tired in between all the throwing up episodes, I lay in Mommy's arms like a wet noodle and actually fell asleep in her lap like I haven't done since I was a little girl. But as you can see, I'm all better now! Life is awesome! (Oh, and Mommy? Maybe you need to wait a while before trying soy or dairy again, ok? Thanks!)  And by the way, it was Thanksgiving, too...my first one, and I didn't even get any turkey.  Mommy did give thanks that I was only having issues with one end of my GI tract...

9 months old!

Just turned 9 months old this week! And just went to my 9-month checkup. No vaccinations today, cool.  Check out my new sweatshirt....Daddy got me a whole array of NY Yankees stuff including a championship onesie....

Latest Thing: Making this noise from the back of her throat that sounds like roaring.
Newest nickname: Lyra the Lion (sometimes the Lynx)
Stats today: 30.5 inches (>95th percentile), 22.45 lbs.

Kisses and roars!

Life...

...seems to rush on so quickly...Lyra is almost 9 months now. There have been so many changes, so quickly. She's grown more hair, for one thing, though it's still pretty sparse (still too little to clip a bow to!). She's sitting up by herself now. Not quite crawling but able to push herself backwards. Two lower front teeth finally coming in, without any fuss on Lyra's part. Looking back through the posts I think I've covered a lot of the last few months so I guess there won't be a "My life, part 3" installment since we're fairly caught up now. What else has happened in the last few months?

Newest talents: clapping (initially without sound, now actual clapping noises), blowing raspberries for minutes on end (see video below) rather than just occasional ones, going on hands and knees as well as hands and feet (like a yoga bridge, as demonstrated in the picture in the upper right corner), standing up with hands on support when placed that way.

Newest foods: just this past week, spinach and mango, both of which seemed to go across smashingly well. Chunkier apple sauce (courtesy of the food mill) did not, however, go across well, based on the gagging that occurred. Food milled pear was ok, though.

Funniest food-related episodes: eating cake for the first time (Jello cake made with apple sauce by nanny Susan) - lots of funny faces at the texture and strange turtle-like chin-tucking, culminating in finally mashing with gums and doing the bird-mouth to get more. Also, eating those "yummy"-looking teething biscuits which dissolve into cookie cement which covers baby face, hands, bib, highchair, Exersaucer, etc.

Best evidence for awesome babyness: waking up in the morning and entertaining herself for 40-90 minutes before Mommy gets up. Enduring all vaccines with minimal fuss (startled cry for 2 seconds then done), then getting her first H1N1 vaccine yesterday without even noticing it. Not crying much, and when she does, usually very easily soothed. Falling asleep most nights with little fuss, and sleeping through the night. Able to entertain herself in general for long periods of time.

Funniest things she shouldn't be doing: blowing raspberries while eating (not as much now, since being disciplined - "NO, no raspberries while eating!" and a pause before the next spoonful comes). OK, spoke too soon, based on today's lunch - the dining table is spattered with peas with turkey and rice.

Other things we want to remember: lots of "talking"- dadadada, mamamama, gagaga, vavavava (voom, we like to finish for her), dididididi. Screams of joy, or sometimes just conversation, I think. Squealing belly laugh when the finger-eating monster comes to town (or toe-eating...except she then kicked me right in the mouth, so perhaps not the best idea!) or she gets her belly tickled.

Current nicknames: sunshine girl, goo girl, chubbitha, missy messy pants.

By the way, her middle name means "relaxed sunshine" - definitely a case where the name appears to have made the person!

She has her 9 month checkup coming up soon...but I expect her height to still be >99th percentile (as she's currently wearing 12-month clothes which fit great, and 18-month clothes which are just a bit long. The other week while getting her flu shot she weighed over 22 lbs (but with clothes and diaper on).

New hat

All bundled up for a walk...it's a bit nippy out! But I'm happy to get some fresh air...

While you're waiting...

...for another "My life" installment, enjoy my command performance as the Raspberry Monster.

My life, Part Deux

Wow. It has been a long time! I am not happy! Mommy has been slacking. I know you were all waiting breathlessly to hear the rest of my life story...but in the interests of Mommy's short attention span (and I GUESS, her busy schedule) I will try to compress things a bit.

Month 3: I started smiling sometimes, for real (not gas). I took my first real road trip - to Daddy's hometown, Corning. There I was much cooed over and passed around. Also, I spit up all over Auntie Tina. AGAIN. Also, I moved into my very own bedroom and into the big girl crib! I had no trouble with this transition, although I did continue to wake up a few times a night...

Month 4: ...until about 4.5 months, when I started sleeping (inconsistently) through the night (well, from 6-7 pm to about 5-6 am). I was awesome! Also, Mommy weaned me. She cried the last time I breastfed...then the next day she went out and had milk! ice cream! pizza! since she didn't need to avoid dairy for me any more. You're welcome, Mommy! I also continued to grow very well and be quite tall. My drool production appeared to increase...everyone thought I was "teething"...but no teeth appeared. I started to really put lots of things into my mouth...Mr. Red Cardinal. Miss Sunshine. My fingers. Daddy's fingers. Daddy's nose. etc. What also started going into my mouth was "solid food." Rice cereal...very strange to me at first but I gradually got used to it. Eventually more things were offered to me....loved carrots and squash. Hated peas and green beans. Oh yeah - got my first (standing) bouncer, which I am still loving to this day.

OK. Mommy says she needs a break again. So we should post this so SOMETHING new goes on my blog!

Oh frabjous day!

Yes, I really am this happy most of the time! Do Mommy and Daddy even know how lucky they are?

So, today I wanted to divulge my life story up until now. I will admit I am using a ghost writer (primarily because I can't type accurately, although I do love to bang indiscriminately on Mommy's laptop keyboard when being held up to the webcam during Skype sessions), but honestly, the wording is mostly mine. I don't want Mommy and Daddy to forget anything about my first 6 months...although, how could they, me being such a Very Important Person. But it's always good to have a backup...especially since sometimes Mommy acts like she has something "they" call "de-men-tia" when she forgets things.

I was born on February 15, 2009 at 5:55 pm. It was a Sunday. Daddy had gone to work but knew that it might be time for me to come out. Mommy knew it, too, of course, so she logged on to her work from home to try to clean some stuff up (silly, she thought she had another few days!), until she was just too uncomfortable to do that. Finally she called the doctor for the second time. Good thing she did! She had to call 3 people to find someone to drive her to the hospital and by the time Hillary got her there things had moved quickly and Mommy was even more uncomfortable. That's ok, though, because less than 3 and a half hours later I came into the world, AKA The Outside! Screaming, of course, but they put me right up on Mommy's tummy and I looked right back at her and stopped crying. And don't worry, Daddy got there in plenty of time to help Mommy and say hi to me when I hit the air...

My first week was tough for everyone...I was all jaundiced and then had trouble getting enough to eat, so I went from a doughty 7 lbs. 5 oz. to a shriveled-up 6 lbs. 5 oz. in a few days. Then I got to eat some yummy Similac formula and gained weight, but then had a low body temperature. That was bad, because we all went back to the hospital and I had a needle stuck in my arm and things that burned going in (this was AFTER a spinal tap!)...but I was ok. It was nice to have Nainai and Grandma and Grandpa there, too; I know they were great support for Mommy and Daddy. Akong came a little later and also had nice arms in which to fall asleep. Sometime after that Mommy took to calling me the Chubster even though I was hardly that (as a spoiler, I did end up growing into that name). I also made lots of funny faces including the infamous "Old-Man Face." I showed these faces to Aunties Tina and Jess, too, when they had their visits.

THEN, they discovered I couldn't tolerate milk (I won't tell you how, too graphic). So I had to drink this icky soy formula - paugh! Then my tummy couldn't deal with that so it was time for the "Alimentum" formula...which I eventually grew to LOVE, even though Mommy and Daddy always made funny faces after that when I burped in their faces.

Whew. Walking down Memory Lane is pretty intense. I will leave the rest of my full life for another installment or two...see you back here later!