The Baby

I can still call her that for 1.5 more months.

Anna started crawling on February 18 – just 3 days after she turned 9 months old.

She’s attentive – she watches, listens, and learns.  She said her first word round about March 16 – “uh oh!”.  It’s clear, distinctive, and repeatable.  We *think* “mama” might be second, but she only says it when she’s really upset, so we’re not counting it yet.

Anna is a bit reserved.  Sometimes you have to work hard for a smile; sometimes not – yesterday when I took these pictures they came pretty readily, but today for Easter pictures, not so much.  She likes to interact with people when she wants to, on her terms.  Her demeanor is a cool drink of water, though; I’ve enjoyed all three of my kids through all stages, and have enjoyed the difference in each.  Anna calms me; her name suits her so very well.

She certainly knows how to work those eyebrows, though.And her blond, blond hair still gets me – it still strikes me how different her hair makes her look than the other two girls did as babies, but at the same time, I see a lot of Julia in her.  And her wisps are finally starting to grow out.  There won’t be any hair cuts for a while, though.

At her 9 month checkup, Anna weighed 19 lbs 2 oz, and was 28.75 inches long.  She is about 50th percentile for weight and >90th percentile for height.  She currently has eight teeth and has shown her preference for “real” food over baby food recently.  She went from being a really clean eater to being a really messy eater, and really wants to EXPERIENCE her food, putting it in her mouth, chewing it a bit, bringing it back out, and then shoving it back it, as if she is tasting it again for the first time.

Eww.

Anna loves to dance.  She likes to clap her hands, can point her finger, can do “so big!”, crawls, holds her own bottle, laughs at the girls when they do somersaults, gets into her sisters’ stuff, can sit up from any position, gets the concept of putting one thing inside something else, is learning what objects are (button, nose – almost there, daddy!), mimics with her sisters with “ahh” – she is growing and learning so fast!

We love you, Banana!