Our Escapades: 9 Month Update

On July 8 our little Bug turned 9 months old.
I feel like this last month she's changed the most. She has so much personality and she is just so much fun.
This month we got a third tooth, that caused a lot of tears and pain, but it finally came out, and it's a little fang. Almost as soon as the tooth popped she started grinding and that is a terrible sounds. She does it all the time and I cannot handle it.
She also started dancing. Any kind of music can come on and she'll start bouncing. It's so dang cute.
This month we went on vacation with my side of the family. I was so nervous how she'd do with sleeping, but I was surprised that her naps improved and her sleeping through the night was pretty much the same. She'd fall asleep great and then wake up once. She woke up every morning around 6 and then she'd take a nap in the morning and afternoon, at least an hour each time. I figured we just played so hard it wore her out. Made me feel like she's just bored at home.
The vacation was so much fun and her cousins loved her. She was always surrounded with friends and constantly entertained. She was so happy the whole time, I don't even think she ever cried, unless she was ready for a nap or bed. We even went to Wet N Wild one day, it was 115 degrees and we were outside for about 5 hours, she was so hot but she didn't get upset at all. It was so fun to spend a solid week with my family and can hardly wait until 2018 when we do it again. I was proud of myself that she came home just about as white as she was when we left. Yahoo for sunscreen.
She is crawling all over the place, and always pulls herself up to stand, She's great at monkey walking from couch to table to chair back to couch. She isn't quite ready to walk on her own yet, but that might be soon.
I feel like she is finally at an age where we can play with her and she'll play back. She talks all the time (in her own little language). My favorite thing is she laughs at herself, she'll be babbling to herself in the carseat and then she'll start laughing. It sounds like she's telling some funny stories. Oh how I wish I could understand her.

We went to the pediatrician today and I'm shocked at her stats.
Height 29 inches (95th Percentile)
Weight 20 pounds 11 ounces (85th percentile)
Head (can't remember how big) 92nd percentile.
We do NOT know where she got her height, I keep expecting it to go down, but it keeps going up.

Last month I sleep trained her and I remember being so sad that I was losing my time with her when I'd give her a bottle and rock her to sleep. Turns out, putting her to bed is even better now. Matt will change her and get her in her PJ's then I'll hold her, he'll turn off the light and turn on the sleep machine and immediately she'll put her head on my shoulder. I'll sing her some songs, (Que Sera, I know Heavenly Father Loves Me, A Child's Prayer, Lord Are You There, I Love To See The Temple... to name a few, not all in a night, but those are the regulars) and then I'll lay her down in the crib and she'll babble a bit and go to sleep. With teething, she'll have some nights where it's not that easy, but for the most part, that's the routine.

Since we got home from vacation she's been sleeping pretty well. She goes to bed at 8, if she wakes up in the night it's only for about 10 minutes, and then she'll wake up around 7:30. She's been taking at least one good nap during the day, but it switches off between morning and afternoon.
She's just becoming a real person and I feel like she is so aware of everything going on. She is such a light in our home and we feel so blessed to be her parents.

Likes
Baths
Eating
Car rides
Other kids
Music
Shoes (to eat)
any kind of string (draw strings, shoe laces, cords, hair...)
Anything that we don't want her to play with
Otter pops
biting mom's shoulder

Dislikes
Getting in jammies
when mom leaves the room
getting dressed after a bath
when you take the otter pop away from her