9 months and happy as could be

Addie had her nine month appointment last week and she is happy and healthy as ever. She is definitely tall and skinny. She eats SO much though, I dont know how to fatten this girl up! She nurses every 2.5 - 3 hours or so, eats probably 12 ounces of babyfood a day, eats TONS of cheerios, and also gets bites of whatever it is that I'm eating (if it's baby friendly). She is really mobile and active so I guess all of that food just gets burned right off.
The doctor agreed that she looks very healthy and that her unchubbiness is in no way a concern; but to make sure to feed her tons so she can keep up with her activity level and height.
So here are her latest stats:

So 9 months later and my babymoon period with Addie still hasnt ended. She just becomes more fun all of the time and makes it so easy to be her parent and take care of her. Before she was born, I heard countless "parenting is hell" stories from people and they got me all psyched out that it was going to be this trying, sanity-losing period of our life. Even when she was younger, people would say "Oh, well she's nice and mellow and cute now- but just wait until she's teething!", or something comparable to ensure me that bad times are right around the corner. But she's stayed her sweet, well-mannered, happy self despite teething or colds or growth spurts. Obviously she has her moments that she is tired or hungry or just wants to be held, but those are few and far between and they are easily remedied with some food or a nap. I guess as a whole, there have only been a handful of "this is way hard!" moments vs. the over-flowing buckets of "being a mommy rocks!" moments.

We honestly have so much fun together. She talks to me all day long now, and does the FUNNIEST things that just crack me up. She also loves to make that smacking noise at me to get my attention, then waits until I respond with a similar noise. She does that CONSTANTLY, then smiles with glee. She's nearly always clapping now too, which is way cute. It is pesky how quickly she can move, how far she can reach, and just how much trouble she can get into now that she is so mobile (she's learned to open drawers and cabinets)- but the all peskiness is usually canceled out by motherly pride at all of her new tricks.

I also heard from a lot of people to be prepared for my relationship with Sam to change. That we would fight more, be easily annoyed with each other, and just more irritable in general. Perhaps those moments will come when we have multiple kids and more chaos in our lives, but Addie definitely hasn't brought any of that about. If anything, we're even happier now than we were before because we have a cute baby to poke and play with, and we get to see the other one be a parent and all of the warm squishy feelings that come with that.

Anyway, here's a toast to parenthood and to babies and how wonderful and meaningful they make our lives.
Here's Addie chaneling Captain Hook while showing off her new silly, toothy grin:

Helping with the dishes:


Sweet sleeping pic:

A few new pics are up.