9 months old ...

..and some change.

At nine months Corinna weighed 18 lbs 14 oz.  99% of that weight is breast milk with a few cheerios, mushed bananas, and bits of foraged paper tossed in for good measure.  She's getting long at 29 inches, which puts her in about the 90th percentile.

Corinna is still our happy baby bubbles.  She's pulling herself up to standing, cruising the furniture, and crawling lickety-split all over the house.  A few days ago I caught her attempting to climb up the brown relining chair and making good progress!  Currently she has six teeth, four on top and two on the bottom.  She squeals with delight when tickled, loves to scatter books and toys, and chase the big kids.  Corinna coos, makes "ma ma" "ba ba" "ga ga" sounds (but I don't think they are actual words yet), chatters with you, gurgles, and sticks out her tongue, spits and laughs.  Her laughs are infectious belly laughs.  When she smiles, her eyes turn to crescents and smile too.  She absolutely loves bath time and splashing in the water.  I'm usually thoroughly drenched at the end of her baths.

Her strong personality is becoming more apparent now.  When you take something she really wants away such as colorful paper, itty-bitty lego pieces, or car keys, she throws a fit, yells at the top of her lungs, and tries to reclaim it.  While crawling does increase her opportunity for mischief, it is still a godsend.  She is very pleased with her new motor skills and finds plenty of ways to entertain herself.  This gives my back a much needed break!

Matthew, Melissa, and Isaac dote on her and sometimes smoother her in their affections.  She's pretty good-natured about it, but she will squawk if she is being held when she really wants to crawl around and play.  Isaac has discovered that Corinna's new skills means that she can now get his stuff.  He'll tell her "No baby! No baby!"  Paybacks, young man, paybacks.

9 months postpartum update:

To my relief, I've stopped losing gobs and gobs of hair.  I think that ceased at 5 months?  My hairstylist assured me that I still have a lot of hair and not to worry.  Most of my clothes fit again, yay!  However, I still have 10 pounds hugging my hips, belly, and thighs.  The whole 9 months on, 9 months off thing didn't work for number four, so  I'm going to have to put in some real sweat equity, I think.  Up until Corinna's teething started, I got a full nights rest.  Going back to fractured sleep is rough.  Boo teething!  Corinna will also take a bottle occasionally so it is time to take a night a week to do something I enjoy.  Perhaps I can join  one of local orchestras and start playing again.  Or maybe take a night class, just for the fun of it.  Hmm...the possibilities.

Some days having four kids is totally doable.  No problem!  Everyone plays well, is pleasant, smells clean, and is cheerful.  I love those days; they are awesome!  I start to think that I've got it all together.  Haha...hahaha!  Then I get whacked with the humility stick.  There are days when there are four emergencies happening simultaneously, two bottoms needing attention at the same time, so-and-so is doing something, tears, no more clean socks, the dirty laundry is piling up, it is dinnertime and I haven't had a chance to cook, Corinna is tired and wants to be held, and there are dishes in the sink still from breakfast; on those days I wonder if I should change my occupation to air traffic controller.  They at least get guaranteed bathroom and lunch breaks.  And I'm pretty sure they don't clean up any bodily fluids or wipe anyone's bottom but their own.

Most days however, I wouldn't trade for anything.  The pay isn't great, but the benefits sure are nice.  Now if I could just lose that last 10 pounds...