9 Months: My Favorite Gift

My favorite gift, and the best thing under our tree this year, was Katie. Even though it's been a rough year for all of us, she made us smile and laugh all through it. She just has such a joyful spirit. She loves to laugh and sing and dance.

Watching her learn to scoot across the floor has been so funny. She absolutely refuses to crawl. We've tried putting her on her knees, and showing her how, but she hates that. Instead, she sits on her bottom and leans forward to inch across the floor. She seems to understand the process of walking, at least. She carefully lifts each foot and steps forward with her right and then her left foot when we hold her hands and let her practice walking across the room.

She also has developed a cute habit of grabbing hair brushes and brushing her own hair and even other people's hair. She doesn't like sippy cups yet, but she's eating more solid foods. She's very good at putting things in holes. She can put her farm animals into the window in the toy barn and then lift up the door at the bottom to pull them out and do it again. She only rarely says "Mumma", but she has learned to call Danya, "Daya" and she mimics a lot of the words we make. It's hard to believe how big she's getting!