"it won't be like this for long"

My sweet little lady is 9 months old... she has officially lived longer outside of me than inside of me. I find it hard to remember what it was like having her grow inside of me.... feeling her kicks as I fell asleep...longing for dr.'s appointments so I could hear that precious sound of her heart beating. I try to remember, but most of the time I can't. So I am going to try harder to write everyday down :) To document the things that happen as she grows into this beautiful, spunky child of mine. I haven't written an update in a while so here is just a little bit of what life is like with Norah.

In case you didn't see Rachel's blog post about Norah: (http://fotogirl14.blogspot.com/2011/02/norah-kathleen.html)

She posted a few of her 9 month pictures along with her nicknames (minus sputnick...no one REALLY calls her that...we just tease her about her huge noggin. :)

Her nicknames include: Junie Bug ( really any variation of bug: love bug, bugaboo, beetle bug, or bugga), Norah Beaner (given to her by her daycare teachers), Booper, Katie Girl (given to her by my daddy) and Norah Kate (the only nickname denis ever uses... he's big on calling her by her actual name!)

What she's up to:

Crawling like a maniac. She has been crawling since she was 6 months old. She always wants to be on the move.

Walking along furniture/around her play table/pushing her shopping cart. She does circles around her table touching all the buttons as she circles around, dancing at each new song.

Stands for about 10 seconds on her own. Usually only when she doesn't know she is doing it. She's like Grace, there is no practicing. It is all on her own terms. She has her own opinions that she is making quite clear these days.

Sleeping through the night. She started dabbling at sleeping all night at about 12 weeks, then stopped for a bit and started again at 4 months. She started by sleeping about 8 hr stretches and now sleeps from 11-13 hrs a night. We found that when we put her to bed earlier she sleeps longer. But it isn't always possible with the schedule we keep. Sometimes we keep her up just because we miss her. She doesn't sleep well at daycare so she has gotten in the habit of taking an evening nap. She falls asleep around 5 or 6 and sleeps till about 7-7:30. She wakes up (or is woken up) to eat, get a bath and goes right back down at 8. She is starting to sleep a bit more at daycare so i hope that helps rid the evening nap. Days she is not at daycare, she takes 2 super naps and no evening nap.

She is growing at a pretty average rate. Her percentiles are in the 60's, except her head :) (that is in the 80's) but we love her big head of curls :)

She loves to play on her own. She has a basket of toys she plays with, but she prefers daddy's books and cd cases or a plastic cup or bottle. She loves to take her toys and crawl into the kitchen and bang her toys on the hard floor. She loves the sound it makes. She also loves crawling under the table and standing up in the middle of all the chairs. Then she plays the chairs like a drum. We have one chair that is metal. She prefers that one :)

She loves her food! She is still eating some baby food each day. I like her to eat her cereal for breakfast still. She eats table food for lunch and dinner. Some of her favorites are: pizza, chicken nuggets, ham, hot dogs, toast with peanut butter, CHEESE, pasta, and fruit cups. She definitely prefers feeding herself rather than being fed. I have a feeling she will be only only table food here soon. She is still on soy formula, but we have given her cheese and yogurt with dairy in it and so far so good. We will have her tested for a dairy allergy at her 1 year appointment. Hoping to be able to make a smooth switch back over to regular milk.

She is still a cuddle bug. I love that she will still fall asleep in my arms. Every sunday I come home, scoop her up and cuddle her while we both sleep. Sometimes she will sleep in my arms for more than 3 hrs. It is most beneficial when she is sick because she will sleep on the lounge chair with one of us. She just seems to sleep better than way when she is sick.

She loves music. She will "sing" and dance and clap along with the music. She gets quite excited. Her favorites: Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson! I'd like to say she loves listening to me sing, but normally it is what puts her to sleep. :)

She LOVES harmony. I know she is closer in age with Makaela, but I feel like Norah and Harmony are already best buds. But at the end of the day, I am just very thankful that she will grow up living near hear cousins. I hope they grow to be as close as sisters.

She is DADDY's little girl... If daddy is in the room, no one else matters. She says DaDa constantly as well. She squeals when he comes down the stairs. Cries at the door when he leaves. Crawls up on his lap when she is tired. She is just smitten with her dad. I think she gets it from me :)

She seems to do something new with each passing day. She makes us laugh so much. She brings so much joy to our home... the unspeakable kind. We pray that never changes. I never knew I could love like this. It overwhelms me almost daily. I must tell Denis everyday "I just love her so much..." :) The other day Denis told a friend of ours "What are we going to do when we have a normal kid someday?" Meaning Norah is just an incredible baby. We don't take it for granted either. God just seemed to know what our home needed. He knew what it was missing. It was missing Norah. Now that we have her, I don't remember much about life without her. We know our family isn't complete yet and we dream about our family growing. But for now, we are soaking in every moment with our sweet little lady. Loving our family of 3.