Nine months

I missed writing a post for Laurel's nine-month birthday (I was busy having my appendix removed), but since then there have been several exciting changes. When I wrote about her development at seven months and eight months, I emphasized the things she couldn't yet do. (Although at eight months she did develop the charming habit of communicating via spit, especially with people she likes. For instance, whenever my dad leans over to say hello, she purses her lips and blows bubbles at him. For a few weeks she sputtered and gurgled more than she babbled.)

But right after she turned nine months old, there were big changes. For one, she stopped sleeping. No, it hasn't improved. It has been 12 nights since the night I spent in the hospital for my appendectomy, and she hasn't slept through the night once. In fact she is awake for huge stretches of time every single night and it is terrible. I am no stranger to night-waking -- I woke up to nurse Isaac at least once every night for 18 months until he night-weaned himself -- but this has been going on for less than two weeks and it's killing me.

Laurel is also getting her first tooth, which I mentioned previously, and this makes her gnaw and drool even more than usual. This could be affecting her sleep, although baby Tylenol and Advil don't seem to help her any. I guess the sleep disturbance could also be caused by the dawning of some huge milestone, although I think she is a long way from crawling or pulling up. Although I have seen her pivot while on her belly, which could be the start of something, she hasn't yet gotten her belly off the floor.

She may not yet be interested in movement, but she still likes using her hands. Today Laurel discovered that she likes to bang on a pot with a wooden spoon. And she has just begun working on her pincher grasp, picking up tiny objects between her thumb and index finger, and of course putting said objects in her mouth. We have been trying to satisfy this often-inappropriate urge by giving her little pieces of food to pick up, so she's been chasing sticky bits of banana, soft bread, and cooked carrot all over her high chair tray. Mostly she gets this food stuck to her hand and can't figure out where it went, or if she does manage to pick it up she's not sure how to let go. But if she does get it into her mouth she actually makes rudimentary chewing motions with her jaws instead of spitting it out, which she would have done just last month.

Laurel seems to be moving away from the spit-bubble greeting I mentioned above, thankfully. Instead when she catches sight of someone she likes she gives an enormous grin: she exposes her still-bare gums, raises her chin, and squints her eyes nearly completely closed. This folds her round-cheeked baby face into wrinkles that remind me of one of those shrunken apple-head dolls. She still gives the shiver of delight, too.

She began to clap her hands together about a week ago. Perhaps after noticing how it got her a lot of attention from me, she practiced until now she is quite a good hand-clapper. She even does it on cue about half the time! (The cue is me saying "Yay!" and clapping my own hands.) Similarly, she waves on cue, saying something that sounds an awful lot like "Hi!" She really loves doing these tricks, which is fun because I don't remember Isaac being interested in them. Sometimes Laurel gets so excited about waving that she breaks into spontaneous applause for herself.

Yes, let's have a big round of applause for Laurel! Assuming she sleeps through the night, that is.