Arden at 9 Months

For those Blogger stalker out there, I know I'm falling behind on my posts, so I hope to post a few things today. Arden has taken to trying to climb under the computer desk and trying to turn the computer off (she likes the on/off button), and likes to try to chew on the wicker wastebasket next to the computer, so my computer time has become somewhat stilted.


Last Wednesday we went in for her 9 month check up. The doctor gave her rave reviews saying she was very "symmetrical" noting that this was a trait that attractive people have in common. Well duh, I could have told she was attractive! The doctor also noted that she had very good "dexterity" as she grabbed the doctor's pen out her hand and twirled it around before putting it in her mouth! No shots this time, just a toe prick, of which my tough little girl didn't even make a peep for, even as they squeezed it to get a few drops of blood out.

We got the green light to try some new foods like, wheat, dairy and beans. And I got told to stop nursing her that one time she wakes up in the middle of the night. Yea, we'll see how that goes. I'll be taking my friend, Ellen's lead and reading the "Baby Whisperer." And then hopefully working on my practice of patience. It's so easy to nurse her back to sleep right now, they whole process takes about 15 minutes and then we all get back to sleep. From what I've heard, breaking this habit is going to tougher and take a lot longer then 15 minutes in the middle of the night. Not looking forward to it.

So her 9 month stats:

weight: 16 lbs. 11 oz. - 24 %tile- they're not concerned with this though since she's got a good growth curve.

height: 27 1/2 " - 51 %tile

head circumference: 46 cm - 90 %tile


She goes back for the next check at 1 year! Wow! That's weird to say!



Later that same afternoon we headed up to the yoga studio to practice, which I "try" to do about 3 times a week with her. "Try" being the operative word these days, now that she is more mobile. Her favorite thing to do is crawl over to the remote and eat it. So I just take a battery out and let her go to town. Easier then fighting her throughout my entire practice. She also likes to chew on the yoga mat. My friend Leslie came up early to teach her class and took some pictures of us.

Mama Mia!!

We've been trying out some finger foods with Arden the past couple of weeks. She loves this new step! After a few slippery failed attempts with banana and avocados, she's found some favorites. We don't think there's a lot of actual eating going on, but she's having a grand time playing with everything. Steamed, sliced pears are a hit, which I think she can actually mush up and chew a little bit. Penne pasta she likes to play with and shred. Carrots are ok, bananas and squash are fun to mush in her hands. But the real fun was with some linguine the other night! What a challenge, but a fun one! Then Dad put it on her head which confused her at first ("what's this sticky stringy thing on my head?") but then she was mesmerized for quite sometime. Again, not much actual eating but it's a process. And made for some adorable pictures.

We Are Officially Celebrities!

Arden & I made the local ABC news tonight! Some people know, but some may not know that I've been donating some of my breast milk ever since Arden was about 3 months old. Wake Med here in Raleigh has one of the 9 milk banks in the U.S. and the only one on the East Coast. When Arden was so sick when she was first born that she was put in the NICU, I was unable to breast feed right away. She was lucky enough to be able to be given donor milk instead of formula. Therefore, I always wanted to donate back to the bank. And since I've always had the supply to do so it was a no brainer. The bank called me because they were having the news channel come to do some publicity to raise their donor numbers so they asked us to come in for interview.
Arden was super well behaved until the actual interview when she started to squirm in my lap quite a bit. Need less to say, the editing of the piece didn't have much footage of us, but there was some. I couldn't find the actual video segment online but here is the article from the story, which is the segment's script verbatim. Please send all autograph requests through our agent ;-)