9 months old!!

We have a 9-month-old! And yes, she is playing in Reagan's dog bed. She thinks it is hilarious. :) I cannot believe Lainey is 9 months old. I know I say this each month, but I really can't this time. She's so big! We go to the doctor on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to post her weight, height, head circ. when we return.

In Lainey's 9 months, she has discovered:

• how to crawl everywhere, on hands and knees or hands and feet
  
• how to pull up on anything and everything (toilets seem to be a favorite - gross!)
• that Reagan is really funny and really likes to lick her hands and face
  
• what it feels like to have had FOUR ear infections
  
• how to put her own pacifier in her mouth, although she can't figure out how to do it at night
  
• how to cruise a little bit along the side of the couch
• how to scoot her little feet forward with her walker (again, a very tiny few steps)
• how to sleep about 10-11 hours
• that two good naps make her much happier, as much as she'd like to refuse taking them
  
• that table food is fabulous - peas, beans, chicken, beef, pasta, carrots, veggies, crackers, goldfish, edamame...really anything she can pick up and feed herself
  
• not to trust her mama when she tries to feed her with a spoon (brings back bad baby-food memories, I guess?)
• how to clap her hands
• sippy cups with straws are great...and so is the juice/water combo that is often in them
  
• that getting her face/nose wiped is pretty much the worst thing she can think of
• she is starting to miss her mom when she (1) goes down the stairs or (2) leaves the room
• that she likes to be social and get out of the house
• how to say lots of sounds in a variety of pitches and tones - she is a babbling baby (lots of dadadadad and nananana and yayaya and tatatata, and sometimes mamama)
• how to throw pacifiers out of her crib and make them land in places that are hard for her mom and dad to reach
  

We love you, little Punkin! So very, very much!

________

In other news, Gage and Ainsley's mom Kelley and I went to visit Keegan today at Children's. He was a happy, giggly, chatty boy around us. He was trying to push all the buttons he could reach, grab his IV pole, climb the couch, climb out of his crib, eat the cleaned-and-made-into-toy syringes, play with his trucks and books and stacking cups, chunk things out of his crib, and all the things that boys his age do. You can imagine his frustration when he realizes he can't move everywhere or play with everything in his reach...he is really interested in his IV pole and the plastic IV bags filled with medicine. Yesterday, in the OR, Keegan swallowed a capsule with a tiny camera in it (making him the smallest and youngest child in the United States to have ever undergone this procedure). He will eventually pass this capsule and hopefully it will give the doctors some much-needed answers. He also had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday. Hopefully, Monday will be a big day for his doctors as they examine results of the procedures. Next week he's scheduled to go into the OR again to have a liver biopsy and receive a g-button (feeding tube into his stomach). This little boy has been through so much, yet he continues to take each day as it comes, approaching it with a smile and with as much strength as he can muster. :) Keegan, we miss you and hope you come home soon. We need to go on some walks around the neighborhood! :)

Kelley and Keegan