Irene is 9 months old

We had a busy month. Irene got her first St. Patrick's Day beads/parade on Beale Street. We spent some vacation time with Nana & Papa (shannon's parents) in hot Springs, Arkansas. We had Didu & Gigi (jeremy's parents) down to visit. We visited friends in Palmetto, Georgia (south of Atlanta)  for her first Easter! and we took a boatload of pictures. Highlights from the month:

-she had her "9 month well-checkup" with the doctor. She weighed 24 lbs. 7 ounces...and was 31 inches long. This puts her the average size of an 18 month old. She is proportional though, so no need to worry about giantism or anything just yet.  

-she says more words: uh-oh, dada, "swiffer", "hello" (which sounds like Day-O), and a boatload of other sounds/jabbering...whenever we try to get her to say "mama", she just signs "milk". which is sort of right, we guess...

-She has started crawling! Mostly it was army crawling for awhile, but now she is legitimately crawling and following us around...it is hilarious and she is so cute. She would rather prefer to stand and walk but still needs our support to do that...she can go from a crawling to a sitting position very easily. Every once in a while she will pull herself up from sitting/kneeling to standing (holding onto something) but that is still rare.

-We got her a toy cell phone and she loves it. She pretends to talk on it and even holds it up for us to "talk on"...

-She hates chicks and duckies (see video below).

-still a great eater and sleeper. we are introducing more and more foods, including more finger foods so she can feed herself. she has started holding onto cups and giving herself water/juice with a straw, and she also LOVES to drink water out of mommy and daddy's cups...

There is probably more that I'm forgetting...mostly, we love to watch her learn, grow, and develop. She is becoming a little person before our eyes...thanks for sharing her journey with us! 

(be sure to check out the video below AND the 9 month photo album. it is long but fun)