On the tenth of August

Anna is now nine months old.  She's still wearing her 6-9 months wardrobe (with plenty of growing room left in most things) and a size 4 nappy.  She's learned to pull herself up to standing in her cot, which is much more fun now she can get back to sitting again when she gets bored!  She's also on the move, cruising around the furniture and starting to walk with her baby walker.

She's still noisy; she likes to shout and growl when she's happy and she's got an enormous cry when she's angry or hurt.  Andy swears she says 'dada' but she also calls him 'tata' and 'baba'.  I'm not sure she's a talking prodigy!  She likes to press her mouth against people and blow raspberries.  She also likes to have a bit of a chew while she's there!  And since she cut her first tooth this month, with the second only a week later, it can give you a bit of a shock!  She's a great teether, we almost haven't noticed them coming though.

She's mostly over her stranger problems, though she definitely still prefers mummy, daddy and Isaac.  They spent a couple of hours with their child-minder this week, starting the preparations for me going back to work.  Both of them had a lovely time and hardly noticed that I wasn't there, good news I guess!

The sun's come back out again this month and Anna had her first ice-cream; a mini-milk, of course!  She had a lovely time, getting in a huge mess, but most of it ended up in her mouth!  She's a complete eating machine.  She loves pasta, cheese, bread, melon, eggs, sausages, pretty much everything we put in front of her actually!  I'm constantly surprised at the amount she eats, so much more than Isaac these days.

She's got a taste for cat food too; you can just see the bowls in the photo above.  She makes a beeline for them every time she's in the kitchen, dipping her hands in the water and picking up individual cat biscuits to chew on.  I don't think it does her too much damage but the cats really aren't keen!  Isaac has taken to scolding her and putting the dishes on the kitchen surface, out of her reach.  Helpful child!

He doesn't really appreciate that Anna is now playing with the toys he's grown out of, or having to share his current favourites.  The most heard phrase in our house this month has been "No Nanny!"  Anna mostly takes it well; she's easily distracted and only occasionally bursts into loud floods of tears.  Her happiest expression is a wide smile, split by a sticking-out tongue.  No idea where that's come from...