9 Month Madness

Lord love a duck! Or a chicken in our case :) I never thought I would be pulling my daughter away from the toilet soaking wet from her making it a personal water table or picking her up and dog food comes spilling out of her mouth! And to boot, this is only the beginning. How can something so dang cute be so disgusting? I guess my attempt at "baby proofing" just plain sucks because she is constantly reminding me what I have not thought of. But how do you live or how do they learn if you bandage every corner, strap every piece of furniture down, and lock every cabinet? I already curse and fumble myself trying to get those dang outlet covers out of the wall when I need to use one. It becomes a power struggle (no pun intended) and sometimes it wins, sadly. Parent proof or baby proof? And to top that I look like an old woman with bruised up legs due to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, hurdling is not my strong point.The other day I found myself telling her to shhhh as I was watching an important TV program ( Real Housewives of New York) only to realize she is just imitating what she was hearing! Yelling and screaming! Haha. All I could do was laugh and then I turned it off, realizing it wasn't that important after all. ( Tivo is great.) She has a way of teaching me things I have tried to learn my whole life, like patience and that unconditional love. Now I am not saying go out and get yourself a baby to learn a few lessons....I looked down the other day only to find her laying on the floor, feeding herself, and watching baby tv and I shed a small tear thinking she doesn't need me for all of that anymore, but thankful at the same time.

Please don't think just because I look put together I have got it all down. When she pulls a few hairs out, I pull a few more. It's a daily give and take then break. Ha.

I mean who is this human sitting on her knees drinking from a staw? I see frequent visions of the teenage years when she does these "big girl" things and pray she's going to be the perfect, homones in check child. I hear every mother of teenagers laughing so hard out loud right about now. Just let me pretend until I can, okay?

I must say no no a lot because among her first words is the close version to no no. Proud moment right there. We recently drove to Indiana to see my family and the biggest blessing was how well my child did on that trip! She only woke up once a night, napped like a champ, and was pleased to meet so many new people! It was also great to see everyone and have my child on her best behavior. We had a talk about it before we left. Kidding. I ran across this gem while browsing old photo albums, proving that my child may look somewhat like me....I won't stop until someone sees it! I mean why do little girls need to look like their daddies?! So not fair :)

I recently re-painted a playroom in our home to be more girlie, because every 9 Month old needs a playroom right? Reality is that every mother of a 9 Month old needs one! A space she can play that is safe, fun, and secured off from stairs! I swear I will be gray by 35. Thank God for beauticians and mini fridges.

I am sure everyone now does those monthly sticky bellies right? I love seeing everyone's photos and how their little one changes over the year. But us mothers only post the best, cutest, and oh look how awesome and behaved my child is photo on our social media sites....all 10 of them :) Well here are a few that didn't make the "awesome" award or cut. Because this is totally safe while your mom is across the room trying to take your picture.

And because this is totally my reality! Mid-vomit. You're welcome.

So fellow mothers and fathers and gaurdians alike...cheers to making it this far and cheers to the next phase of what we will call...move it or loose it. Eeeppp!