9 Months Home

Where oh where has the time gone? I can't believe Miss Sabella and I have been a family for 9 months now! She has changed so much from our 6 month home post. I no longer have a little baby, but an opinionated, sweet, stubborn, independent, lovable, kissable, cuddleable (I made that up), ornery, silly, talkative (a language only she knows), smiling, dancing, singing toddler. Sabah brings a smile to my face and melts my heart every single day. Some of her accomplishments/changes from the 6 month post include:

* Her hair is getting SO long. I can put it up in two pigtails now and she is just so stinkin cute.
* She laughs a lot now. REALLY LAUGHS. Again, for those following the blog, you may remember that Sabah rarely laughed. She smiled a lot and did quick excitement screams, but never really just giggled. She does that now. It makes my heart burst with momma happiness.
* She now sleeps in a big girl bed (toddler bed). I had put a toddler be in her room with her crib for her to gradually get use to it because Tina will be taking the crib in a few months for her new baby girl, but Sabah didn't need to be gradually moved to it. She jumped right in (ok, not jumped...she struggled a little at first to get in), snuggled right down and fell asleep. She also stayed put until mommy got her up the next morning. Since then (about two weeks now), she has had no problems. Her crib is now disassembled and waiting for Auntie to pick it up.
* She talks ALL the time and can even say some understandable words. Please, Thank you, up please, down please, more please, Hi, hi kitty, hi baby, What's that, Where it go (she mumbles this all together into one word, and shrugs her shoulders when she says it), all gone, weeeee (on the swing).
* She has developed taste buds...and I don't know if I like this or not. I use to be able to feed her anything, but now, she is definitely getting picky about what she likes and doesn't like. She LOVES all fruit and will eat all the fruit on her plate first and THEN start picking at other things. She use to LOVE veggies, now she tolerates them. She loves wheat bread and that is always the second thing she eats. She HATES salsbury steak...and I mean HATES it (her and thousands of other people).
*She is starting to throw mini tantrums when she doesn't get something she wants, or if I tell her she can't do something. Timeouts work good though and I just sit her down and tell her she can get up when she stops crying. Oh, I so can't wait for the terrible twos. :)
*She walks so much better now, which is GREAT for my back, but it sure slows us down. She walked from the car to the store this afternoon with me, while my sister and her gang of 3 kids waited and waited and waited at the entrance for us to finally get there. Oh well....a slower pace isn't a bad thing.

There's definitely more changes, but I don't need to turn this into a novel (I just need to post more often).

Here is a hodgepodge of pics. I'm too lazy to label each one and put them in any type of order, but they are of her new big girl bed, and a day at the Portland Rose Gardens....oh and a bubble bath thrown in there as well.