The Boylans: Nine Months Old

Claire has officially been in this world for 3/4 of a year! Month nine brought many new developments and changes for Claire. She continues to be less and less like a baby and more and more like a little girl.

At nine months, Claire:

is FAST. We didn't think it was possible, but she continues to crawl faster and faster everyday. She is getting hard to keep up with!
has learned how to get from a sitting to standing position without pulling up on anything. She can stand on her own for a minute or two at a time now.
cruises around furniture a little bit...she is not completely sold on the whole walking thing, but if she really wants something she will walk along furniture to get it.
LOVES to climb up the stairs. She usually gets to about stair two before Art or I say "no, no"...when she hears this she turns around with a sheepish little grin on her face as if she knows she is doing something wrong, then continues onto the next stair. I guess we need to work on her listening skills a little bit. :)
is a babbling machine. She chatters away to herself when playing and before she falls asleep. She can say both 'mama' and 'dada', but has no idea what they actually mean.
still soothes herself with her two left fingers.
has moved onto table food. She decided she was much too big for pureed baby foods. Here is a sampling of the foods she has had so far: avocado, banana, peach, plum, pear, toast, bagel, noodles, cooked vegetables like peas, carrots and sweet potatoes, muffin, deli turkey, all types of beans (green, black, navy), graham crackers, cheese. While she will eat almost anything, she definitely has her preferences. It is so entertaining to watch her eat because she eats her food in the order of preference. For example, if you put avocado, turkey and black beans on her tray, she will eat all the avocado, all the turkey, and then finish with the beans. Silly girl!
sleeps between 11-11.5 hours every night, usually going to bed around 7pm and waking between 6-6:30am. She also takes 2 naps/day.
is starting to learn sign language. Art & I just started signing things like 'eat', 'bed', 'more' and 'all done' to her. She has yet to sign anything back, but we will keep working on it. Art is convinced that it is yet another ploy to make parents look ridiculous...I'm convinced he will change his mind when she starts signing back.
is growing like a weed. She now weighs 17 lbs, 14 oz (41st percentile) and stands 27.5 inches tall (59th percentile). I was actually shocked that our little shorty moved past the 50% mark for height...there is hope afterall. Her head also continues to grow at an alarming rate falling into the 93rd percentile (she can thank Art for that). :)
is the center of our lives. She brings us so much happiness, joy and laughter. There is nothing better than coming home to her smiling face!

And now for a few more pictures from today:

Claire manages to climb into one of her baskets