Nine, nine, nine

That's right, the babe is nine months old. Or the title could mean "No, no, no," symbolic of my disbelief that she has been here that long.
Okay, so she was actually nine months old a week ago, but we were on vacation in Utah (which will be its own post) and I didn't update then.
It's so weird to think that my baby girl had been out of me for as long as she was in. Where has the time gone? She has grown and changed so much since she was born!

Calista has a tendency of coming towards to camera, if she can, which means more pictures end up like this one, very close up. Still, cute?

We've been having more nice days, so we've been going outside. It took her a few days to decide she wanted to crawl on the grass (it's poky!) but she wasn't idle: she liked to try and eat the grass instead.

Ladybug on her foot! I took it away after the picture so Calista wouldn't eat it or crush it.

Smiling!

What a cool baby, huh? All the cool people where their hats backwards...

Calista is such a happy baby most of the time, and loves people. She stares and smiles at and reaches for and crawls (in that order, as she warms up) towards anyone and everyone.

Toys are great fun - especially ones Daddy puts on her head - and so is just about anything else.

Among her favorite things are dishes (plates, cups, utensils, lids...), paper, remotes, my watch, you name it and she's going to at least try to play with it.

Oh, yeah, and anything connected with the computer.

Continuing from last month, she loves her mobility and new skills. She follows me from room to room most of the time, but sometimes she takes off and decides she wants to be somewhere.

Like in her bedroom.

"Reading" her books.

Or, you know, pulling them all out. Whichever. 

Did I get them all?

Helping me with a sewing project, obviously.

She is such a funny girl. When she gets excited, Calista bounces up and down and kind of hyperventilates. She thinks it's hilarious. The first few times she did it, it freaked me out.
This isn't a video of that, but it's still funny.

She had been flailing both arms and legs repeatedly while Kyler held her, and it was hilarious.

Shall we talk about sleep?

She usually is still on her back to sleep, but when she looks funny, I have to take a picture.
Calista is, yes, still up to eat in the middle of the night. Twice. I've kind of tried a crying-it-out thing, and I give in after 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes depending on the night. I just can't handle ignoring my screaming baby, it stresses me out and makes me incredibly anxious. So, after she cries enough for me to know she for sure is awake, I go in and feed her. Someday I will be able to sleep a solid 8 hours straight, but then I won't have a baby to cuddle, so until then, I'm enjoying holding her... though I wouldn't mind if she'd magically start sleeping 12 hours straight on her own...

Anyway...

Happy nine months, Baby Girl!