Months 8 and 9

Again, due to recent events, I was not able to write Annie's 8 month blog post. 

So, we'll combine months 8 & 9 (especially since she turns 10 months tomorrow!)

(*side note- I wrote this post about a month ago, but just got to downloading pics, so some of this info is outdated) 

New things during months 8 and 9:
- found out on her 8 month birthday we were moving to London, for-reals.
- got her first (and hopefully only!) set of ear tubes on November 20th. She did great during surgery (which lasted no more than 10 minutes tops!).

all ready for surgery!

- she applied for her first pass port and visa!
- she had her first Thanksgiving!

- she saw her first "Icepocolypse" the first weekend of December and subsequently got really sick with, what I think was RSV (flu and strep were negative at the urgent care that was open that Sunday). Lots and lots of snot, a terrible cough that wouldn't let her sleep at all for about 24 hours, and fever of 101.5 with Motrin on-board. I've never stayed up an entire night with a child before, but I did that weekend. She was also the sickest I've ever seen one of my kids before. It was also the weekend after Mike had left for London, so my precious mom, dad and sister camped out at our house to help me in my sleep-deprived state of mind (they had also lost electricity due to the ice storm). I'm sure I'll post another entry about that really, really hard two week span. It was not fun.

She was so sick and so pitiful!!

- she got her first tooth! (and is currently working on her second one)
- she started to stand on her own for long periods of time and started cruising around furniture
- she took her first airplane ride (well, two rides, technically) and moved to London before she turned 9 months old

Sleeping:
This momma is so tired. I really was hoping that ear tubes would be the magic bullet that would cure all of our sleeping problems, but alas, not so much. Due to her getting really sick at the beginning of December with RSV, her sleep just got really off (would wake up 2-3 times a night sometimes and up at least once most nights). We had sleep-trained her during Thanksgiving break, but that went out the window with the sickness.
Once we moved to London, we re-did sleep training on Christmas night (we didn't plan that well, but it was much needed). We are currently in the process of getting our schedule back on track and adjusting to everything.
She's taking 2 naps a day and will go to bed around 7:30 pm, wake up around 7:00 am (most of the time). But, like I said, our schedule is a little off and we're slowly getting back. The good thing is that if she wakes up crying, she will get herself back to sleep within about 5 minutes, instead of me having to go in and nurse her back to sleep. Small victories, people.

Eating:
Eating normal, solid foods three times a day, doing well with most foods- she likes to feed herself, thank you very much. Favorite foods are pasta with tomato sauce, macaroni and cheese, green beans, sweet potatoes, beans, rice, refried beans, MumMums, dried Cheerios, etc. She will usually eat just about anything and hasn't had any allergies. She's still nursing about 4 times a day, most days, sometimes more.

She loves to follow Lucy around, likes to be in the same room as everyone else. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Still loves her paci at naptime and bedtime. She, thankfully, is portable when we are needing to be out and about and will fall asleep in my Beco carrier like a champ. Truly, she does well with being on the go, which I am so thankful for. Generally, she is a very chill, sweet-tempered little girl.

Skillz:
She crawls all over the place, is learning how to crawl up stairs, cruises around furniture, will stand on her own for long periods of time, will pull herself up to stand on her own and is taking some steps with the push-wagon. I predict that she will be walking by 10 months (Lucy started walking at 10.5 months!).
She's got the pincer grasp down to a T, and I've got bruises on my arm to prove it.
She's said "Dada" before. She likes to wave.

Stats:
She's been 16 pounds (25 th percentile)  for the last 7 weeks (hasn't really gained any weight), but she has grown in length. Lack of weight gain, I believe, to be caused by starting to become really mobile and having RSV.