8 months of joy.

Sigh.

Little Toot turns 9 months old tomorrow. Nine! I'm going to be one of those dramatic, sappy mothers and say WHERE has my baby gone!? In three months, she will be a year old.

Can't handle it, folks. Can't.

I have dreams and fantasies about what she'll be like when she walks and talks and can watch movies with me and, you know, do fun stuff. But I so, so love toting her around in my arms, kissing her face to death, and her baby-ness. I just love it. Do you think she'll let me wear her in the Moby when she's 6? Do you?

Please. Please, child.

Well, in all seriousness, yes - she will be 9 months tomorrow. Birthday plans are already in the works and have been for a quite a while now. Yes, I'm also one of those mothers. Ahem.

With all this daddy coming home, moving into a new house, and our lives being in a fantastic whirlwind, I forgot all about doing an 8-month check-in on the blog! Here goes:

-My "favorite" thing about her is when she crinkles her nose and smiles super big. It's pretty darn cute.

-Loves table food and wants "bites" of whatever we have. She thinks she's so grown up when she gets nibbles off mama's plate.

-Prefers to self-feed and hates when I try to feed her bites of adult food. She shoves my hand out of the way and grabs it off the table herself. Little Miss Independent.

-Still swaddled for naps and takes 2 2-hour naps a day. And about 3 times a week, she'll take 3 naps.

-The girl l.o.v.e.s. her passy now. So much that we had to go by pacifier clips so that she could have access to her Nuks at all times.

-We can't keep her awake in the car now. Suddenly, she falls asleep almost every time we go out. She sticks her pacifier in her mouth and goes right to sleep.

-Trying extremely hard to scoot around the house. She has gotten into the crawling position but prefers to sit up and scoot -- but she still can't totally scoot around. Yet.

-Loves holding onto our hands and walking around the house. Still can't stand alone or anything.

-Freaking LOVES our family dog, Piper. Laughs, smiles, and beats the crap out of our poor dog. And let me say, Piper loves loves loves her. They are extremely close -- Piper even lays under her crib as I sing Adalyn to sleep and will often stay in her room for the duration of her naps. Precious.

-Doesn't really get to watch television - with the exception of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The girl is glued to that show. Mark has even been known to do the Hot Dog Dance. Can you say.. TOOODLES!

-Thinks Daddy is super duper funny but still wants only mommy to put her down for naps and bedtime.

-Has two teeth coming right on through at the bottom. They're pretty darn cute, if I say so myself.

-Seriously loves baby dolls and "cuddles" them and smiles the biggest smiles when she sees them.

-Loves sippy cups, when I kiss her on the belly, riding in her new stroller, holding mommy's chapstick, pulling Piper's fur, watching mommy and daddy make goofy faces and noises, and smiling for the camera.

I love this girl.