Nine Months - A New Age Dawns

playing in the park - happy to be 9 mos!

Our little babe turned 9 months on Friday. Nine months and she's like a new babe - cute as ever but her gross motor skills are rearing at speeds mom and dad aren't quite ready for. Her crawls now span great distances between rooms and down hallways; she crawls to tables and pulls herself up to standing, bumping her head along the way. Her forehead is now decorated with bruises and cuts documenting her achievements and trials. Our next task is to baby-proof the house.

I remember visiting my cousins Amy and Kyle in Burnsville, NC over Christmas. They have a beautiful home, but not many decorations around. At first I thought this was a reflection of Amy's simplicity until I left my water glass on the end table that night only to wake to it being smashed by their one-year old James. Now I get it.

On other news: fine motor development - We've worked on perfecting her pincher grab, which now is utilized to pick up every speck of whatever on the floor. Tatum is better than a vacuum. I've come to adore stories of babes eating cat poop and pebbles and coins - putting my conscious at ease if and when Tatum swallows something not so ordinary. Children are resilient and antibodies are good - thus my new mantra. And the ER is less than a mile away!

Tatum and I visited the ER last weekend at the suggestion of my brother in law Andy, who is a pediatrician. Since our trip to El Capitan, Tatum was sick and running a fever over 100 degrees for a few days accompanied by a tight cough. Since bronchitis can turn quickly in babes, Andy suggested that we take her into the hospital and get a better look at her sickness. After four hours, Tatum came out A-Okay and a diagnosis of an ear infection. She finished her 10-day dose of antibiotics yesterday. And the whole family is feeling better.

our sick babe giving herself an oxygen treatment in the ER