Age: 9 months, 6 days (at the time of her well-baby check up on July 10)
Height: 28.25 inches (75% percentile)
Weight: 18 pounds 9 ounces (57% percentile)

This month:

• Beginning to understand what we say. Baby Champuru’s bag of tricks is getting bigger. In addition to waving hi/bye, she is now clapping her hands.  Even more fun: she does it when we ask her to!  I always find it amazing when I say something and she responds appropriately.
• Walking with support. Hubby’s co-worker gave us a shopping cart push toy that has an adjustable tension setting on the wheels.  Right now it’s set to the tightest tension setting, so the wheels don’t really turn at all.  This is good because Baby Champuru can push it around and we don’t have to worry about it rolling ahead of her, causing her to faceplant on the carpet.  Baby Champuru loves it!  It acts as a “walker,” giving her enough support to be able to toddle around the livingroom without help from us.  Of course, I’m always right there hovering behind her, but it gives her a sense of independence and mobility.  She still tends to walk on her tiptoes, however, but she is getting better.
• Houdini in the house! Baby Champuru discovered how velcro works and will remove her diaper if it’s not covered by a onesie.  Since it’s been so hot this summer, I had been letting her run around the house in just a diaper, but that’s no longer a safe option.
• Fantastic finger foods! I previously wrote an entry entitled, Fearing the Finger Food back in June, but just a month later, Baby Champuru is doing famously with her baby rice crackers!  Now, allowing her to self-feed doesn’t strike fear into my heart – although I do still watch her closely as she’s eating just to be sure.
• Sharing is caring. When the mood strikes, Baby Champuru will share her rice crackers with Hubby or I as she’s eating.  She will take a bite – then hold it out for us to take a bite.  That always makes me smile.
• Learning and doing. It’s exciting to see Baby Champuru observing and learning.  As an example, today as I was carrying her, she pointed at her hair brush that was sitting on top of the dresser. I brought her over to it so she could grab it, then she attempted to brush her hair with it.  She’s not quite coordinated enough to position the brush correctly and stroke her hair, but she was definitely trying.  So, I took her hand as she was still grasping the brush and brushed her hair.  Big smiles and giggles!