You've come a Long way, baby

Layne turned 9 months old when I was in Mexico. Not to worry, her 9-month Racky and Pooh photo was on my final to-do list before I left for the airport.



Sweet girl! Layne has such a fun personality. She is consistently low-key but when she is really happy she starts breathing fast and waving her arms around, and her eyes light up. So much of Layne's personality shines through her big, beautiful eyes.





She continues to pull herself up to standing and cruise along a table or the couch. Her teacher Miss Monita keeps telling us that Layne will let go and stand by herself for just a moment before reaching back out to steady herself. I've just seen her do it once for a brief second, and then she plopped down onto her bottom, which scared her a little.

Layne is now taking all formula-only bottles. After a small emotional moment when I knew I was about to nurse her for the final time, I'm truly fine with it. I am proud of breastfeeding for 9 months.

She eats 2-3 jars of organic baby food each day. We're also feeding her pieces of banana, avocado, puffs and other small, soft foods. She is working on her fine motor skills, picking up the small pieces and putting them in her mouth. Often they don't actually make it into her mouth, but she continues to practice.

Miss Monita told me that at snacktime, Layne hangs out under the bigger kids' table because she wants to eat with them - so now she gets to sit with them and have her own snack.

A few more cute photos from the past month:







(It's not often that I have my photo taken with Layne. I am typically behind the camera taking the pictures. So even though Larkin's shoe is in Layne's mouth, I'm still happy to have this shot.)