Chalk up another one on the list of Baby Girl's developments. She is officially on the move. On Friday, I was changing Baby Girl's diapers, when she rolled away from me (as she almost always does). Once she was on her tummy, in two big scoots she moved a good foot and a half. I was shocked, "When did you learn how to do that?!" So, I put her on the ground, to see if she could scoot on the floor to get toys. Sure enough, she can move forward. There's a lot of scooting, rocking, rolling and stretching. But she is definitely on the move. I got this video yesterday morning after she woke up. And even today, she is moving more quickly. She has it down. I'm just counting my days until she will officially be crawling. We're excited, but I think it will make watching her even harder!

What a mischievous little girl we have. Somehow, Baby Girl got a hold of the camera. We don't know how. We don't know when. But when we checked the pictures on our camera, we found this adorable picture. Baby Girl must have taken this of herself! We have such a brilliant, adorable baby! I wonder what she will do next. . .

I often think about a part from the movie "Baby Mama". Towards the beginning of the movie, Kate is wanting a baby. Her sister Caroline, has several children. Caroline is telling Kate that motherhood is messy. Then this wonderful dialogue occurs:

Caroline:[holding her son's dirty hand] Is this chocolate or poop? Is this chocolate or poop?

Caroline: [licks son's hand and smiles] It's chocolate!

Kate Holbrook: What if that had been poop?

Motherhood is messy! I love this part and think of it often! This afternoon, after our play date, I sat down to nurse Baby Girl. After she eats, she is so happy! It's adorable. I love playing with her when she's so happy. As I was sitting in my chair, I lifted her up over my head, and Baby Girl spit up all over me. Yes, it got all over my shoulder and neck. Yes, it got on my face. Yes, my mouth was open. It was disgusting. I guess it was my own fault - I shouldn't have been playing so rough when Baby Girl's tummy was so full. Motherhood is very messy.

It's a good thing she's so stinking cute! It makes all the messy moments worth it! This is a picture of her outfit before church yesterday. She has a pair of pink baby Jelly shoes! They are so cute! She's such a doll!

Today, Baby Girl and I had an exciting play date with some friends! Last year, I taught 3rd grade and became friends with a fellow 3rd grade teacher, Britney. We both were first year teachers. We both got pregnant and stopped teaching after the first year. We both had baby girls. We now live several hours away from each other, but still keep in touch. We arranged to meet in Salt Lake for a playdate. My baby (Baby G) is about 6 weeks younger than her baby (Baby H). They are doing a lot of the same things. It's fun to compare what each of our babies are doing. It was a very fun playdate. We walked around the beautiful grounds at Temple Square. We sat on the grass and let our babies play together. Baby H kept playing with our toys, and Baby G kept playing with their toys. Neither one of them are very good at sharing toys. They kept grabbing for whatever toy the other was playing with. Other baby's toys are always more fun to play with.

We took some pictures (of course!). You can see in the picture of our two babies - Baby G has her arm around Baby H! Morgan said Baby G looks like a boy next to Baby H - because of her short hair! They are still super cute together.

We spent several hours walking around the temple grounds, chatting about our babes. We had a nice picnic in the shade. Then Britney and I sat and talked while our babies were napping in their strollers. It was great to get out of the house and spend time with a friend that is in a similar situation as me.

Finally, this afternoon, we loaded up and drove home. Baby Girl finished her nap on the way home. We a fun filled day!

Our Baby Girl has been going to bed at 6:30 or 7:00, and I must admit that I love it! She sleeps for a good 12 hours. I usually check on her after she has fallen asleep. I check to see where she has wiggled to in her crib. I also make sure she hasn't fallen asleep with a blanket wrapped around her face. Last night, I when I checked on her, she was just fine - sleeping near the corner of her crib. Then a couple of hours later, before I went to bed, I checked on her again. Morgan rolls his eyes whenever I do this, but whatever!

This is what I found when I checked on her before I went to bed. She was sleeping on her tummy, propped up on her knees. Hopefully you can tell from the picture - her knees are bent and her bum is sticking out into the air. She's sleeping on top of her blanket. I'm not sure how she rolled like that. Or how she's stayed like that and slept like that. Morgan and I laughed at what a silly baby we have, took a picture, then went to bed. I wonder how long she slept like that. I wonder if her legs started to fall asleep. What an adorable baby we have.

I cannot believe that our Baby Girl is 9 months old already. Its crazy how quickly time passes. She went for her 9 month check up today at the doctors. No immunizations today, thankfully! She did so good! She has cried EVERY time we have been to the doctor. She never liked the scale. She didn't like the doctor poking around. But today she didn't cry at all. They even had to poke her toe to get some blood to test for anemia - and she didn't even fuss. She weighed in at 19 pounds 5 ounces. That's the 50-75%. Three months ago she was in the 75-90% for weight. So, she's starting to slim down a little! She is 28 1/4 inches - which is in the 75%! She's always been in the 50% for height, so now she's getting some height on her! She's gained 13 pounds since birth and grown 10 inches!

The doctor, during her check up, asked a series of questions about her development. I said 'no' a lot more than I ever have before. If you stand her up next to that chair, could she stand there? No. Can she crawl? No. When she's holding two toys, can she bang them together? No. Can she play Patty-Cake? No. Can she wave good-bye? No. Is she saying 'Mamama' or 'Dadadada'? (Finally a) YES!! Is she saying it in reference to you guys? (shoot) No. There were a couple of times I got to say yes. The doctor was impressed that she's sleeping 12 hours at night. She's obviously a healthy eater! She may not be able to do much now - but she can eat and she can sleep! Morgan and I have been joking about how we have a slow baby. We definitely are not concerned about her, neither was the doctor. She's doing well, and is very healthy. That's the most important thing!

Our Baby Girl is growing by leaps and bounds. She is so close to crawling - well she's really close to army crawling. She spends most of her time on her tummy. She kicks her feet, and pushes herself forward with her toes - but it's only a small distance. She reaches with her arms. A couple of nights ago, we put a plate of cookies on the ground in front of her. It was maybe only 6 inches away from her. She kicked, and wiggled and reached and finally got the plate! Morgan rewarded her by giving her a cookie. Oh dear. I don't know if she ate any of it - but she made a big mess out of it. Slobbery cookie crumbs ended up all over Baby Girl and Morgan! 

Then last night, we had some Salt Water taffy. I took a taffy out of the wrapper and gave some to her to suck on. It quickly became slimy and stretched between all of her fingers. Her mouth was full of taffy. We snapped a picture before I fished it all out of her mouth. She seemed to enjoy the sweet taste of it. Our baby is chubby enough, we probably don't need to feed her cookies and candy!

I love the weekends! Honestly, everyday is the same for me. The only difference is Morgan doesn't have to work. He gets to spend the weekends with us! It makes a big difference! Morgan is there to walk to the park with us. It's fun. That's one thing that we did this weekend while we had Morgan home with us. We walked to a local park and went swinging. Baby Girl loves going swinging. We have to keep her from sucking on the swings. Not a very clean thing - and for some reason, she finds it irresistible to put her mouth all over it! What a strange child we have!

but it's totally worth it. Watch out, because in another 13-16 years, our Baby Girl is going to hate me for posting this picture of her, but I think it's so funny. I caught Baby Girl working on filling her diaper. Apparently, it took a lot of work! What a funny pooping face!

We finally took Baby Girl swimming. I've been itching to take her swimming for a few weeks now, and we finally went on Saturday. Our friends have a swimming pool in their apartment complex, so we spent the afternoon swimming with them. Then we had a barbecue afterwords. It was fun to spend time with friends.As we were driving there, we noticed very dark clouds over us. It looked like a storm was rolling in. We went swimming anyway - and it never rained on us. It was kind of cloudy and a little windy, but it was fun. We borrowed a baby floaty from our friends.

Baby Girl was very uncertain about swimming. The wind made it kind of cold, but not bad. She was not relaxed and very tense for the first little bit. She was not sure what this was all about. After a little bit, she loosened right up. She loved the water. Well, she loved trying to drink the water. She spent most of the time leaning over the ring trying to drink the water. What a silly girl. She enjoyed kicking her legs and hitting the top of the water with her hands. It was a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to taking her swimming more often. There is a fantastic kids pool just down the street from our house - we'll have to go there this summer!