Well, what a journey so far. Today we went for Isabella's 9 month well check up. She is doing great. My doctor is a bit of a whack, so I don't know how well Belle is really doing, only that she is meeting the minimum requirements for a baby her age. I'm glad to report that she has moved up from the 5th percentile to the 20th percentile for her height, and continues to maintain a good weight percentile, (although I wasn't told what it was). She is now 18 lbs 10 oz and 26.6 inches tall. That gave me great relief considering that at her 3 month appointment she was so small she didn't even get on the graph and at 6 months she was just barely on there. I am officially done stressing about the way she grows. She's small, I have no problem with that.

She is also doing a lot of great things. I'm not sure what is perhaps "beyond" where she should be, but she is definately mastering all things nine months old should be able to do. She is pulling herself up on everything, 'cruising' around the furniture and this week began to stand by herself for about 15 seconds at a time. She is eating all table foods now, of which her favorites seem to be hot dogs and bananas. She has perfected the pincer grasp and if something has a tag she actually prefers to pick it up by the tag instead of in her hand, unless it's a ball in which case she palms it and waves it in my face as though to say, "here's something my mommy can't do!". LOL.
She laughs oh so beautifully and has begun to do things that make herself laugh. She smiles about 80% of the day. She plays peek a boo, she watches tv with great interest,(especially Blue's Clues). I've listed a bunch of other things she can do in other blogs, and I'm not sure that any of this is really of interest, but today I was just blown away by how much she's grown and how she's already moving into becoming a little person instead of a baby.