Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, our sweet little nugget of a firstborn turned 9 months old! When we took her in to the pediatrician, we were actually headed to my parents for the Christmas holiday. I was a little crestfallen by her stats, but the Pediatrician was great at easing my worries:

As usual, she was long and lean! The Pediatrician encouraged us to continue to giving her healthy fats like avocado, shredded cheese, puffs, peas, rice, and sweet potatoes. Since she was still our little string bean, the Ped. scheduled for us to come in for her 10 month birthday to have a weight check, with the next big appt being the 12 months appt in March 2018. That said, she had gotten TWO teeth in the past month, both bottom row next to one another. She was happily eating pretty much everything we offered her. She especially continues to love the YoBaby whole milk yogurt from Stonyfield Organic, her favorite.

Her favorite words are still Mama and Dada but she also started to say other words (no, do-do aka “dog”) as well as mastering more specific baby sign language (up, diaper, mama, dada). She was also going through this intense velociraptor scream-screech phase and deep growling phase. Funny as I recap it but agony hearing it days upon days as she learned and discovered her voice!

Other favorite activities was “reading” her books for hours upon hours everyday, and looking at her face in a mirror. She didn’t have terrible symptoms from teething, possibly due to her wearing this teething necklace (sold here and here). She had mastered crawling at this point so we had all of the outlet covers on and extension cord cover. She fit a lot better into shopping carts even though she was still on the lighter end of babies, so I found this incredibly helpful shopping cart cover with a positioner to keep her from drifting over sideways or slipping through – esp. great when at a store that only has the oversized carts:

I could slip some of her play mat ring toys through a couple loops on this cover and she was safely amused while I went grocery shopping, or purchased home improvement items, etc. etc. I think this gift would be perfect for a unique but useful baby shower present!

Thanksgiving was great as she was able to try a lot of yummy solids, see family, and visit with her two great-grandmothers as well as my parents. It made for a very special long weekend.

What are your favorite memories of your child’s first Christmas (or other holiday!)? We had so many wonderful memories during her first holiday season in 2017. I’d love to get ideas and inspiration for future Christmases!