9 Months, Bob Vila, and Nell

Today Ginger turns 9 months! On Tuesday, she was acting a little funny, so we decided to take her in a few days early for her 9 month checkup. Good thing we did! Turns out, she has strep throat. Poor baby! She's now on antibiotics and will hopefully start feeling better soon.



As far as milestones, let's see...she still doesn't have any teeth (and it doesn't look like any are coming anytime soon)! She is still in the 90th percentile and above for height and 75th percentile for weight (she weighs about 20 pounds). Still nursing. Getting a little more receptive to food. Can crawl really fast. Is starting to climb stairs.

She's very mischevious and has a pretty developed sense of humor. She is drawn to the most dangerous thing in the room, and will crawl towards it with glee. Some days I feel like it's my job just to make sure she stays alive!

Ginger is definitely a mama's girl. She still likes to be held all day and all night long. If I'm not holding her, it's a problem according to her. When I put her to bed at night, I get about 30 minutes before she realizes I'm not holding her...and then I'm back on duty! I know this stage doesn't last forever, so I'm just enjoying it. Before I know it, she'll be running around and I'll be longing to hold her again.



On the days she naps, that's my time to get stuff done. Yesterday, she took a nap in her crib for about an hour and a half. During her nap, I laid down a new kitchen floor. Well, mostly laid down. When I was about 80% done, Ginger woke up from her nap and that was the end of that! Hopefully I can do the rest today assuming she naps.

Here's the before:



And the semi-after:



I was scrambling like you would not believe to get it done. Every day at our new house, I feel like Bob Vila. There's always something that needs to get done, and I do my best to get it done. Even if it's not perfect, it's done and better than it was.

For example, yesterday, I also uprooted a dead tree in the backyard. It was in the way of Paprika's swingset, and it had to go. Instead of waiting for someone to come take it out, I took it out myself, and filled the hole with dirt so no one would fall and break their leg- it was a really big hole! In those first pics where Ginger is sitting in the grass, I had just uprooted the tree and was filling in the hole with dirt. Bob Vila, I tell you!

In other news, Paprika's life has really changed since we got a backyard. She loves it. And I mean, really loves it. It's like her magical oasis. I have been having a hard time getting any pictures of her that I can post online because, well...she goes outside each morning and wants to take off all her clothes. Then she wants to stay outside all day. She runs around barefoot and gets so dirty. She doesn't want to leave to go anywhere else. She just wants to be in her own private playland.



We've started joking that the whole thing is like that movie, Nell. You know...Nell. I never saw that movie, but of course everyone remembers Jodie Foster in that role. Most days, Paprika just wants to run around outside, get really dirty, talk to her imaginary friends in her own made-up-language, and never leave our house. Thankfully, our yard is completely gated, so she has the ability to run and be free!!!

Yesterday, I had to run to Target and I contemplated taking her barefoot and in her underwear, because getting her to leave the backyard was such a struggle.

Mr. Mustard found her an awesome swingset on Craigslist last weekend, and that has really added to the fun of the backyard. This is her "flying" on her swingset. Bliss!