Makenzie is 9 months old!

 It is hard to believe that another month has gone by. This was a busy month for the family and Makenzie was just as active and busy learning and growing as ever.

 Nine Months:

 Each month it becomes harder and harder to capture Makenzie's picture as she no longer wants to sit still. EVER.

Nine Month Stats:
*Height: 26.4 inches (13th percentile)
*Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (10th percentile)
*Teeth: 4 the bottom two and top two. She also has two more on the top that are just starting to show and two more on the bottom that you can tell will be coming through any time. 
*Diapers: size 3
*Clothes: mostly 9 months
*Shoe Size: 2
 

Eating: 

Makenzie is now eating solids three times a day. She is very hit or miss with them though. Some days she loves her solids and eats like a champ and other days she could care less. She still loves her puffs though and will always gladly eat them or Chee.rios. I worry that she has already taken on her mom's eating habits. Her favorite solids are still prunes and sweet potatoes. We are also still working on the sippy cup. She is getting better with this every day. I am hoping by the time she hits a year we can be done with bottles. 

Sleeping: 

Makenzie continues to do well at night with her sleep. She goes to bed most nights between 6:00 and 6:30. She will then sleep most nights until about 3:30 and wake for a quick feeding. She then goes back to sleep until 5:00 or 6:00. Makenzie still hates to nap during the day and this is still a constant struggle for us. I asked her doctor about it and he said that as long as she is getting a total of about 14 hours a day it is fine for her to take her power naps. The problem is even with three 20 minute power naps I don't think she is getting 14 hours. I am hoping that as we transition to one nap a day in a few months she will finally start napping for a longer amount of time. 

Likes:

* Anything Morgan has. Makenzie loves to be around her big sis and to copy everything Morgan is doing. 

*Her mommy. Makenzie is definitely a mommy's girl right now. She is constantly glued to my legs. Whether I am drying my hair in the morning or cooking dinner in the evening you can find Makenzie pulled up on my legs. 

*Cruising. Makenzie is all over the place cruising along the furniture and pushing her shopping cart. She also loves to grab on to Morgan's walker and wheelchair to walk. 

*Sticking out her tongue. Makenzie constantly is making funny faces sticking out her tongue and curling it. 

Dislikes:

* Napping

*Going too fast or being tossed too high 

Torticollis:

Makenzie is still receiving PT services once a week to work on her torticollis. Although she has nearly full range of motion in all directions she still tends to tilt her head to the right. She is now wearing a neck brace at least 6 hours a day to try to improve this head tilt. Her PT has also suggested that we bring her to an orthopedic surgeon to get checked out. She wants us to make sure there isn't anything structural going on that is causing her neck to still be titled. We are hoping that with continuing to wear the brace and doing PT will help her improve. In the meantime it isn't slowing her down one bit.  

Nicknames:

*Kenzie

*Kenz

*Kenzinator

*Kenzie Bear

*TROUBLE

Some highlights of this month:  

1. We had a few days of very beautiful weather and got to play outside. Makenzie loves her little car (this was Morgan's old car). 

 

Morgan pulled up next to Kenzie and asked her if she wanted to race.

 2. This month Makenzie learned how to walk with her shopping cart. She is now all over the house with it and gaining speed each day.

 

3.Makenzie saw her first snow fall. And her second, and third. That's right, it snowed three times in a month here in Tucson. Crazy!

 4. Makenzie and Morgan started a new game. They love to 'race' each other through the house. Most of the time Makenzie ends up running into the back of Morgan's walker and getting her shopping cart caught on the back wheel. The girls love this game and it is great exercise for both of them.

 5. Makenzie now pulls up constantly in her crib. Everytime I go in to get her up I find her smiling little face peeking above the rail. It is the best!

 6. She is getting in to TROUBLE! She has learned how to climb.

 7. In between our snow falls we enjoyed some days of beautiful sunshine and played on the swings with Morgan.

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy!

Twice a day every day David or I help Morgan brush and floss her teeth. So don't ask me how we missed this: 

 On Wednesday, January 30th while getting ready for school we were brushing Morgan's teeth when she said "Ow!" She started making a big fuss about David brushing and then all of a sudden David noticed why, Morgan had her first 'big girl' tooth coming in. David and I both panicked since her baby tooth was still in and this new tooth was not just on it's way in, but had broken the surface and the baby tooth wasn't even loose. We were also totally shocked. Since Morgan didn't get her first tooth until she was almost 11 months old we figured she wouldn't get her big girl teeth until she was older as well.

Anyway, I decided we should take her in to the dentist to get it checked out and make sure everything was okay. We were able to get in that Friday for a quick check. They took a few x-rays and checked to see if her baby teeth were getting wiggly yet.

 Morgan of course was a champ! She did amazingly well and did not complain once. As soon as it was over she asked for the treasure box. The girl has her priorities. Things checked out well. The x-ray showed that she actually has two bottom teeth ready to come in, but they look good so far. Apparently having an adult tooth come in behind a baby tooth like this is actually fairly common. They said that the adult tooth would eventually 'push' the baby tooth out and then it should 'move forward' into the open spot.

Every time we brushed over the next two weeks we wiggled Morgan's tooth a bit to try to loosen it up. It was wiggly, but not too much. Then all of a sudden on February 11th Morgan told me that her tooth was loose. She had been playing with it during her afternoon snack and when I went over to feel, it was really loose!!!! I called David and told him to be sure to leave work on time because I thought her tooth might be ready to come out that evening. Well....David didn't agree and thought we should give it another day or two to get a bit looser.

The next day while eating another afternoon snack Morgan bit hard into her food and started crying. She really caught her tooth and wasn't happy about it. She was ready for it to come out now that it was causing her pain. That evening she asked David several times to pull it, but he still wasn't sure it was ready. That same day Morgan and I had stopped at the store to get a tooth pillow for the tooth fairy since we knew it was going to fall out any day. After dinner that night we worked together to put her pillow together.

The following morning on February 13th while brushing her teeth Morgan's tooth nearly fell out. I told David it was time. (I was not about to do it myself). He came in, grabbed some paper to get a hold of the tooth, and just barely grabbed the tooth and it was out. Morgan was SO excited!

 That day at school Morgan told EVERYONE who would listen that she lost her tooth. It was so cute to see how excited she was. I am still in disbelief that she is old enough to be loosing her teeth. It seems like just yesterday that she was getting them.

That evening we prepared for Morgan's first visit from the Tooth Fairy. We put her tooth in a little treasure box (borrowed from school) :) and then she placed the treasure box into her pillow and then tucked it in to bed.

In the morning Morgan was very excited to wake up and see what the Tooth Fairy had left for her. Since it was her very first tooth, the Tooth Fairy left Morgan $5.00! She immediately put it into her piggy bank. 

So proud!