Eleanor at 9 months!

In Eleanor's ninth month we saw more crawling than ever, a major sleep regressions (hello 4 am feedings!) and a switch to more self-feeding over purees.  Eleanor settled really easily into Fresno life and even experience her first Halloween.  We discovered Eleanor's first tooth towards the end of her ninth month and Aaron and I were SO excited about it #firsttimeparents.  Eleanor also learned to pull herself up onto ottomans and her crib, resulting in lots more excitements but also lots more falls. And maybe the most adorable development of the month was Eleanor's new fascination with books.  She can turn the pages of a book and be totally content for twenty minutes (an eternity!).  I hope her book love continues forever.

As these pictures exhibit, at 9 months Eleanor was full of loads of personality and loads of movement.  It was all I could do to keep her on that rocking chair, let alone looking at the camera and smiling.  I made her headband though and it took a whole lot of effort and love so I was determined to get a good shot ;)

 ^^The tongue! She is her mother's daughter after all and it seems like I was always sticking out my tongue while growing up, especially when concentrating. My 7 year old gymnastics coach used to say he was going to have to mop up my tongue from the gym floor if I didn't keep it in my mouth while attempting cartwheels on the beam.  Anyways...

 ^^And here's where things got dramatic.  "Mooommmm, I said no more pictures!!!"

 ^^Always tapping her hand on something

 ^^Every day we choose a different potential career path for Eleanor and have her practice it for that day.  She obviously was a "chair model" on this day ;) 

(I'm kidding of course, but it's actually not a bad idea huh?)

And then I got a brain and realized that the only way I could keep her still enough for pictures was to give her a book.  It's fitting that the book is Your Personal Penguin too as this book was on repeat daily at our house. 

I was missing the great light we used to get in Eleanor's old nursery while I was taking these photos, but now I think the darker lighting conditions adds a fun dimension to the photos.  And now I can tell these were taken in her new Fresno house nursery, which will forever be a fun memory.