Seriously?! Nine months?

I am the absolute worst blogger lately.  Molly will be 9 months old in pretty much exactly 24 hours.  The absolute fastest months of my life.  She is so wonderful.  I couldn't be more thankful.  All of my pictures are on the Mac, but I have a ton to post and share.

What have we been up to since...err...Labor Day?

• Molly is crawling...
• Once she started crawling, she immediately started pulling up.  ON EVERYTHING.
• She loves the TV stand...and the wii remotes...and the basket of DVDs by the TV...and the fireplace hearth (which is surrounded by pillows).
• She also loves Buffett and Sidda...our dogs who love her but mostly tolerate her so they can still sleep in the house :)
• She said MaMa on October 28th.  No kidding - she says MaMa when she sees me - not every time - but often enough that it's legit.
• She seems to say, "Hey!" and wave.  Could be that I say Hey to her all the time...could be just a babble.  Either way, it's cute and she's waving more and more everyday.
• I am still working 4 days/week and Mom keeps her 2 days and MC, the nanny, keeps her the other 2 days/week.  She's a lucky girl!
• She is outgrowing the jumperoo...which makes me sad.  She has LOVED the jumpy since she was like 4 months old.
• Lulu - AKA Aunt Mandie - gave us Emma's old Leap Frog Piano table to borrow (rumor has it, Annie has her one for Christmas :)).  She LOVES it.  She stands and just bangs all over it. 
• Molly loves the door stops and has discovered the plastic things that cover the screws on the bottom of the toilet.
• Speaking of toilet, you have to take her with you or she's liable to wander off and climb the stairs.  She's made it up 4 already (supervised, of course).
• Diapers - size 3
• Clothes - size 9 months, so I have been buying 12.  6 - 9 months onesies seem to be a little too short.
• Shoes - size 2 - 3 - 2's seem to be getting tight, 3's seem to fall off when she gets too rowdy.
• Smiles all of the time.
• Teeth - ZERO.  Although, we are being tortured by them and can feel them under her gums.  I expect she will break them through when I'm in DC next week, thus, breaking my heart.
• Speaking of, I'll be gone to DC next week for 2 nights.  Can I do it?  Not sure.  I may cry myself to sleep.
• We are still exclusively breastfeeding - no formula in this house.
• No formula, but, my girl will take a bottle and hold it by herself.  Breaks.My.Heart.  Such a grown up.
• Eating - EVERYTHING!  MC really challenges me to feed Molly whole foods instead of pre-packaged baby food.  Molly loves it.  We eat leek, potato and carrot soup, green beans, cheese (all kinds...more please :)), peas/carrots, toasted bread, Cheerios (LOVES), homemade applesauce, bananas, eggs, rice, refried beans, turkey, ham, chicken.  Sweet girl LOVES meat.  She would for-go sweets all day long for an extra piece of turkey :)
• Molly will be baptized November 21st.  We are looking forward to it and will have a brunch at the house after church that day. 
• Halloween was AWESOME!  Molly was a cow, Brooke was a pumpkin and Emma was a mermaid.  We spent the day at Mandie and Brian's and then came home and "trick or treated" at MC's, Jennifer and Chad's, Michelle and Dave's and Lindsay and Jonathan's.  Molly was a good sport, although, it was past our bedtime and she insisted on being carried and would have nothing to do with her stroller.
• Sleeping through the night?  Occasionally.  My sister told me today, "For someone who follows babywise so strictly, you certainly don't follow it at night."  She's right.  I don't.  My Aunt Cathy told me when Molly was born that babies would have plenty of nights when they would have to cry it out on their own when Mom's can't help.  That has stuck with me.  One day, I'll sleep 8 straight hours again.  She will only be a baby once.  And, one day, she won't want me to come check on her in the middle of the night and she won't need me to hold her and rock her.  I enjoy our time together...even at 3AM :)

I have tons of pictures to post and will do that soon.  She is really the light of my life and such a wonderful baby.  She's so happy all of the time and just so fun to be with.  Those last days of pregnancy, which a friend of mine is going through now, are so unbelievably worth it.  That night in the delivery room when I first heard Molly cry is singularly the best moment of my life.  Yep, I'm still as in love with her as I was 9 months ago.  Unwavering, unconditional.  I believe now that you never know love until you know the love of a child.