Rayleigh is 9 Months Old!

Oh, my sweet princess. 

How I love her. 

She makes me whole world rosy and worthwhile.

Rayleigh is 9 months old.

She's now been out of me for as long as she was in me.

She is so beautiful. Her eyes are incredible. And she's very tall, or so everyone tells me. I used to get, "Look at those cheeks!" but now I hear, "She's so tall!" and of course we always get, "And her bracelet! So cute!" 

She stops traffic, this one. We can't take her anywhere without getting stopped and people are constantly coming up to us to tell us how pretty she is. It's so nice to have so many people slow down and smile at her. It's mostly little girls and grandpas. They tend to flock to her more frequently. 

Like, at the pool: as soon as we settle in with her pink shaded floaty I get swarmed by every >5 year old. And they comment in tiny little "motherese" voices, "OOOOOOOooooo, a baaaaaby! Look at the baby!!!!!" Then comes a million and 4 questions. "Is it a boy or a girl?" (apparently little children neglect gender cues like bows, bracelets, and massive amount of pink) "Where is her hair?" "Can she talk?" "Does she have legs?" - I know this sounds alarming, but they can't see her legs when she's in her floaty and the littles get concerned.

Rayleigh is loving life! She is exploring at full speed. Well, almost full speed. She's not walking, obviously! But she is a pro at her scoot/crawl where she drags her left leg under her. I think she leaves it under her for easy access to the sitting position. She can climb stairs and is pulling herself up on everything: her crib, the couch, church chairs, the tub... 

She loves to eat what we eat so we always give her a try. But she prefers her little baby food pouches and sticks with those  most of the time. 

She is still completely obsessed with music. Put on some music and she starts bouncing and bee bopping. She has been that way since she was in utero. And she lights up when she hears, "Let it Go". But even if we are watching TV and a song snip it is thrown in she immediately turns and focuses and starting dancing. I can't get enough of it! 

She can make lots of different sounds now and has clearly distinguished Mama and Dada to me and Tanner. She likes to mimic us when we blow bubbles (or make spitty sounds). 

She loves to be thrown up or onto the bed. And she LOVES her brother! 

She's a very good sleeper. She takes 2 naps a day but could probably be fine with one and go to bed a little earlier. 

She still loves the bath but she's kind of over having me rock her to sleep, which is painfully sad. 

She loves to play peek a boo. 

I'm not sure of her stats because her doctor's appointment was canceled. But she's as healthy as can be and so utterly perfect. She's only been sick once! 

She still has no teeth and loves to munch on everything, especially paper. 

She's a good little traveler and makes us all so happy! 

She's the apple of my eye and I thank my lucky stars everyday that  she's mine!!!! I love you Rayleigh Kae!

She literally sat her and watched him do this for an hour. We had to strap her down so she wouldn't try to touch the tracks and get hurt but she was obsessed with watching him play cars! And, by the way, Parker assembled this all by himself!