9 Months Old

The girls are 9 months old today, just three months shy of a year! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly this first year is passing and how much they've changed and grown since we brought home those two tiny bundles.

Here's an update on each of the girls at 9 months:

Candace Nicole



Candace is a beautfiul little girl full of personality. Her hair is coming in a strawberry blonde and her eyes are the brightest blue. She has a contagious smile as big as her entire face.

She is such a little pistol! She is very impatient and has quite the temper. She is also a toy thief. She wants and takes whatever Cassidy expresses interest in. We call her our little gremlin because she grits her teeth together and makes a mean (but still adorable) face. She's also a biter...ouch! Thankfully she has not yet used her sister or my breast for her teething purposes.

Candace is also very independent. She is an investigator and can entertain herself for great lengths of time inspecting a toy from all angles. She prefers to do things herself, which makes feeding her quite a chore because she wants to grab the spoon and feed herself. She loves finger foods for this reason, it is something she can do on her own! She is so proud and happy when given puffs, a banana, or biter biscuit to eat independently.

She has become a definite daddy's girl and lights up everytime she sees him. It is funny how much this has changed, because up until the last month or so she was a mama's girl through and through. She still loves her mama, but finds Daddy immensely entertaining and fascinating.

Candace's favorite activites include reading and sleeping. Although she is not sleeping through the night, she is happy to lay down, takes long naps, and will still go to bed fairly early. She LOVES to read and spends lots of time looking through books. If there is a book in the room, you bet she'll find it!

Cassidy Elizabeth



Cassidy is such a little cutie and has the most kissable little face and contagious giggle! She looks eerily like her Grandma Lezli at this age. Her hair is coming in a light brown and her eyes are changing to her mama's unique hazel color.

She is a bit sneaky and mischievous and is quite the explorer. If you turn your back on her for five seconds she is attempting to get into trouble. It's a bit ironic that she wants to explore her boundaries, but is also going through a clingy period, so she wants you close by while still trying to test her limits, lol! She does not like to be alone and will let you know it.

Cassidy still adores her brother Aidan and thinks Daddy is amusing, but her favorite person by far is her mama. We are dealing with the seperation anxiety phase, and although I enjoy being wanted and adored, I will be relieved when she is a little less clingy and needy. We are also still struggling with sleep, as she seems to think she will miss something exciting if she goes to bed. She takes short naps and wants to stay up late.

Her favorite activities include dancing and peek-a-boo. She will often dance when she hears music or singing and is really quite coordinated and graceful (she doesn't get that from me!) She loves peek-a-boo and often covers her face with any available toy or clothing item in hopes that someone will join in on the fun. Just yesterday she got her sister to join her in the game, it was the cutest thing ever (see video below!)

Developmental Milestones
- Both girls are crawling on hands and knees and are pulling themselves to stand. Cassidy can stand unassisted for up to 10-15 seconds and is cruising along furniture (very slowly!) Candace is close behind on both skills. I am not ready for walking, but I'm afraid it is not far off.

- Cassidy's first real word, that she says with the correct association, is "kitty." She doesn't pronounce the "t" sound, so it sounds more like "ki-eee," but there is no mistaking that is what she is saying. She says it whenever she sees one of the cats or even pictures of cats (and anything else with fur, lol!) Neither girl says any other words with the correct association yet. Both girls make the sounds ma, mum, da, ba, ga, ya, and ca. Cassidy usually repeats the same syllable over and over (mamamamama) and Candace prefers to string them all together to form "sentences."

- Candace has three teeth, with a fourth on the way, and Cassidy is still working on her second one.

- Cassidy can follow the commands "give kisses" and "give me five" and both girls will crawl over to us when Sean or I call them.

- They are eating three meals a day, each eating 1/2 a jar of fruit, vegetable, or meat mixed with rice or oatmeal at each meal, followed by a finger food such as banana, puffs or a biter biscuit. Both are still breastfed as well, only 3 months away from our goal!

- They are not using sippy cups yet, although I admittedly haven't tried very hard.

- Neither is sleeping through the night... thank goodness for coffee!

Enjoy the pics!

Candace (You can see her "Gremlin" face in a couple of these!)







Cassidy (Still making the silly faces!)






The Girls





Bonus Video: Girls playing peek-a-boo, of course I pulled the camera out too late to catch all the initial giggles, but it is still adorable to see them interacting!