Wasabi

I am apparently a bad mommy. Last night, we went for Japanese and R would NOT keep her fingers out my plate, specifically the big lump of wasabi on the corner of it. Well, I decided to go for it and put a touch of it on the end of my chopstick. She freaked - crumpled up her face and starting spitting and sputtering. I don't think she liked it much...she didn't eat much after that. Luckily, she'd already had a huge meal so I didn't feel too bad. Man, it was funny, though.

Last night I also made a Maya Wrap. Ryanne seems to still want to be held a lot and it's just a pain not being able to do anything else all day because I've only got one hand. She's long been too big for me to carry in the Bjorn so I'm going to try this. It was much cheaper to make than to buy one (about 1/3 the price) and if she hates it, I won't feel as guilty. If, however, she loves it, I have many other fabrics picked out for nicer ones and wintry ones and...

She had her 9 month appointment on 7/30. She was 18lbs 1.1oz (40%), 26 3/4 inches long (25%). Her growth has slowed down, but the doctor assures me that's normal and it's not like she comes from tall genes. The doc was worried about her refusing baby food because of the extra iron it provides, but her hematocrit levels were 'great' so I was told just to keep doing what I'm doing and keep lots of variety coming at her.

R's eating exclusively finger foods now. She does really well on table food. She gets some extra iron from the toddler breakfast foods and Gerber puffs that we feed her. I don't really feel bad about the switch, with one exception...

Ryanne has always been a pretty good sleeper. For the last 3 months, though, she's had a cold or been teething or we've moved or travelled or whatever and her sleep has suffered. Well, the ped told us to work on this so Chrys, wonderful man that he is, has been getting up with her. I had always gotten up with her, but when she wakes up at night for whatever reason, and smells me, she wants milk and goes ballistic until she gets it. Well, the last few nights, whenever she wakes up, she's REALLY gassy. Two nights ago, she didn't wake up at all. This tells me that the night waking is gas, which stinks. If the only reason she wakes up is gas, then I wonder if gas is caused by the finger foods and then I wonder if we're moving too fast...this stuff is hard!

She's taken a few more steps, but still not really walking yet. I don't think we have too much longer, though.

She's also working on words. She tries hardest to mimic 'cat' and we sometimes get 'ca' and this morning I got a 'dat'. She's also pointing and I've started identifying whatever she points at.

Tomorrow morning, we're going to a walkers class at Gymboree. She's a month younger than they recommend, but seemed WAY beyond the crawlers class definition. I guess we'll see.