9 Months Old! Wow!

Kirsten is 9 months old today! It's hard to believe, but true!

New milestones she's hit this month:
-As of yesterday, she can finally creep forwards instead of just backwards! It's almost crawling, but not quite because she still goes down on her tummy a lot and slithers the rest of the way towards something she wants. But it's definitely a big step forward!
-She now has one tooth poking up from her bottom gums.
-When she's on her tummy on the floor, she can spin herself around to face any way she wants and roll or creep in the right direction.
-When we roll a ball towards her, she can roll it back! It's lots of fun!
-She's taking two naps a day now instead of three.
-(Drumroll....) She can fall asleep on her own! At last! We usually still rock her a little bit to get her relaxed, and then when we put her in the crib she usually goes down without a fuss. If she cries, it only lasts a few minutes. Hallelujah!Her favorite things this month:
-Holding onto my hands while I help her stand up and bounce
-Turning her toys upside down and dumping everything out of them
-Sucking on everything and anything
-"This little piggy went to market..."
-Exploring everything that's on the floor

Things she really hates this month:
-Getting her hair put into pigtails, or anything that slightly pulls her hair
-Strangers, but only the scary ones
-Being left alone in a room for a few seconds

Her favorite toys this month:
-The Amazing Animals Train (pictured below). She loves to take the animals out and take the train apart. She also likes the Amazing Animals tub toys.
-The Fisher Price Learning Birdbath that has music, lights, and different colored shapes she can pull out and chew on.
-A little plastic ball with a jingle bell inside it, and it's actually a cat toy. Whenever she finds it she shakes it for a long time to make the bell jingle.
-The Playskool giraffe ring stacker. She's loved this one for months, and now she's constantly taking all the rings off and playing with them.
-The remote control, keys, paper, phones... basically anything that isn't really a toy.

Things she still can't do:
-Crawl, but she'll probably get the hang of it this month.
-Get herself into the sitting position.
-Pull herself up on furniture or her crib. She just doesn't seem to show much interest in doing it yet. I can stand her up against the couch and she'll stand there for a few minutes, but I have to sit right by her because she falls down pretty quickly.

Honestly, I have really loved Kirsten's eighth month. She's been a much happier baby in general, is showing more of her personality every day, laughs at all kinds of things, and has been sleeping really well for the most part. I'm so excited to see what she'll learn in this next month!