Hazel at nine months

Hazel turned nine months old on Monday, which meant she had to go to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor was really impressed by how cute Hazel is, and how well she is growing, sitting, rolling around, and army crawling.

The doctor said she thinks Hazel is really doing a great job at eating, and that we should try to get her to start eating three meals a day instead of two. Mom pointed out that Hazel's been eating three times a day for almost two months, ever since we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to PA. The doctor said, "She has quite a metabolism!"

Hazel was good about letting them poke and prod her, although she cried a little after her shots. Mom said they gave me a flu shot too, but I am not sure I believe her because I didn't even notice. While we were there, I had a good time turning the light on and off, which made the doctor laugh.

The nurse gave us Hazel's latest stats: she is 26.75 inches tall (25th percentile), she weighs 16.22 pounds (10th percentile), and her head is 42 centimeters around (6th percentile).

Just before we left for Atlanta, we started a new nightly routine -- Hazel and I now take our baths together! Mom decided it was time, since Hazel can sit up now and Dad came home late the night we started it. Anyway, it is a lot of fun. Hazel likes playing with (a.k.a. chewing on) all the toys, and I like making her laugh, splashing her and rolling plastic toy balls off her head.

The other night, we had a good time sort of talking to each other in the tub too. While she was playing, Hazel was making happy little screamy noises and I decided to join in by imitating her. We did it back and forth, and it was so hilarious, we cracked each other (and Mom and Dad) up. We all wish we'd have had the video camera for that one, but at least we have since taken some fun photos.

Hazel is also sleeping better these days. She had been waking up about every hour and a half at night for the past month or so and Mom said Hazel was having a harder and harder time falling back to sleep. While this was happening, Hazel was also in an increasingly worse mood during the day. Finally, Mom realized enough was enough and Thursday night began doing sleep training with her. They did this with me too when I was little, so while Mom and Dad knew it would be no fun, they also knew it would work.

Not only did the sleep training work in about two nights (the third night, Hazel did not wake up once at night that anyone knows of), it went much easier than Mom expected. Hazel has been napping better during the day and has been in a smilier, happier mood. She must have been very tired from being up all night. Mom is better rested and in a better mood too.

Today we tried a new class at Gymboree, a family play class that is for families with more than one kid who want to play at Gymboree. We had a good time, but we are going to stick to my regular class for the next few months. Although there was one kid in the class who is a little younger than Hazel, there wasn't much for babies to do, so we'll wait to join that class until Hazel can walk around and climb on the equipment a little bit.

You can see Hazel's new growth chart on the side of the blog, or click here.