Nine months!

If it's the 28th, it must be Raggedy Ann time!

This month, Eliza learned how to crawl with her belly up, pulled up to standing, started eating more adult food, babbles constantly, including "dada" and "mama," took her first vacation (more on that later) and went swimming for the first time.

It's hard to believe I have a 9-month-old baby. She shouldn't be this old. For that matter, I shouldn't be this old.

She's the best thing to ever happen to us, though.

Eliza sleeps like a big girl and babbles, too. Also, more on package shrinkage.

The last thing in the subject line has nothing to do with Seinfeld. I was confronted with another incidence of package size shrink yesterday. I was checking out the nutrition information on the back of a can of Starkist tuna. I noticed that the serving size was smaller. Yep. Another case of the sneaky package shrink. We're paying the same price and getting half an ounce less. If the store brand is the old size, I'll be sticking with that from now on. I plan to call out every incidence of this I find. I think it's unconscienable. Especially in this economy. For fans of the 80s movie Mr. Mom, perhaps I should switch to Schooner Tuna. The tuna with a heart.

Now, about Eliza. As soon as we bought her a new swaddling blanket, bedtime became a nightmare. We'd swaddle her and she'd cry off and on for two hours. Busting out seemed to be her lone objective. Night before last, I was so frustrated I just unswaddled her and it was INSTANT sleep. She slept all night without waking up to cry once. Last night she gave us a hassle about bedtime for about 45 minutes, and then she fell right to sleep and was still sleeping when we got up this morning. I guess swaddling is a thing of the past. I hate that we spent the money on a new blanket, but I'm relieved that she seems to be learning to sleep on her own. Now I need to tackle her new aversion to afternoon naps.

She's also been babbling a ton lately. I tried twice to catch it on video today, but with little success.

How Eliza got her babble back

Oprah

Cuteness and Concern

Eliza continues to be the adorable baby we know and love.

Unfortunately, she's had a few problems lately. She's now fighting bedtime. This is new within the past few days. She cries when we swaddle her and put her down for a good 10-15 minutes. Last night we had to pick her back up and feed her a bit after she refused to settle down.

On top of this, she spent most of last week playing with her ears. She also stopped babbling and cooing. Her hearing is just fine and she's reacting normally to noises. Her cooing has been replaced by an occasional whisper. My sister had been whispering to her when she was change her clothes/diaper. I hope she's just mocking Cheryl. Just the week before she had been cooing so much she was almost annoying. We're quite concerned and looking forward to her doctor's appointment tomorrow.

She's still loving her Exersaucer, though. She's also finally proactive when it comes to grabbing and playing with toys. Of course, everything is a potential sucking and gumming target. She reached out and grabbed the gyroscope on her swing for the first time this morning. She also loves Yo Gabba Gabba more and more. She reacts with such a cute laugh and smile as soon as she sees the opening credits. I could have asked for a better show for her.

Eliza also learned to make a razzing sound last week. She was even repeating it over and over when I would do it. That's a relief. With the cessation of cooing, I'm glad she's attempting other milestones. Otherwise, I'd be hysterically worried at the moment.