Camilla at 9 Months

It has been quite a while since my last post. The one where I told the world that my kid was sleeping through the night. We spent two weeks visiting family in the west last month, and upon our return, Camilla became the world's worst sleeper again. With a vengeance. If we try to let her cry, she screams bloody murder. It's bad. We're giving the sleep training a rest for awhile, mostly because I'm too tired to keep trying. I need to just sleep, and if the only way to do that is on her bedroom floor with her right next to me, that's just how it's going to be for awhile. 

Another thing that is making sleeping difficult is that Camilla has learned to pull herself up in her crib. So she gets especially angry when we expect her to fall asleep on her own. And then when we come in and find her standing up, it's really hard not to laugh. Oh Camilla.

During the day, she's the most adorable child. She is starting to talk to us a lot more and loves to wave at us. She also loves to wave at the baby looking back at her in the mirror. She is obsessed with that baby. Yesterday we were at the grocery store, and Camilla saw a baby in another cart that she promptly started to wave at. Even though she prefers the baby in the mirror to all other babies, she really likes kids in general. Her other favorite person in the whole world is Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. He sang a song for Sesame Street that's on YouTube, and we play it for her at least once a day. Her eyes light up, she starts to wave at Will.i.am, and she looks around to make sure we are watching with her. Camilla is also getting very mobile. She can't get up on her knees yet, but she wiggles around the room on her elbows and uses her legs to push herself forward. Though she can't quite pull herself up on furniture in general, she really loves to stand up. And since she can't get back down very easily, it's almost like having a babysitter when we prop her up against a kitchen chair. Camilla's favorite places to play are: the bathroom (cupboards full of stuff to pull out? yes, please!); the kitchen (dirty shoes and a mousetrap? oh boy!); and the box of shredded paper in the living room. She is definitely entering the stage where unpacking/unshelfing/unraveling/unorganizing ANYTHING is fun. She's a bit of a clingy child, and doesn't like to be separated from her momma. However, she adjusts better to changes by bringing something with her wherever we go. To clarify, she doesn't have a favorite toy. But if we reach to pick her up to take her to another room, she will quickly grab any toy that is in reach to bring with her before she'll let us pick her up. She often brings a bath toy to bed because we can't get her to let go of it after her bath. I don't always appreciate the things Camilla does well, and one of those things is to eat. She loves food. At her doctor's checkup last week, her pediatrician asked me if she likes to eat yellow veggies. (Um, yes. She will eat anything if it has a sweet potato, squash, or carrot base.) He told me that is part of why her skin is so orange. I don't really notice it because I'm used to her, but I get TONS of comments about her skin being so tan or her complexion being so olive. So I thought it was funny that he noticed it without me even saying anything. 

She is exhausting sometimes most of the time, but we really like having Camilla around. She is quite entertaining, and her little squeals of delight warm our hearts. We still wish she would sleep better, but I'm trying not to stress out about it too much. I'm really looking forward to warmer weather so we can get outside and not be cooped up at home for weeks at a time. Mark is interviewing for jobs these days, so our time in Ithaca is running out. We need to enjoy what we can about this place before it's time to move on!