Nine months in, nine months out.

Our bubba turned nine months old today. She continues to be a delight to us. She's a mellow girl who loves nappy-free time, splashing in the bathtub and visiting the neighborhood kitties. She eats everything we have given her except goat cheese.

She's not quite crawling yet, but she rolls like a champ. She started aggressively rolling the day after we fed her salmon dinner and Nate is convinced it accelerated her development.

She loves to go for rides in her pram accompanied by her favorite friends. On her lap is Freddy the Firefly, next to him is Rainbow Chain and hanging from the canopy is her betrothed, an octopus we named Prince Roxopus II (we got him around the same time Michael Jackson died). This is how she ends up at the end of a long pram ride.

Although she's on the petite side, she has outgrown a lot of clothes. I packed away her winter clothes and got out her summer duds, including the cute summer dresses we bought or were given when we were home in June. I got a bit sentimental packing up clothes that she'll never wear again, but recovered when I realized she's got a dresser full of brand new clothes.

She gets a lot of comments on her hair, which continues to grow and never fell out, as a lot of (jealous) people told me would happen. We had a little heat wave a few weeks ago and I was tempted to cut off the hair in the back because she woke up from her naps with her neck drenched in sweat. Neither Nate nor I are quite ready to cut her hair, though... she'll just have to suffer a little bit. Maybe we'll get her cornrows for the summer.

Although she's a delight and generally mellow, she is also learning how to communicate in ways other than crying. She lifts her arms up when she wants a cuddle. She flings herself and wails when a toy is taken away or she's not allowed to pull off Nate's glasses. She screeches and splashes in the bathtub. My favorite is that she laughs when she sees something funny. She used to only laugh when she was tickled or swung around. Now I just make a funny face and she cracks up! It's great! (The photo above was taken by Becky.)

We're looking forward to our next season here in Brissie. Spring is upon us (along with some serious hay fever on my part) and we celebrate our One Year in Australia anniversary next month.


Still to come... Becky's week with us. It will be up within the week!