We've reached the 9 month mark...holy cow!

Just in the last couple of days, Jillian finally got the hang of crawling forwards! I've also noticed that she hardly goes backwards now...it's like she realized how crawling is supposed to work.

First it was:
-crawling backwards
-crawling backwards and going to a sitting position
-attempting to go forward, ending on tummy, then to sitting, pivoting, going on tummy, attempting to move, repeat
-crawling 2 paces, sitting up

Today, it was really noticeable that she was moving forward when we would put a toy in front of her, and instead of lunging for it like she usually does, she really moved!

I think this is the goodbye of clothes without worn-out knees!

She's also starting to make baby steps-literally! When she was standing today with Michael holding her hands, she would make exaggerated steps (knees up to the waist, take a step forward), then collapse with the effort. By this evening, she was really starting to get the hang of it!

We're also having fun playing ball together. I have a mini foam basketball that I would roll to her, and she would kick or push away from her. It's a bright orange, so it really keeps her attention.

She's feeling back to her old self after my last post; as soon as she was starting to feel better, she was ravenous and ate-and-ate-and-ate. She was due for a growth spurt anyway, but it can still catch you off guard. We were supposed to go for a 9-month checkup today, but the weather was INSANE! What, 2 feet of snow or something? Michael's school was actually *closed*; usually, buses will be cancelled, but teachers would still have to go into work. He was happy for an extra day at home with us. It was pretter-looking than the typhoon days we used to have in Taiwan. A Typhoon is like a Hurricane, but just in a different part of the world, so we would have a day or 2 off work.