I can’t believe my daughter’s already nine months old! It seems like it’s very sudden. My daughter had lots of new achievements unlocked this month: sitting up, the arrival of tooth #3, the army crawling got even faster, she learned to drink from a straw, and she announces her preferences by EXTREME FULL-BODY WIGGLES OF HAPPINESS when you hold up the item she wants.
At the very tail-end of December we finally got her room finished – wallpaper removed, plaster patched, light fixture replaced, walls and trim painted. We started that project in FEBRUARY 2020 but shockingly it didn’t rise to the top of the to-do list until she started disrupting our night time sleep…now that she’s got her own space we are all sleeping much better!
My sister got the kids a ball pit for Christmas and they both love it so much – and we love that they can both play with it together!
Got to my new favorite coffeeshop – Lunges ‘n Lattes! Their barista is a wizard with drinks – there’s nothing from there we haven’t liked!
Also, the back-side of this dragon onesie that was absolutely a 3 am impulse purchase and I regret nothing.
Snowy, icy photo fun!
Forcing a hyacinth bulb in our kitchen was fun for our son and smelled so good while it bloomed!
Hanging out a Taylor Park with Carla, and the super crazy “wolf footprint” (aka two dog footprints right on top of each other).
Ponytail!! And practicing sitting all by herself. She could sit, but needed to be put into the position first.
L!VE cafe is a black-owned cafe where local black politicians meet to organize and early this month someone threw a brick at the storefront with a slur written on it. They had a vigil so the community could show support for the business.
We didn’t really think we’d need a snowsuit for our girl since how often were we really going to take her outside in the middle of winter? As it turns out, during a pandemic with a mild winter, pretty often! It has pretty limited mobility, so here she is giving her best turtle-on-its-back impression on our kitchen floor.
Keeping us company on walks and just being smiley and cute.
I dressed her up for once in a super cute hedgehog outfit that I *may* have purchase about two years before she was born…the outfit lasted all of 30 minutes because: breakfast.
Her favorite toys are choking hazards. The benign version is sweatshirt hoodie strings. The terrifying version is electrical cords.
She was super mad one day (teething?) so the LED color-changing hedgehog toy was sufficiently distracting to stop the screaming, thank goodness. Can you tell I like hedgehogs?
More photos from snowy outings! We saw this neat beaver-chewed tree by a wintry river, and of course I couldn’t resist taking macro snowflake photos.
- She has impressive yoga skills
- This is the last known photo of the curl!! Her hair got long enough that the curl delated. 🙁
She learned to drink from a straw this month, and here she is upside down so we could get photographic evidence of the snaggletooth – the right top tooth came in first and she looked super goofy for about two weeks.
Snow ball throwing at Scoville Park with all this perfect sunlight!
She’s usually super cheerful in the morning and greets us with Full-Body Wiggles-of-Happiness. She also really likes the soft, furry ruff on my coat.
Checked out the Morton Arboretum! The walking paths were pretty dang icy, but they have a grader machine that runs over them every so often to make tread so they aren’t so slippery. I felt more comfortable walking around with crampons, but then again I think I’m more prone to losing my balance than most people.
My sweet friend Melissa made me an apron and birthday cookies! It was so welcomed after a challenging week!
My husband, opening his Valentine’s Day gift early! We collect Starbucks ceramic tumblers and so I went hunting to find an Illinois cup from a few years back!
Our daughter army crawls over to us and very gently taps our feet to indicate that she’d like “up!” When she’s in a less patient mood she will crawl over, faceplant on the floor next to our feet and scream.
2 out of 3 of the best people ever. I’m bummed my son is sooooo over getting his photo taken, and I’m taking advantage of every opportunity to photograph my daughter while she still doesn’t mind!
See you next month!
Kristen Hazelton is an Oak Park, IL (Chicago, IL metro area) and Livermore, CA (San Francisco East Bay Area) senior, family, and engagement photographer. She occasionally photographs in San Diego, CA, Tucson, AZ, and Seattle, WA. You can inquire about your own photoshoot here!
