My Favorite Kira Things

In a few days, Kira will be 9 months old; she's grown and developed so much!  Here is a list of Kira abilities that I *love*!  In no particular order:

1. Eating Cheerios.  A few weeks ago, my mom put some Cheerios on Kira's highchair tray for the first time.  She could see them, finger them, and once in a while, she could pick one up.  But on her first try, she wasn't able to get them into her mouth.  After three days of coaching, she got one into her mouth on her own!  Now she can pick up Cheerios with her thumb and index finger, bring it to her mouth, and let go so her lips can take over.  It's so cute!  Sometimes the Cheerios end up in her tight, little fist.  In those situations, she opens up her hand and uses her palm to push it into her mouth.  Furthermore, she eats the Cheerios at her own pace, which is so cute.  Sometimes she'll stick two in her mouth.  Other times she'll suck on the one Cheerio, moving it around in her mouth until it dissolves away before reaching for another.

2. Waving and saying "hhhiiiiiii".  Kira has really gotten the hang of this one over the past few weeks.  Whenever Trevor comes home from work, or my mom arrives at my house, or Trevor's dad walks into the room, Kira raises her arm nice and high, opens and closes her fingers and cries out "hhhhhhhiiiiiiiiieeeeee".  It's so funny!  It took her a while to initiate this ritual on her own, but now she's got it down pat.  Besides "hi", Kira is also very conversational.  She talks at different speeds, with different "words", showing different expressions, and using different volumes.  It's like she's really having a conversation with you.  I think she will be very social someday.

3. Mobility.  Kira has two methods of mobility: crawling and walking.  She's doing really great with the crawling; she is always up on all fours now and rarely falls back onto her tummy.  However, she's still very slow.  She just inches from one side of the room to the other.  I'm waiting for the day she can do circles around the couch.  And, walking.  Kira *loves* to walk.  You can hold her by the armpits and she'll lift up her legs, left, right, left, right.  She really loves climbing stairs.  With every step, she squeals with laughter.  I can tell she prefers walking over crawling.

4. Kissing!  Kira knows how to kiss.  When I'm having quiet play time with her, I'll sit her on my lap, facing me.  She'll talk to me and laugh.  Then she grabs my face with both of her hands.  She pushes on my cheeks alternating her left and right so that my head shakes from side to side.  The she goes in for the kiss!  ahahehaheheheh...I love it.

5. Morning chit chat.  I've been going to bed really late these past few weeks, (I'm not sure why; there's no particular reason), and in the mornings I'm so sleepy!  For the past 4-5 days, I wake up with a start to the sounds of Kira talking over the baby monitor.  She makes baby sounds in her little munchkin voice; it always takes me by surprise that she's not crying.  Since she's just talking and playing with herself, I quietly get out of bed, wash up, and sneak into her room.  She's usually on her stomach, playing with her fingers, and talking.  Eventually she hears me, turns around, sees me, and starts laughing hysterically and swinging her arms and legs in every direction, as if to say, "pick me up!"  Sometimes I wonder how long she's actually been playing until I wake up!

These are my favorite Kira things primarily because these abilities hint at a little person emerging out of the little baby creature.  It's hard for me to think of Kira as anything but a little creature because she doesn't do anything a person does, like eat on her own, go to the bathroom on the toilet, or communicate thoughts and feelings.  Not that I would expect a baby to do that!  But, until she does these things, I don't think I will think of her as a person.  She's just my little pumpkin munchkin creature for now  =)