9 Month Skills

We meant to post this video with the 9mo update, but ... well, here it is now. At 9 months of age, Eden has lots of new skills.

First, just prior to turning 9-months, Eden began to sit up on her own, from her stomach. By her appointment, she had completely mastered sitting up.

Second, Eden has also started "communicating." Ashley interprets Eden's first sign of communication as happiness. When we were away at NCA, Eden's CC taught her how to play patty cake. Then, she began to clap her hands together for "Yay!" Now, she waves hi and bye-bye as you can also see in the video (at least sometimes, perhaps when she is in the "mood").

Third, she also recently (on December 15th) mastered the "put the ball through the hole" game on the baby Einstein.

Most recently (and exciting from our perspective) happend on December 17th at my parents' house. After reading Baby Signs, we decided on a few starter signs to try and communicate with Eden (mainly so we can know when she is upset because of hunger versus a dirty diaper, etc.). Nevertheless, one of the easier signs to learn is the one for "dog". Luckily, my parents are keeping my sister's dog, Lilly. The sign consists of sticking your tongue out and panting. Well, when Eden sees Lilly, she starts panting!! Perhaps its a coincidence that her excitement comes out as panting, but we think she's starting to make connections. We are reinforcing this by saying "dog" and providing encouragement. Her first word??? Perhaps!

Finally, she's definitely taking things in and mimicking. As you can see in the video below. Such an exciting time!