Nueve means nine in Spanish...

Another month gone by! Today Maddie is 9 months old. Wowzers, Eeeeks, Shucks: a three word summary of my overall emotions. I am amazed at how fast time goes by, happy she is doing so well, but sad that soon I will have to return to the "world". Ken and I have decided I will go back to my part-time position, and thankfully my mom will be looking after Maddie, which makes me feel a bit relieved (as it would be harder to leave her in a daycare with total strangers). It's funny though, we all adjust. Who knows we might end up moving, but for now I am planning ahead thinking we'll stay put. And that's that.

Yesterday we took Maddie to the doc for her 9 month checkup. All is well. She weighs 18 lbs 2 oz and is 26.2 inches long (approx in the 20th percentile, small and cuddly!)! And to think she was wee tiny when she was born! The doc also did a general check up as she has been a bit fussy, but nothing was out of sorts. Well, except that when he looked in her mouth sure enough there are 2 more teeth on the bottom just about to cut through. Poor little babe. So out came the Camillia drops (well in reality we've been giving them to her all the time, actually it's become a bit of a battle, as they are a wee bit pricey and Ken shall we say wants to ration them...), and I bought some Hylands teething tablets too, which are also great. So for now we will have to go with the flow of the teething baby.

She has to go back in one month to check up on a few developmental milestones. But we are not overly worried as she is a preemie, and it's normal to be a bit behind. I keep dreaming that she starts walking...so maybe she'll skip the whole crawling thing and go straight to being a biped. Both Ken and I didn't crawl...it'll be interesting to see what happens.

And now, in case you were wondering I will explain the title of this post. Over the last 9 months we have been using Pampers products. They have a rewards program which allows you to collect points and once you have enough for the items on your wishlist, you can cash them in! Well I had my eye on a little Elmo doll, a bilingual Elmo doll. He (or is it she...I just don't know!) speaks both English and Spanish. I found this very appropriate as I hope Maddie will be fluent in her mommy's mother tongue. So, yesterday, after waiting about a week, Elmo arrived! He is super cute. He sings "Sunny Day" in both languages and also says things like "Sol means Sun in Spanish", "Amigo means Friend in Spanish", "Dia means Day in Spanish", "Hola means Hello in Spanish". So now Maddie is on her way to speaking Spanish!