Healthy & Happy Little Munchkin

Caroline had her 9 month appointment yesterday! She weighed in at a healthy 21 lbs, 5 oz and is 27.5 inches long. She's definitely never had any trouble in the growth department -- something her pediatrician and I are both very proud of! The only concerning part of yesterday was finding out that her iron levels are low, so we were sent to the lab for additional testing. Watching my sweet baby girl have blood drawn absolutely broke my heart. She sat in my lap and was very brave. We should know the results of the test by tomorrow.

Here's my munchkin's monthly picture -- every month it gets more difficult to get a good picture. This month, she was all over the place. Trying to crawl up the back of the chair, crawl off the chair, everything.

We had her 9 month pictures taken last week with our favorite photographer. Here are the teaser pictures she posted on Facebook:

 I can't get over how well they turned out. Can't wait to see the rest of the proofs! We scheduled another photo session for early September so we can get Caroline's smash cake pictures taken for her birthday invitations. I have a feeling that's going to be fun.... :)

Many people have asked me if Caroline is going to be a vegetarian or not. I've been one my entire life, and I know she would follow in my footsteps if I was raising her completely on my own. But Brad was very vocal about wanting her to eat meat and I feel that successful parenting is based on compromises. Her first "meat" was tofu, cut up in tiny pieces and she LOVES it! We will expose her to all different kinds of foods and let her decide later in life if she wants to be a vegetarian or not.

I'm not going to lie, it made me smile tonight when she completely rejected meat lasagna baby food but devoured her cooked whole wheat elbow macaroni. I've made the majority of her baby food since she started eating solids at 6 months old. We've saved a lot of money and it's really given me piece of mind knowing what she was eating. Now that we can introduce her to more complex foods, I've been using jarred baby food from time to time. Her very favorite is Hawaiian Delight from Gerber - and I don't blame her, it's delicious!

Looking forward, Caroline will be able to add Missouri to her list of visited states next week. We're taking a mini-vacation to St. Louis since Brad has the week off from work. We're very excited about taking her up in the Arch and visiting the St. Louis Zoo!

I know some people may roll their eyes at this but we've also entered Caroline in a baby beauty pageant. She'll be participating in the 6-12 month age group Tiny Tots contest at our local 4H fair on July 28th.She'll be wearing a patriotic outfit, complete with a red, white, and blue tutu. There will definitely be lots of pictures taken that night!

Caroline continues to amaze me and make me laugh every day. I have a feeling that will never change!