Sydni's 9 Month Pictures

• This has been a fairly rough month for Sydni, but despite it all, she has stayed happy and calm, for the most part. Spring sprang, and we Browns, except Lane, have been sneezing and coughing and wiping our noses with the best of them. Dane and I have the luxury of being able to take allergy medicine to keep us going, but poor Sydni can't take anything, yet. Unfortunately, she developed an upper respiratory infection, and she had to take medicine via her eyes, nose and mouth. The only holes in her head that went unmedicated were her ears! It took a few weeks for her to recover, but she is just about better now, I think.

• She now has five teeth, four on the bottom and one on top, and she has handled teething like a pro with very little fussing, thankfully. She is looking more like a little girl with all of her teeth.

• I am happy to report that she has mastered her crawling and is no longer dragging herself around like a wounded soldier! She is also pulling up on everything and can walk around a little bit while holding onto things. A few times, we have caught her letting go and standing for a split second before she falls down. So, I think she is starting to trust herself a little more.

• Her greatest and newest trick of all is her clapping! She claps all the time, and she will also clap on cue when we sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands", which is really cute. A lot of times, she will just be playing or crawling around, and she'll just stop, sit up and clap for a while. It's so sweet. I'll have to get a video of it and post it.

• She spends most of her time following her brother around, so that keeps her very busy and on the go, since he never slows down! Another interesting thing I've noticed about her personality right now...she is perfectly fine with crawling away from me to go and play or explore, and she will sometimes even leave the room. But, if I happen to leave the room, even for just a few seconds, her entire world falls apart. She does this same thing with Lane and Dane, too. It's just so sad. It usually happens the most when I'm rushing around the house putting laundry away. So, as soon as she gets back to the room I'm in, it's about time for me to go back and get more laundry and go to another room.

• I've also noticed something new about her lately, and I think that this is pretty common for baby girls. With the exception of me, I think that she prefers men over women. Several times, lately, especially at church, we will be talking to a couple, and she will let the man hold her, but not the woman. I think that's really interesting. Also, I think that she is developing some special bonds with her uncles. She loves all of her uncles, but I've noticed that she lights up when she sees her Uncle Shad and Uncle Roger, and she'll let them hold her quite a bit. We see them some, but not like it's every day or every week, so I think that's neat. Disclaimer: Uncles Shayne, Joe David and Jason, I'm sure she would do the same with you, too, I just have not personally witnessed this behavior with you, yet.

Now, for some very exciting news! Sydni let me paint her toenails for the first time this morning. I thought it would be fun, well it was very challenging, but she actually did very well and sat still in my lap long enough to get them painted and to let Dane and I blow on them for a few minutes. Here's a couple of pictures of those sweet toes.