9 months

The only big thing this month is crawling!  Last month it was scooting and belly flops, and this month, you're a pro.

You're mimicking more and getting louder and more clear with your babbles. 

You light up when you see your dad walk in the door and you're always happy when Garrett wakes up in the morning and from a nap.  You're just a perfect little fit to this family.

Last month I mentioned that I'm dragging my feet about feeding you.  Well, now I'm taking a whole new approach.  I'm learning that you're a lot like Garrett about food.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's yucky, and most of the time you don't love purees.  My new approach is letting you feed yourself.  And feeding yourself what we eat.  Cucumbers, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, peaches... Unless it's super spicy or off limits at this age, I let you give it a go.  Sure, you don't get a lot in your tummy sometimes, but at this age the most important nutrients doesn't come from food, it's in the milk.  I want you to try lots of flavors, textures, and self feed at a young age.  So far it's going well.  I also give you the little 'crawler stage' organic snacks like puffs, wagon wheels, and rice rusks, and when I give you those I dip them in pureed vegis first and you always eat the whole thing.  I'm so happy with this new plan.  Makes meal time easy when it used to be my most dreaded time.

You sleep from about 8:00PM until 5 or 6AM, then right back to sleep until about 9:00AM.  I'm looking forward to ditching that early feeding, but it's not so bad because it's so short.

At your 9 month well check a couple days ago, everything looked normal and good.

You weigh: 17 lbs. 15 oz. (25-50%)
You are 27" tall (25-50%)
And you're head is 46 1/2 cm.  Still in the 97%!

The Packer's and a vacation

We went to a Packer's game last week.  You seemed to enjoy it.  You finally got tired near the end, but you didn't complain.  And you got a lot of compliments on your Packer baby gear.

The next day we left for a White Family vacation in Solvang.  It was beautiful and relaxing and you seemed to have fun.

Circus and a Luau

I braved it, and took you and Garrett to the Circus by myself.  We went with friends, but no dad to help in the event of a double meltdown.  It went perfectly.  You liked it more than I thought.  And although you got tired, you lasted until the drive home before falling asleep.  The only problem was that there was popcorn all over the floor so I couldn't put you down and let you crawl. I held you (and sometimes your brother, too) the entire time!  We had a suite, so there was plenty of open space to play.

 My massage therapist had a birthday party for her son and we went to it.  You're just like your brother in the water.  Splashing everywhere, crawling in it, not minding if you take a little too much in the face or eyes, being fine if it's cold, and never wanting to get out.  Grandma came too, and it was a lot of fun to watch you play now that you're much more mobile.  There was also a dog there that made you laugh.  I thought you'd be afraid of it being down on the ground and so close, but you grabbed it and let it get close to you and didn't mind at all.

a little bit of everything.

We went on a quick trip to Utah (again) a couple of weeks ago.  It was short and sweet and mostly spent with family.

We stopped for breakfast on our way out of town with your BFF, baby B.  And we left Garrett in Utah so you had a peaceful ride home.

But I think you missed your brother.  You were pretty sad for the few days he was gone and we could never be out of your sight.  I even had to take you to the bathroom with me to keep you from screaming!

Your Auntie Annie went on a trip to Ireland and Scotland and brought you some cute clothes.

We had fun at the beach with some friends.  And, as usual, you were outnumbered by the boys.

A walk through uptown Whittier and a stop at Coffee Bean.

Fun in the sun at Grandma and Dude-pa's house.

More pool time with Daddy's friends.  More being outnumbered by the boys.

You and your brother are playing together more and more.  It's so cute!  but I gotta say, you give him a run for his money.  You climb all over him, take his toys, try and grab his cups and food.  He get frustrated sometimes, and I kind of don't blame him.  But it's still really cute!