9 months

He's still not crawling but he's so close. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks and rocks but the minute he puts one arm out to start crawling he falls to his belly. Despite this he gets around the living room so fast. He will literally roll four times in a row really fast to get to the wireless modem or cable box with all the blinking lights. We are going to have to find a new place for these things in our new house.

His legs are so strong, his favorite place to stand is next to his jumper. He tries to pull himself up but he can't do it on his own just yet. If you are sitting there next to him he practically crawls in your lap until you will stand him up to let him hold on. He squeals with excitement and "dances" and bobs up and down in his own little way.

He's finding his voice like no other. Sometimes he screeches so loud it pierces your ear drum. He will say, "by, by"...it sounds like, "ba, ba". He says, "ha, ha, ha","mama", "dada". He loves music and whenever I put it on he bobs up and down or if he's in his jumper he jumps like crazy. Sometimes I'll "play" the guitar and he'll just stare at me until I start singing a song then he'll get into it. His favorite is still Mary Had a Little Lamb. Even if you just hum the tune he knows it and starts clapping or jumping.

He's getting harder to keep confined in an area. He's starting to get bored with the jumper and the toys on it. I'll watch him play with a toy he used to love and after a few seconds I can see his disappointment with it and move on to the next thing. I also try and put him in the pack n play we have set up in the living room when I need to get stuff done and I can't keep an eye on him. But after 10 or so minutes he gets bored and wants out.

He's beginning to eat more and more every day. I really just don't think he was that hungry in the past and he was getting his fill from nursing but now that he's more active he needs some more calories. Our day looks something like this. Wake up around 7, nurse him, hang out in our bed while Marc gets ready for work. Around 8:30 head downstairs and he plays with his toys for 45 minutes or so then I feed him 2 tbsp. of oatmeal. Sometimes I put a dash of cinnamon in it as a treat. Between 9:30-10am he goes down for a nap usually until about noon. When he wakes up I nurse him again and we usually head out to do something; either meet a friend for lunch, walk to the park, run errands. I try to have him home by 2:30 for his nap otherwise he falls asleep in the car and then his nap is only 20-30 minutes. If I can get him home and in his bed then it can last for an hour to two hours.

Depending on when he goes down, I nurse him again around 3, sometimes it's before his nap and sometimes it's after. When he gets up from his nap it's always a crap shoot for what to do, if we haven't taken a walk yet we'll do that, sometimes we may just stay home and play, sometimes go to the park to swing. Around 5:30 he'll eat dinner. Right now it's 2 tbsp of oatmeal, 2 or so tbsp of a veggie and fruit. Sometimes I'll mix in some protein, either a chicken/apple or sweat pot/turkey baby food. When he's done eating the baby food I give him a mum-mum. He gets so excited, he just loves it. I don't know why because it seriously tastes like cardboard but for some reason he just gets so happy when he see's me pull it out of the wrapper. After the mum-mum I also give him some flavored puffs he can grab with his hands. They are like Cheerios but not, they are made for baby's so they dissolve in their mouth and there are different flavors. He has got so good at picking things up and eating them. Speaking of, I think I need to graduate out of the baby foods and start giving him bite size pieces of fruits and veggies that have been steamed. The fact is the pureed food is just so easy and anytime I've tried to give him food with some consistency to it he gags. I'm going to start with carrots because he loves to gnaw on whole carrots so I figure if I steam some up and cut them into small pieces he can grab with his fingers he'll be down...we'll see.

It's crazy how fast he's growing up. I look at videos and pictures of him just a few short months ago and I can't believe how much longer, fatter and more "toddler" like he's got. Marc and I were staring at him one night while he was sleeping in his crib and Marc whispers to me, "He looks like a toddler, I think he's going to need a bigger bed soon."  Haha, slow down there buddy, we are at least a year away from that. It's just so funny the way he sleeps because he sprawls out so he takes up the entire crib (he sleeps like his mama).

I still feel like I'm just a little bit tired all the time but I don't think that's ever going to change. Despite that, even when he's taking a nap during the day I can't wait until he wakes up so I can see him smiling and putting his arms out just waiting for me. He's so stinkin' cute sometimes I just can't stop loving up on him.