9 Months

Every month is the best month.  At least that is what my friends who are parents tell me.  I just loved this past month.  This little guy is babbling, smiling, waving, "flirting" and just generally fun to be around.

Eating.

He doesn't care for solids just yet.  If I give him mashed bananas instead of pureed, he spits it out. Finger foods such a peaches and green beans, not so much a fan either-- out they go! But, we keep trying.  He did seem to "nom" on some chicken and get a bit of that down.  He takes a bottle still every three hours.  So far, this boy has been exclusively given breastmilk and I am so thrilled that this continues to work out.

Sleep

Not too much has changed here.  The boy is up for 2-3 hours and sleeps.  He goes to bed around 8 pm and gets up around 2-3 am and again at 6 to nurse and is right back down until about 8 am.  He has been doing all his naps and overnight sleep in his crib.  We officially took the swing down.  He loves to cuddle his "snuggle" blanket and gets covered in his soft white blanket.

Interests & New things

He learned to army crawl.  Over the holiday break I got to spend two glorious weeks with my guy and I finally caved and gave him permission to crawl. He wanted to get around so bad and I finally said, "okay".  :-p

He just simply loves Cooper.  Hands down that is his favorite "thing" in the world!  He loves to play with Cooper. He will drag himself across a room to either get to him or his toys.  He likes to get Cooper's attention by grabbing his toys and waving them around.  He has even learned to "throw" them.  He really loves Cooper's Kong bone toy.  He gets that thing in his mouth and massages his gums with it.  And like the irresponsible chill mother I am, I let him.  Surely, I'm building up his immune system right?

He also loves mommy & daddy.   He loves to turn pages to his books.  He got an animal book at Christmas and, not to my surprise, his favorite animals is a dog --a golden retriever.  He loves his blocks and plastic connect toys.  He loves things with wheels and he loves things like his walker. He turns every toy upside down to inspect it.

He is just starting to favor me and get shy around others.  He babbles things like "dad-dad" and "dada" and likes to mimic sounds.  He is curious about everything and seems to be watching our every move.  He goes to bed happily when he is tired.  He usually falls asleep in the car.  He likes to pick up everything and has a keen eye for the tiniest things on the carpet and picks them up. (Random fact: I still find hay from last Halloween's photo session and he can spot it a "mile" away on a carpet.)