3 Months.... Till....

Wow... Really? Carter is almost 10 months old, and I am finally able to sit down and put his 9 month blog together. I thought about being really lazy and combing his 9 and 10 months together, but since I want to make a book out of my blog after a year, I thought I better stick with my monthly updates.

Well, sweet baby boy you are getting to be so independent and everyday you are becoming less of a baby and more like a little man. You still laugh and smile all the time, and you love love love getting your picture taken. You seriously have a knack for picture taking! We are pretty lucky, because most of the time the pictures we take of you, you smile on command and are looking at the camera! Since I am a big picture person, this makes for one very happy mama!! The problem is that you take such good pictures that it is hard to choose which ones to frame.

You haven't changed too much since last month. Just a wee bit bigger and your personality is growing by the day!

9 Months and Growing

You started crawling right before your turned 9 months old. This was quite a sight! You started out by just a few crawls and then you would sit up. And for some reason you have what we all refer to as your "gimp" leg. You don't crawl with both knees on the ground and move forward, you basically drag one leg and move along with the other one. Daddy and I think it is because you want to be able to sit up as quickly as possible and this gimp leg helps you do that. Along with being able to crawl, you started pulling yourself up onto tables and the couch's. You think you are pretty cool when you do that, and love being able to stand up.

The only downside to you being able to stand up is that you now do it when you are supposed to be sleeping in your bed. Once we put you down for bedtime, you immediately rollover and are climbing up the side of the bed to stand up. Then you pull yourself right up and hang out until we come in and lay you back down. You actually, think that this is a game. You hang out on the one side of the crib that is right next to your door and you always peek through the open door to see what we are doing. Then when daddy and I peek in to check on you, you are right there by the door laughing and smiling. Its a funny little game, but not so funny when it is bedtime.



9 Month Pictures

Nursing and eating are still going great, you are a big eater so I never worry that your not getting enough food. You are eating baby food, and bite size pieces still, with all the same foods as before, except we have added in peach pieces, and any kind of pretzels, which you love and even started giving you what we are eating. We are really working on you feeding yourself your own bite size pieces , but you don't seem all that interested in that. You prefer the spoon over using your hands. Which is ok with me, because it is less mess for me to clean up. You have also decided that when you don't want your food you eating anymore that you bang on your tray and smash it all up, or you throw it down for Missy to clean up. Most of the time she will, unless its any sort of veggies; she's not a fan! You seem interested in whatever we give you, but still are not a fan of cheese or bread. Which is weird because those are staples in this house.

 I do worry sometimes abut your milk intake because it seems as though you are losing interest in the milk from both the breast and the bottle. Sometimes you act like you could care less that it is there, and other times you are so enthralled you cant get enough. You are nursing in the early morning still and then you eat get your milk twice during the day and once before bedtime. It seems as though you drink anywhere from 2-4 ounces, but 3 seems to be your number. When you drink out of a bottle you do seem to want to feed yourself, unless you are at Grandma's house then for some reason you expect them to feed you. You are still eating distracted when nursing, but the nice thing is that you drink alot quicker than before, so we aren't nursing for as long!! The only thing that you have learned and find funny is that playing with the breast is fun. Not for mommy, but you think it is. This is where teaching you "No, No" has started.

We started saying "No, No" to him for certain things. He is really interested in any kinds of wires (especially daddy's speaker wires, and Mommy's pump wires), and because of this interest we have to tell you No, No alot. You have no clue that it means don't do it again, because every time we say NO, NO you just giggle and give us that adorable little smile.

Sleeping still has not been mastered as of nine months! We are getting there and it does seem to be getting easier. You go down without a fight, and sleep sound for a good chunk of time, you just still tend to wake up around 1am and 4am. At 1 am we just have to let you cry it back to sleep and you are getting better at doing that. At 4 am you are hungry so we wake up to nurse, then go back to sleep. The funny thing is that you are a great napper. You take two long naps every day, one in the morning and one in the evening. If you don't get that morning nap we find that you tend to get a tad bit crazy. But, we have no issues with getting you down during the day to nap. You must be like  your mommy in that area. One of these days you will sleep through the night. Until then.... I will manage on few

hours of sleep at a time.

We are still rocking size 3 diapers and are staying between nine month and 12 month clothes. I know I said, that he was rocking some 18 month pieces last month, which he can rock; except I noticed that he only rocks the 18 month PJ's. For some reason PJ's run small for him. We don't wear many shoes these days, he has little "fat tops" as Aunt Laura calls him. He does rock his flip flops (with backs on them) and does fine in those. But, tennis shoes tend to get a little cramped with his little fat tops. Plus, I don't think he really Fancy's shoes right now because when you do try to put them on him he just curls up his monkey feet so you can hardly get a shoe on him.

Love these cheeks

Little man loves swimming. He has his own pool at home that he loves playing in, and really just loves splashing around in the pool. He does try crawling around in his pool and always tries to climb out of it, so this usually calls for Mommy to get in with him. I think he just wants someone in there to play with him. Which is fine with me!! When we get in the "big" pool, he always puts his face into the water. Which makes me laugh because it is like he wants to just get right under. He likes floating in his raft, but he would much rather be in your arms swimming around and splashing.

This month, you also got your very first black eye. Mommy was in the bathroom brushing her teeth and all she heard was a big boom and you crying. I think you may have crashed into one of your toys and bumped your eye. It was pretty devastating for momma, but daddy thought it made you look tough. You only cried for a few minutes and then you were back to playing. I was informed by the pediatrician that this is just one of many black eyes that you will be encountering. I know, your a boy and your going to be tough, so with that comes black eyes, bruises, bumps and cuts. I will work on not getting so freaked out every time one of these things happens.

You also are very interested in your morning cartoons. You don't just sit in front of the TV and watch TV all morning, but when it is on you will stop and watch when whatever cartoon that is on, is singing. You love Cat in the Hat, Curious George, and Clifford. Lately it seems as though you are taking a lot of interest in Super Why and Word World (ALL Channel 9 programs). Its cute to watch you get so intrigued with what your watching. We can even just sing Cat in the Hat's lyrics and you get excited!!!

Our Little Rookie

You also have learned what a few of your toys are specifically and you favor them over all the others. You know that "ball" is your big blue ball and you will crawl towards it, and "roll" or "throw" it back and forth to mama and daddy, or even grandma and grandpa. You also know what "I Love You All The Time" is (your favorite book) and when we ask you where it is, you will crawl towards it. You also have learned that in the book there is a Mama Bear and a Baby Boy Bear and you kiss them when asked to!! You love that book alot (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt) and prefer that one over all the others ones, OK, you don't prefer it, it is the only one you will let mama read to you.

When we took you to the doctor you are right on track with everything the pediatrician said. You weighed in at 20 pounds and 13 ounces and are a whopping 28 inches long. You go back in 3 months, and at that time we should be bottle free and nursing should be over with. I am eager for you to start walking between now and then and hopefully we can knock out a few words too!!



9 Month Check Up

Really in general, you are a love bug who still loves to snuggle with his mama, and play rough with his daddy. You love your cousins, and are excited when you learn new things. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next month.

We love you-

xoxo

Ma-Ma and Da-Da