The Lion at 9 Months

Isn't he handsome?  He continues to get cuter as he ages in my totally unbiased opinion.  We have now hit 9 months!  Quite frankly, I can't believe it.  That's the magical milestone where he's been out as long as he was in, and my body's supposed to be fully recovered, right?  (ha)  

I know I say this every time but lil man is ACTIVE.  And the more he can do, the more trouble he gets into. Still, this is by far my favorite age to date, and he's a lot of fun to be around.  Except when the whole house has had Roseola for a week, on top of the double ear infection, and there's been a lot of screaming.  Not that that's going on here or anything.  :/  Chris told me I'm not allowed to post the picture of my rash.  You can thank him.

Physical feats:

He is so close to walking that it's making him angry.  He cruises easily, runs with his dino-walker, and pulls up and sits down with ease.  He finally mastered REAL crawling, and no longer does the silly army scoot.  Never thought that would happen.  His favorite game right now is opening cabinets and drawers that don't have latches, which mostly means his dresser.  And then removing the clothing out of those locations.  If you pull him away (or really any time you do something he doesn't like), he plops down onto his butt, flops his head forward onto the floor and screams.  We are amazed that we are getting temper tantrums so soon.  Not so much bragging about that one.  At least they are typically pretty quick.  He can walk holding one hand, but still only stands for a few seconds on his own.  I think he just hasn't cared yet.  He will just sink to his butt if you try and make him.  He can go up a flight of stairs, but it makes me nervous.  Going down, he hasn't figured out that he needs to go backwards yet, and REALLY scares me.  He is FAST and cannot be left in one spot and be expected to stay there.  We have now *almost* fully child-proofed.  Getting close.  Still need latches on the bathroom cabinets.

Mental feats:

Good grief is he smart.  We get new words almost daily.  Currently, we've heard: mamma, dadda, pa, up, more, all done, bat, ball, duck, puppy, bubba, hi...um, I'm sure I'm forgetting.  He's not particularly consistent about using them, but it frequently surprises us what he pulls out.  He understands how to do MANY tasks.  "Turn off the light", "Brush your teeth" (he sticks his tootbrush in his mouth and chews), "Give Mamma a kiss", "Throw the ball to puppy", "Do you want to eat?", "Where's dino/the ball/duckie?"  He also is EXTREMELY opinionated (that hasn't changed from day one, I suppose), but is now figuring out that he can throw fits to get his way.  Give me strength.

Food:

Robby is almost done with purees.  He hasn't wanted to eat them at home forever, since we've done finger foods for months, but he still will give in at daycare, though apparently this past week has been a battle.  We've started sending in Cheerios for snack time, so he realizes there are solids there, too.  I was scared that he was weaning himself this week, but seemingly it was just being sick.  He's actually flipped and is almost exclusively nursing at the moment.  Solids are bothering his throat it seems.  Though he forced down some stuffing and chicken tonight.  I would have wondered if it was really my son if he hadn't.  He has finally figured out sippy cups and drinks water that way, but we have not tried to transition off of the bottle for milk yet.

Sleeping:

It's generally been better, although, again, this past week has been off with the illness.  He still generally sleeps 7pm-7am and will do between 1.5-2.5 hours (total) of naps a day.  We'll see if that changes next week.  I'm going back to full time, so he'll always be at daycare for naps (oh goodness), BUT, they are moving EVERY OTHER CHILD out of his classroom and into the 1-2 year old room (legitimately, they're all 1).  As far as I know, no babies are scheduled to start yet, so it'll be Robby all by his lonesome.  I really am not sure what to think.  We shall see.  Hopefully he'll sleep better without the distractions. 

 Size:

Alright, I had been freaking out that he hadn't grown.  Because he had gone in to the doctor while sick and weighed less, and I measured his height, and it hadn't changed.  That was 3 weeks ago or so.  When we went on Saturday for his ears, he weighed 21 lbs (clothed) which is UP 2 lbs, and his picture below sure looks like he's about 3 inches taller (judging by where his ears are).  But we shall see for sure on Tuesday at his 9 month well visit.  He's moving into mostly 12 month clothes now, though we put him in mostly 9m pants so that he doesn't trip while walking.

Happy 9 months, busy man!  I'm loving watching you learn, and MAN you're just a goof right now.  Love ya!

Flip FOUND!

Ya'll, I had been tearing this house apart looking for our video camera.  It was upsetting me both because I knew there were cute videos that had not been uploaded, and that a new camera just is NOT in the budget.  (Especially after Monster had to get $414 of surgery last week.  But...I suppose that's how it goes.  I was NOT of the opinion of my uncle that we should just trade him in, as he's good as new now.  Love the little guy, and I've owned him for almost 8 years!  Though he was 2 when he showed up on my aunt's doorstep.  I digress.)

Chris found it in the pocket of the camera bag.  Really?  I hadn't checked a mildly obvious spot?  Isn't that always how it goes?  Either that or you find it in a refrigerator.  Or I once found my cell phone in a Kleenex box.  I lose a lot of things.

ANYWAY.  Back to videos.  Before I get sidetracked again.  (And, as I'm hearing murmers over the monitor, I think that will be soon.)  A couple cute clips.

Robby LOVES lasagna.

This is early yesterday.  By evening he was RUNNING with this walker.

And...he is using absolutely EVERYTHING as a walker.

These are the few times he wasn't screaming.  He has double ear infections AGAIN.  If he gets one more round, they're doing tubes.  Chris and I have both had the flu.  Chris is home from work sick, I'm home because I had switched work for Tuesday as the daycare's closed for President's day.  We have no clue if Robby had it, as he had a fever with the ear infections anyway.  Probably.  He's been a pip.  There's a quick totally random recap.

Dear Daddy

Dear Daddy,

For Valentine's Day, I thought I'd help out a bit.  So, I thought I'd start by cleaning out the dog crate.  

Harper wasn't so sure she wanted me ruining the aroma she had worked so hard to cultivate.

 But I know how much pet hair everywhere bothers you, so I went to work.

She was not happy.

Then I picked out a nice wine for dinner.  Though you probably won't let me have any.  Not fair.

I worked on your Valentine.   And...accidentally ruined it in the process.

So I tried to tire out the puppy with some ball action.  By the way?  I said ball, bat, duck, puppy, and Bubba this morning.  I know you've heard them all before, but just lettin ya know.  

Then I tried to make dessert.

And tried to stop the puppy from barking outside.

Neither worked.  Anyway.  It's been a busy day, and it's still early.  But I just wanted to say that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.  And you're my favorite now.  But you know that with all the yelling, "Dada" while Mommy's holding me.  She had her turn.

Love you lots, 

Robby (& Katy)

Breaking my Week Plus of Silence

I don't have a post in mind, but here goes what we have been up to.  And a bunch of random pictures.

-  Everyone got the flu.  I was a mess and living in the bathroom.  So much so that Chris had to take a day off of work to care for Robby.  He had to stay home for himself the next day.

-  We went up to the middle of nowhere to visit Chris's parents.

-  My parents "stopped by" our house on the way back from Florida.  It's more than a little out of their way.  We're talking maybe 10 hours of driving extra.

-  I've met up with a bunch of mommies for lunches and such.

-  A couple friends had babies, one of which I got to see and hold.  You forget how itty bitty they are!

-  Robby quit sleeping through the night when he learned to stand up in his crib.  We had a couple painful nights dealing with cry-it-out, but he figured it out and all is back to normal.

-  Now (as in this very second) he is continuing to fight going down for naps.  He has had 45 minutes today, and it is 4pm.  NOT GOOD.

-  He finally started REAL crawling.

-  At the same time as he's gotten better with standing (no support), and is an expert cruiser.

-  He is WORRYING me because he is not growing.  At 6 months he was 27 1/4" and 18 lbs 8 oz.  7 months he was up to 20 lbs.  Now?  He lost a FULL pound, and is only 19 lbs 1 oz and STILL 27 1/4".  Even though he is a piggie.  He has dropped from 75th+ percentile in both to 10-25th.  I will be discussing this with the doctor.  That being said, Chris and I are not particularly big people (which, I'm sure is pretty darn obvious), so 10-25th percentile may be where he ends up.

Funniest new trick?  Chris burping and Robby burping back.  Gee, thanks, hun.

Do my feet smell? - Photo Challenge

Harper thought that Robby needed a bit of help in the hygiene department, so, y'know.  She brought out the tongue.  And, yes, this picture is a little old.  He's not so apt to lie still anymore.  ;)

The Lion at 8 Months

Hoo boy!  The Lion is A.C.T.I.V.E.  He always was, but this month?  He has decided he doesn't even want to sit down.  Ever.  And we have quit using the changing table because he's flipped over and crawling away before you can blink.  TROUBLE.  But cute trouble.  ;)

Mental Leaps

The babble now comes in sentence form.  Not that it means anything.  Rather that it has a cadence to it.  He also is making his opinions even more well known.  He does NOT want to sit in a highchair to eat.  He wants to STAND in the bath tub.  He wants to have whatever YOU'RE eating, not what's in front of him.  Etc...  He understands most of what you say to him, "Turn off the light", "Put your arm in your sleeve", "Sit down".  Now, whether he wants to LISTEN is another story.  The new words are only speculation.  I believe I'm hearing his version of "Yay" and "All done", but still confirming that one.

Physical Strides

He is EASILY pulling up on his own.  Turn away for 2 seconds, and he's standing by himself at the coffee table.  The problem is, he also believes he can walk.  Which he cannot.  So, he will pull up, let go, and fall and start screaming.  This is requiring sprint work on Chris and my part to prevent.  He can stand momentarily on his own, but we're talking seconds, not minutes here.  He also is now starting to be able to walk holding only one hand.  He STILL does not do a full crawl, and we are starting to believe he never will.  He army crawls incredibly quickly, but that's it.  However, we discovered that if you strip him down to his birthday suit, he will raise himself up a bit.  What a boy will do to avoid rug burn.  ;)  We may be practicing au natural in the future.  His favorite things to practice right now are sitting down from standing and jumping.  What is he still NOT doing?  He still has trouble going from belly to sitting, but will crawl to a step, crawl 1/2 UP the step, and then scoot his legs under him until he is standing.  He also has not mastered the pincher grip.  It's getting close, but he's still mostly mashing food in his fist.    

Food

He's eating pretty much everything that is not a high-allergen food.  We even have managed to re-add sweet potatoes without issue and are trying rice tonight.  The only food we are leaving on the allergy list for sure is squash.  His favorites are some common ones like peaches, bread, and pasta, and some weird ones like spinach and any meat.  He also is way too big a fan of anything that comes in a dropper.  You know your child has been sick too much when he gets excited for a medicine dropper, and I had to hide the Tylenol in a new place already.

Sleep

I don't want to curse it, but sleep has GREATLY improved.  We have had THREE nights this week that I didn't have to get up with him at all.  I'm really hoping that this trend continues.  He goes down somewhere between 7/7:30 and wakes up between 6:30/7.  We are trying to wean him off of his 3rd nap, and so his schedule has ended up as inconsistent as always during the day.  He usually will end up with somewhere around 3.5 hours of nap on days he's at home and 1.5 hours at daycare.  If we're lucky.  That is a major issue that we are starting to get fairly angry about, but that's a story for another day.

 Cuteness

Of course, he's cute all the time.  *cough*  Ok, when he's not being a screaming stubborn mule that is obviously my child.  ;)  ANYWAY, he is laughing a LOT these days, and loves to be tickled, and really, played with fairly roughly.  He's such a boy.  He still LOVES swimming, and splashing, and will even kick now when watching the big kids.  He has an irrational love for the vacuum cleaner and will squeal to get to stand with it.  His favorite toys are anything that he shouldn't have.  Dog toys, magazines, remotes, etc...  He still loves to sing, and I even had to call my mother the other day when I had the Broadway station on and he was singing along at the top of his lungs.  The boy likes his classics.  He is just starting to dance.

Size

I don't know.  As always.  He's somewhere around 20 pounds, and I don't know his length.  I will try and measure and edit this.  He's still almost exclusively in 9 month clothing, but I think we might start moving into some 12 month stuff.  We've actually been in the same size for almost 4 months!  Wow!  We did just purchase convertible car seats, and have installed the one that arrived in Chris's car.  No more carrying him around in his little infant seat anymore.  :'(  Ok, I'm not really sad.  The kid was getting WAY too heavy for that!

Notes from the photo shoot

He actually manage to turn the music on with the Lion!  You have to squeeze the paw.  He completely startled himself with it and he wasn't sure what to think.  And, finally?  The month by month comparison:

Snow Day!

Yes, it flurried a few little flakes around Halloween, but today was the first day that the Lion could really play in the snow.  So, we bundled him up like he was in A Christmas Story, and made sure that he couldn't move.  And plopped him in the snow while we had fun with the dog.  It's so not fair.

We spent some time staring out the window when he woke up, and for the first time the world was entirely white.  I'm not sure exactly what he thought of it, but he talked to the snow for some time.

Later, we actually went out, and he seemed interested, but since he couldn't move, the excitement was more about what the dog was doing.

And, Harper has never loved anything more than the snow.  She could play in it all day if we let her.  Unfortunately, it was starting to get late enough that there were cars on our street, and we took her back inside the fence pretty quickly.

At least she got a little time to reminisce about her crazy puppy days when we had a couple of 2 ft snow storms in a row.

Funny enough, when I tried to have the Lion walk around, it was more like he was walking on the moon than in the snow.  His snow suit was just too cumbersome.  I can wait for the day when he can romp around with us!