Walking!

(Behind a push walker!)

I think he got tired during the 2nd video - he needed a break or two. :)

Our Valentine

Carter loved his first Valentine's card and new push walker! :) (Although his favorite part of the morning was eating the envelope.) Happy Valentine's Day!

9 Months

9-Month Stats:

21 pounds (50th percentile)

29.5 inches long (95th percentile)

Size 6/9-month or 6/12-month clothing

Size 3 diapers

Little charmer, you are 9 months old! I can't believe it! Sweet one, this month has just been FUN with you! You are ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE! You discovered your hands and knees this year and your little army crawl turned into a full-fledged, all fours, FAST crawl! You can now get where you want to go...and in a hurry! You also mastered the art of pulling up this month, so your days are spent crawling from one place to another, standing just about anywhere you have a place to hold on. You will take a few uncertain "cruising" steps once you stand, but, at home at least, you won't cruise any more than that. We have begun the process of "baby-proofing" because you opened your first drawer last weekend. I have a feeling you are about to become VERY tiring!

So, on the schedule front, you are not all THAT different than last month, although you've stretched your awake time a little bit. Typically, you wake up around 7 in the morning and take your first nap around 10. Most days, that nap lasts until 11 or 11:30, and you then nap again mid-afternoon, usually between 2:30 and 3:30, and this nap is typically a quick one. That's really all you nap because you sleep 11-12 hours at night. This month, you have been a CHAMP in the sleep department. You have had no night wakings (knock on wood!) at all ever since those two top teeth came in about 3 weeks ago and typically sleep from 7:30pm until 7am without a single peep. Speaking of teeth, you now have four - two top and two bottom, and your little bucktoothed smile melts my heart!

On the food front, you have really taken off with the table food this month, and you actually ate your first school lunch (table food - no jar!) yesterday. You've been doing all table food at dinner for a week or two now, and we are adding lunch slowly. Some of your favorites are chicken, carrots, noodles, bananas, banana bread (you ate a WHOLE SLICE the other day at breakfast!), pancakes, rice, green beans, and Gerber cheese puffs. At school this month, you celebrated your classmate's first birthday and got your first piece of cake. According to your teachers, you loved it and even licked the icing off your fingers. That's my boy! (I'm an icing addict...I can take or leave the actual cake.) You still eat cereal or yogurt with fruit for breakfast, but that's only because you are still taking your Prevacid and it has to be stirred in. On the formula front, you have really cut back this month and typically only take in 20-25 ounces a day. (You used to be closer to 30.) Because of that and all your exercise, you have really leaned out!

You have also really taken off on your talking and sign language. You clearly do the sign for milk whenever you are thirsty and will say just about any consonant combined with "a" - ba, da, ma, wa, ga, etc. We clearly get "mama," "wawa," and "baba," so we are hoping for "dada" sometime soon. You also have started nodding/head banging and shaking your head, although you don't know what those mean yet. You can clap your hands, too, but won't do it on command.

Well, that's about it, I guess! You are a JOY and your daddy and I can't imagine our lives without you, handome! Love you SO much!