9 Months Old!

Dear Michael,

 

Today you are 9 months old!   You are growing up right in front of our eyes!  You are still the happiest baby I know and I couldn’t be more proud to be your Mommy!  Your Daddy and I laugh every day at the silly things you do and we rejoice when you achieve new milestones. 

 

Here are some of the high-lights from this month:

 

 

Sizes: 

 

·       Clothes: You comfortably wear size 12 month and 18 month clothes.  I can still snap a 9-month onesie, but we’re cutting it pretty close.    For PJs now, we’ve moved beyond the typical “jammie” footie sets and now I pretty much dress you in a t-shirt and loose pants.  It’s warm enough down here now that it’s ok if your arms are bare at nighttime.  You wear a Halo brand sleep sack to bed (size X-large for growing room!) and this is a 100% cotton sleeve-less wearable blanket that keeps you just warm enough. 

·       Diapers:  During the day, you wear Kirkland Signature size 4 diapers, and at nighttime you wear size 4 Huggies Overnights—this is a fabulous diaper and it does a phenomenal job!

 

Milestones:

·       Furniture cruising

·       Rapid crawler (you are so very fast!)

·       Super-fast speed racer in the walker!

·       You can easily pull yourself to stand

·       Your bottom two teeth are officially in & gleaming and are very noticeable to others!

·       You can say “Buh-buh” and wave “bye-bye”

 

Eating:

 

·       You eat three meals a day:  Oatmeal for breakfast, a fruit for lunch, and a meat/veggie combo for dinner.  Your snacks include Puffs broken into teeny-tiny pieces (we’ve had a couple choking incidents and your poor Mommy’s heart can’t take it.  So, we break the star-shaped Puffs into 5 or 6 pieces so that choking is a non-issue.  I still think you might end up being the only kid in kindergarten who brings a lunch consisting of baby food!)  We also give you ice cubes and fruit chunks in your mesh teether. 

·       You are able to drink water and diluted juice from a sippy cup.  You find it easiest to get water and juice out of the travel sippy cups (without all the fancy valves). 

 

Favorite Foods: Banana and mixed berry  or apple/pear/banana combo.

 

Least Favorite Food:  Baby food chicken by itself.  We pair this with a veggie in order to get you to eat it without making a terrible face!  

 

Favorite Toys (that you’re supposed to have): 

·       Steering wheel/dashboard toy:  You LOVE LOVE LOVE to press the horn.  This toy says “Beep! Beep! Out of the way!” when the horn is pressed.  I’m not sure I’m too fond of it.  I believe it’s teaching road rage at an early age.

·       Green car at Grandma Chip’s house:  Once again, you’re a horn honker!  You will lean with one arm out of the car, and honk the horn with your other hand.  Somebody’s been watching Daddy drive.

·       Winnie the Pooh laptop at Grandma Dana’s house: This toy has remained a favorite for months!  You especially like to pull the butterfly button to hear the whooshing sound.

·       Walk-behind Musical Station from Grandpa Mike:  Although you can’t walk behind this yet, you stand in front of it and mash all of the musical buttons.  You treat us to beautiful music every day.

 

Favorite Toys (that you’re not supposed to have):

·       Remote controls

·       Cell Phones

 

Favorite Toys (that you think you’re not supposed to have):

·       Wireless Computer Keyboard

·       Random plastic plates, and measuring cups, and dishtowels

·       Shallow cardboard box that we placed in the living room.  You crawl in and out of it and put your toys in it! 

 

Favorite Things that are not Toys:

·       Your pup-pup Akuna.  You love to feel his soft fur!

·       Grandma Chips’ dog, Delilah.  You practice saying her name “Wi-wuh!” over and over and over.  I remind you that “Delilah lives at Grandma Chips’ house.” 

·       Burp cloths.  You choose to snuggle with these soft little blankets during your naptimes and at bedtime.  We call them the “Mommy blankies” because we use them during feedings, so they smell like Mommy.

You recently started throwing back your head when you laugh and it's SO funny!  It totally cracks me up! 

You get a little over-zealous sometimes when you practice waving "bye-bye" and you rapidly swoosh your arm while your eyes get really big!  I say "fastfastfastfastfast!" when you do this and you laugh.

You are quite the charmer!  You will give "googly-eyes" at cashiers, and my co-workers, and to family members!  You give a little coy smile when I see you giving "googly-eyes" and it's so cute!


I love you so very much!  You are such a sweet baby and it's an absolute joy to be your Mommy!  Your Daddy and I just LOVE being your parents! 

I love you forever, Little One.  Love, your Mommy


*Pictures to come!  (My phone has reached it's full capacity on picture storage, so I have to rearrange some pictures and move some pictures to the computer so that I can take more pictures and put them on here!)  

 

8 and a Half Months Old

*Sorry this post is a bit late.  We've been slightly distracted around our home for the last couple weeks.  (More to come on that later).  Michael turned 8 months old on April 28, 2013.  This post was actually written on that day, but it took me this long to upload it.  :)

Dear Little Michael,

Today you are 8 months old!  I absolutely can’t believe it!  J

 

You are so so SO fun to be with!  You are developing the sweetest, funniest personality and your Daddy and I love every single minute with you!

 

This month, you’ve tried some new things and have achieved some more milestones.  Here’s a little recap:

 

Sizes:  This is actually a little tricky.  You still fit into size 3 diapers (and depending on the brand, they either fit quite well, or they resemble a skimpy swim suit bottom).  In an effort to be frugal, we are using up the last of our Kirkland Signature brand size 3 diapers  (an awesome diaper brand, by the way) and we are also making use of some leftover size 3 diapers that your Grandma Dana had in stock for you.  We will use these size 3 diapers during the daytime until we run out of them.  We went to Costco yesterday and bought Kirkland Signature size 4 diapers for you to wear during the daytime once we exhaust our size 3 supply (approximately 25 size 3 diapers remain).  At nighttime, I splurge and put a size 4 LUVs diaper on you because supposedly “Luv’s Don’t Leak.”  However, *insert throat clearing sound here* we’ve had some early morning leak throughs which have required a diaper change, PJ change, and sleep sack change.  So…. We’ll use the remaining LUVs we have for nighttime diapers until they run out (approximately 8 LUVs diapers remain), and then we’ll switch you into the Kirkland Signature size 4 diapers and we’ll give them their moment to shine.  If we find that they don’t hold up as well as the LUVs for overnight diaper-wearing, then we’ll invest in some more LUVs—maybe size 5 and we’ll keep on rolling.  J

As for clothes, you fit comfortably in size 12 months onesies.  This is due to your LONG torso!  Your waist is still small and you can still wear size 6-9 month pants (which you don’t have very many of, but we use what we have). J  You can still fit into size 9 month onesies, but it’s a little hard to snap them since their length is almost not long enough to cover your whole torso and snap around your diaper.  (PS, how’d you like all the added emphasis in that sentence, huh?) J  For PJs, you fit into 12 month and 18 month footie pajamas.   Your feet are actually getting a little too big to fit into the 12 month footie part of the pajamas.  So, I will be doing some strategic removal of the little bootie parts of PJs in order for you to get some more mileage out of the actual pajama part of the outfit. 

 

Eating:  This month, we’ve tried some Stage 2 ½ from Beechnut baby foods.  The stage 2 ½ foods have a slight texture to them.  You have enjoyed some of the new flavors like Banana and Mixed Berry (that one is actually quite fabulous).  You did not enjoy some of the more odd flavors like Corn and Green Peppers (I can’t blame ya, kid.)  J  We have tried some new “snacks” in your mesh-teether food holder.  (For all the readers who don’t know what this is, it’s a little mesh sack that is attached to a little plastic handle that Michael can hold onto and try new foods.  The mesh allows him to gnaw on the food which aids him in his teething process.  The mesh also allows me to feel comfortable giving him a snack, knowing that it’s being essentially pureed through the mesh—meaning he won’t get too big of a bite and risk choking (which is a total fear of mine). )  So far, this month, you have tried a small slice of frozen peach, a chunk of honeydew, a piece of ripe banana, and a baby-teething cookie.  You have enjoyed all of these snacks!  You gnaw on it a little bit, then you wave it around in the air, then you gnaw on it some more, and you always grin in the process! J

 

Sleeping:  You still wake up once a night.  Last week, that was upped to 2 times a night for 2 or 3 nights when you were going through some teething pains.  Your Daddy and I are attempting to get you to sleep through the night.  I will be glad when this happens!  But, I really don’t mind getting up and rocking you while you nurse in the middle of the night.  It’s extra bonding time as far as I’m concerned.  Howeverrrrr, it would be nice to get a few nights of good resting—for both you and me.  J

 

Napping:  During the weekdays, your naps can be hit or miss and this is totally ok!  During your weekdays, there’s a lot of stuff going on and you never like to go down for a nap without a fight! Some days, you convince yourself that you really can stay awake and keep playing with toys until you get your second wind! J  You usually end up taking a morning nap and a shorter afternoon nap.  Once your Daddy and I come home from work, you cuddle up against whichever one of us is holding you, then you stick your thumb in your mouth and grab your blankie with your free hand and you hum to yourself.  It’s at this time, that we will put you in your crib and after less than 5 minutes of louder humming mixed with some tired whimpers, you are asleep!  This evening nap can last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half!  On Saturdays and Sundays, you are still a nap king.  Sometimes, you take 3 or4 naps a day on the weekends!  Like Mommy and Daddy, you take the opportunity of the weekends to unwind and recharge.  J

 

Favorite toys and past-times:

·         Baby Einstein Activity Balls—you bang them together and chase after them if they roll away from you!

·         Fisher Price Musical walk-behind toy—Although you cannot push it and walk behind it yet, you sit in front of it and create beautiful songs by banging on the saxophone, guitar, and piano buttons and turning the pages of the music book. J

·         Baby Einstein Piano—you still love this toy—so much so that we actually had to change out the batteries on it because you play with it so much!  You love to press the instrument buttons.  You pick one (violin, piano, or horn) and you keep pressing that same button until either your Daddy or I say “Son, pick a different button.”  J  Because all we hear is “vi-vi-vio-vi-vi-vi-vio-violin.”  J

·         Your Winnie the Pooh laptop.  You crawl straight for this toy at your Grandma Dana’s house and I say “Are you gonna do some work on your laptop?” and you smile as Pooh says “Colors and shapes and numbers too…”

·         Hanging out with your uncles!  You LOVE to be around them and they can always get you to smile in the blink of an eye!

·         You LOVE going for walks in your stroller!  You wiggle your toes to feel the breeze and you would rather remove your hat than leave it on.  This means, when you go for walks in your stroller, you have to be lathered up with sunscreen since socks and hats never stay on too long. J

 

Milestones:

·         You are a lightning fast crawler now! 

·         You can pull yourself up to stand! 

·         You attempt (sometimes) to take a couple steps.  You have learned to land on your bottom, since you’re not quite ready to walk.  This is fine with me!  I wasn’t expecting you to be so mobile so soon!  J

 

Every day and every stage is my favorite! I love seeing you grow and learn and play!  You are such a joy and your Daddy and I are so very pleased and blessed to be your parents!

 

 

*Pictures to come soon!