9 Months!

So my blog has officially become just monthly baby updates. Boo. Maybe one day I will blog about something other than baby boy....

Pres is 9 months and it's been sort of a challenging month. His top two teeth are working their way out and he's been a cranky pants lately. His newest favorite thing is screaming/whining. All.The.Time. It's sort of exhausting to keep up with his mood. When we were in the middle of our horrible sleep strike of 4 months, one of my friends said "oh, just wait until 9 months - that's the most fun age!" Hmmm, I'm not totally sure I agree with her on that one and it shows you how different babies are. I'm not saying 9 months isn't fun, but it's also been a tough month with our cranky, loud and busy kiddo.

Likes: getting into anything and everything, his push walker, speed crawling, standing on his own (what!?!), blankets and pillows, Cheerios, his sippy cup, stealing toys from the other babies at daycare, screaming at the top of his lungs in response to anything, going for horsey rides on Jake's shoulders, chasing Spencer, the dishwasher

Dislikes: getting his diaper or clothes changed, being told no, his carseat, wearing hats, having his nose wiped

Milestones: The biggest thing is that Preston can now stand up on his own without using anything to pull up. He can be in the middle of the room and just stand up and stand up about 10 seconds at a time. His balance is really improving. The first time he did it, I screamed and of course, he got scared/confused and fell down.

Eating: We're down to 3 bottles of 8oz of formula, 2-3 meals and snacks a day. Still loving food of all kinds. Obsessed with Cheerios - he's over puffs at this point. Still eating a banana every morning, along with an organic frozen waffle, organic chicken sausage patty and typically peaches or mandarin oranges. He also loves drinking water out of his sippy (and actually drinks formula out of his sippy at daycare).

Schedule: We had some sleep issues this month, resulting from his ear infection last month. He had gotten used to waking up at 4:45-5:00am when he was sick and we would get him when he would wake up then. That sort of continued after he was feeling better and 4:45am is not an acceptable time to start anyone's day. We had to go back to a little bit of sleep training, but we're back on a 6:00/6:30am wake up now. He's so much happier when he gets better sleep (well, we all are!) He's taking 2 naps a day and the length varies anywhere from 30 minutes (ugh...) to 2.5 hours.





Stats: We haven't had his 9 month doctors appointment yet, but I would estimate he's about 25 pounds at this point and maybe 31" long. He's in 9-12m clothes (12m for footed jammies). Still very long and skinny, just like his dad.

Fun Stuff: We started swim lessons this month and Preston LOVES them! He loves taking a bath, so we figured he would have fun in the "big tub". He splashes like crazy and his favorite part is when they have the babies sit on the edge of the pool and then the parents (daddy - mommy watches from the little waiting area because she doesn't want to put a bathing suit on in March!) let them "jump in" to the pool and catch them. I like that he's getting exposed to being in the water because we plan to spend a lot of the summer at the pool!

He can also give high fives, which is so cute I can't stand it. Still working on waving and clapping. Continuing with sign language, but honestly, when he wants something, his main way of communicating is to scream. We are trying to work on that because I do not want that to be how he asks for something or tells us what he wants.

He's still super busy and not really interested in being cuddled. My favorite part of the day is bedtime, because he is generally pretty cuddly after his bedtime bottle, so I soak up as many cuddles as I can get. We've started with a bit of separation anxiety this month - we can't leave his line of sight without a slight freakout. I'm back to doing some baby wearing in the evenings so I can get things done - he's not the kind of baby that wants to play independently so trying to get him to play while I unload the dishwasher or fold laundry does not work for us.

While this was a challenging month, it was also extremely fun. I can't believe he will be 1 in less than 3 months. 1st birthday party planning is in full swing and I'm sure I'll be doing some posts about what we are doing (it's fishing themed!). My little boy is growing up so fast - time needs to SLOW DOWN! I love you Preston Charles!