9 months!

My baby boy is 9 months old! I remember feeling with Holden at this age that he suddenly wasn't a baby anymore. The same would be true this time around. I feel like I blinked and so many things changed! He has four teeth, working on a fifth, he is crawling, pulling himself up on furniture, and trying to climb, he absolutely refuses to eat baby food and wants to feed himself everything, is saying "Mama and Dada," taking less naps, and just seems so BIG!

He is still my smiley guy and generally is just a happy boy. As long as he has food and his sleep, he's good to go. He loves interaction and Holden is still his favorite person in the world.

My little "Future Quarterback," as his shirt says. My dad has recently begun referring to him as "Tank," because he's such a big boy and will barrel himself around. Hunter LOVES to eat! It is SO refreshing after my picky first-born! I think he is going to be a meat and potatoes boy; he prefers meat and veggies so far and the only thing he really won't eat well for me is fruit. He would eat cheese of any kind all day long if I let him. So far he has tried and liked: spaghetti, ravioli, a cheeseburger (ate half of it!), grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, pancakes, waffles, mac n' cheese, green beans, diced carrots (a favorite-he will gobble them up as fast as I can put them on his high chair tray), tacos, pizza, chicken, and hot dogs. He also really enjoys the Gerber Graduate meals that say they are for toddlers or preschoolers. I just started trying them this weekend because the ones for his age were so soupy, and he does NOT like to be spoon fed AT ALL anymore. He wants to do it all himself. My poor mom gave him some vegetable soup concoction by Gerber the other day and gave up trying to feed it to him, so she poured it on his tray. She had to change his outfit and said it was an absolute mess. The boxes say he should be walking/running steadily, but so far he has devoured them with no problem. Like I said, the only thing he doesn't like are fruits or other sweet things. Again, total opposite from Holden. I can get him to eat bananas and pears but not very much. He spits out mandarin oranges, peaches, apple bites, and the dried baby fruit items. I figure as long as he's eating veggies well he's okay. (And if his size is any indication, he's doing just fine-he weighs 22 lbs, which is only 9 less that his 3.5 year old brother, and is 30.5 inches long, which is the 97th percentile! Jay and I are both shorties so we find this humorous.)

Hunter loves his cheese and veggie puffs! Can eat a whole tub of them in one day if allowed. (Don't ask how I know this. Sometimes I use bribery to get through the day.)

In the middle and bottom left pics of this collage you will see Hunter's newest expression. We call it his "wild animal" look. He scrunches his nose up and shows his two front teeth, which currently have a gap between them. I am hoping it will close down the road but he's still adorable regardless. Typically he makes this face when he his eye on the prize: something to BITE! That's right, my sweet little baby is a biter. He doesn't do it out of anger or to be mean, he has just figured out that chewing on things relieves his sore gums from teething....but he HASN'T figured out that should not include people!!! He will crawl up to me, grin, and lunge at my knee, shoulder, arm, etc. The other day he got Jay's big toe as he sat on he floor and left some big ol' dents! I tried to be sympathetic but I was laughing so hard it may not have come across as genuine. Poor Holden has been the brunt of much of the biting. He loves his baby brother and is pretty good natured about it; he has learned to run fast when he sees him coming after him! He usually act like it's a game and giggles as he yells, "Hunter's trying to get me!" It is hard for me to know how to teach a 9 month old this is not acceptable. I can't discipline him because he is too little to understand. I usually squeeze his cheeks together (gently) with my hand and say, "NO BITE!" in a loud, firm voice. And usually he gives me a big ol' grin. ;) I feel like we have puppy around or something. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, "ankle biter!"

Seriously, though, how cute is his little face? Now that he is cruising around the house, he is even happier than he already was. He would get so frustrated when he wanted to move somewhere and couldn't. People always say, "Oh, don't wish for them to crawl; then you'll never sit down again!" But the truth is, I can get more done now that he can follow me, get around the living room to play and grab toys, oh-and chasing the cats is always good for about 15 min. of entertainment. The gates are up and the floor is always a mess, but he's so happy to be mobile. (Side story; this morning I just wanted to get a shower in before church. Hunter detests being in the exersaucer now that he can crawl, and I didn't feel like listening to him scream and howl, so I made sure he was fed and changed, shoved a tub in front of the gate to make it extra secure, dumped a load of his toys and scattered them for entertainment, and asked Holden to "babysit" him while I showered. Risky, I know. I showered in the boys' bathroom right at the top of the stairs so I could hear, and I still poked my head out every 10 seconds. The only time Holden hollered (and of course I was sure Hunter was going to have somehow swallowed an object or cracked his head on something, because I was being a horrible mommy and wanting to get clean) was when Hunter yanked his Highlights calendar off of the fridge and "ruined it" by chewing on it. Holden took it away and put it on the table, but the reason he came to me was to tattle that "Hunter did NOT say sorry, and he LAUGHED when I told him no!!!"

He has now taken over an entire corner of the living room. And he seems pretty happy about it.

My little crawling, climbing goof. He can't get past the first step-YET. It's only a matter of time. The cats provide endless motivation. At least I am now able to explain to Holden why they won't let him near them. I told him one day that he used to do what Hunter does. He got a knowing look and said, "OHHHH...so THAT'S why they hide from me!"

Hunter is extremely verbal; just in jibberish. :) He does say "Mum" and "Ma Ma" clearly, and knows what they mean. I love nothing more than getting home from work and having him grin, crawl up to me, put his hands up on my pants legs, and say, "Mum!" He also says "Da Da" but I'm not sure he's correlated that with Jay yet. He loves his daddy and likes to climb on him/roughhouse with him already. He also says a lot of "Ba, Na, Doo, Go, Goo, and Ju" mixed in with other foreign sounding language. :) We are working on waving and clapping. He will do both, but not on demand.

Crawling in the kitchen...

Excited to see Mommy...

Determination...

Almost there...

"I made it! Would you like me to bite you??"

"Just kidding! (For now.)"

An example of why Papa calls him "Tank;" he is not easily deterred.

While he likes to explore, Hunter is also having some separation anxiety, esp. when he's tired or I've been gone all day. So usually right around the time I need to cook dinner. :) He grabs my pant leg and tries to climb up me. Who can resist this face?

Sleep is better, but still not where I'd like it to be for 9 mos. depending when he goes down, he has been sleeping until 4:30am about half the time. If we feed him then, he goes right back down until 6 or 6:30. The other half of the time, he gets up between 12:30-1:30. I know I should make him cry it out, and I have on occasion. But I often grab a bottle on auto-pilot because he takes it and we both go back to sleep more quickly. I keep reminding myself I went through the same thing w/ Holden, and he is a great sleeper now.

Some snuggly time before bed w/ Daddy and Holden. Our baby is certainly loved and adored. We can't imagine life without him...bites and all. :)