Nine Months of Adventures!

This week, my little guy turned nine months old! Time is flying by, and it is marvelous to see him change and develop more and more. I think that this stage, particularly from 8 months to now, is my favorite yet. It’s fascinating to see Peter’s personality develop and it’s awesome that he becomes engaged in whatever activity we’re doing—reading, playing, or “talking” to each other. Over the past couple weeks, I have really grown in my deep appreciation and gratitude that I can stay at home with him, because I have really been loving the time we spend together. Over the past few months, he's been growing (he now is 28 1/4 inches long and weighs 19 pounds, 6 ounces) and developing quite a bit. It's so exciting! 

Moving:

Still no crawling. He scoots around on his tummy a little bit occasionally, but he generally hates being on his belly and would rather bounce while I hold him upright. Yes, the bouncing is still happening over here, every day, for minutes on end. I am still convinced that we do not need (or have room for) a bouncing toy, though it does mean that a large bulk of my days are spent bouncing Peter. Maybe my arms will finally get strong?!?! Peter really likes to sit, and right around the 8-month mark, he suddenly started sitting upright for long periods of time, which was pretty exciting. The other day, he started to pull himself upright while holding onto his toy box, but that was a very isolated, fleeting incident. I think that the days of crazy mobility/getting into everything are coming soon!

Eating:

Breastfeeding is still very much happening over here every day, all day long (or so it seems sometimes!). I love getting to breastfeed him, aside from the couple instances lately where he tried to do gymnastics and bounce while nursing. And it's pretty exhausting sometimes.  When he’s not nursing, he has started experimenting with a wide variety of solid foods, which has been really, really fun! We’re doing a form of baby-led weaning, and it is so much fun to see how he initiates this process. I really like watching his weird facial expressions as he deals with the gag reflex and learns how to move food around in his mouth, chew, and swallow J (though he doesn’t swallow much at this point) Some of the foods he has tried are: Spinach lasagna, avocados, turkey chili, yogurt-filled crepes, bananas, cooked cabbage, baby carrots, and a Japanese hot pot (Beef & Taro Root). It’s nice to just offer him food from my plate, and it’s fun to expose him to a wide variety of flavors!

Doing:

So many things! He loves exploring his toy box, and he’s obsessed with the tags on stuffed animals. He loves having story time with Jacob or myself, and he’ll get mad if I leave story time for a minute, because he doesn’t want to read by himself, he wants me to read to him! He enjoys going to Mass with us, and he spends the majority of the time smiling at all of the ladies in the near vicinity. He’s in very much a mommy/daddy phase at the moment, where he doesn’t like to play by himself, which means that I haven’t gotten much done besides playing with him. But, I think about how quickly this phase will fly by—and that before I know it, he’ll be running around and not wanting to play with me on the floor—so I soak it up and I’m not too worried about all of the articles or projects I have on the backburner. 

It is so much fun to watch this little person discover more of the world, and I am just so grateful that my husband and I have the gift of our son. I'm looking forward to many more adventures as a family!