9 month old little man

my baby is now 9 months old.  oy!  he is so much like a little boy than a baby now.  he has been growing a lot physically and mentally and everything else.  it's insane.  he recognizes people, even in pictures.  i can ask him where's great grama and he looks over to the picture of her.  he is more active now, obviously, because he is more mobile.  he isn't quite crawling yet, but he is doing the army crawl thing pretty well and he has been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth which is usually a pre-cursor to crawling.  he just started pulling himself up on stuff.  it seems like he is doing everything all at once; crawling and standing and army crawling.  he gives his little dog stuffed animal kisses, it's really cute.  he has been shaking his head back and forth and he thinks it's hilarious.  he loves to get into things that he probably shouldn't, and he is an expert at opening cabinet doors and pulling stuff out of them.  one of his favorite things to do is army crawl over to the floor lamp, pull and chew on the cord and then grab the base of it and yank it back and forth.  yikes!!  so every time he starts heading over that way i have to intercept him.  i'm trying really hard to avoid yelling "no" at him every time he gets into something that he shouldn't.  it takes a little more effort and thought to stop myself from just saying no to him.  i try to explain why we don't play with this or that and what we can do instead, so i'm hoping that if i'm consistent with that, he will catch on.   i want him to understand boundaries and know what things he can play with but i don't want to squash his exploratory nature and creativity at the same time.  so it's a balance.  this is what he's been up to this past month:

-growth:  is still in 9-12 month clothes, we just had his 9 month old well baby appointment and he is measuring almost 30 inches and a little short of 19 pounds which puts him in the 90th percentile for height and 29th percentile for weight.  haha so he is a tall and slim lil guy.  oh, and he is already growing a mustache, i'm not being funny, he actually has some dark peach fuzz above his lip already.

after bath time

-development:  like i said above he is army crawling, he is trying to crawl, pulls himself up on stuff, he babbles all the time, and is very social.  he is stringing together lots of different sounds, a few of the most frequent are "ada da da da", "dada", and "nigh nigh nigh".  when we are in the stores he tries to catch people's eyes so he can chat with them.  he gets into everything, he's a very curious and sometimes mischievous little guy.  it's pretty amazing to watch z gain new skills on a daily basis.  one day he is just beginning to do something new and within a few days he has it down pretty well.  i mean, all babies do this, but it's so incredible.  as adults, i'm sure we don't learn and develop that quickly.  he has started to kind of throw a little bit of a fit if he doesn't get what he wants, which i thought shouldn't happen til he's a little older, but apparently that's not the case.
his first tooth is still coming up, it's about halfway there now, and his second tooth is just pushing through.

playing outside, one of his most favorite things

-modes of transportation:  still rolling, army crawling.  he army crawls really fast now, and he usually will combine some army crawling with rolling to get to where he wants to go.
-sleep:  he has been pretty consistently taking two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon for about an hour each.  some days he doesn't take both naps, but he usually does.  it's been a struggle to try to get him to sleep in his crib, we are still working on that.  he has kind of been having a regression and has been waking up several times at night to nurse.  when i talked to the doctor about it, she said that is very common around this age because there is so much development going on both physical and mental, so it can interrupt sleep.  and also, he has been having growth spurts.  those may be the reasons, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with when he wakes up 5 times in the night.  i can't wait til this phase is over.

coming to get me

-nourishment:  we are still breastfeeding basically on demand and he is still eating food.  i've added a meal in between lunch and dinner cause it seemed like he was not getting enough food.  and the doctor suggested feeding him healthy fats like avocado at dinner so that he feels more full through the night.  we are doing a combination of homemade pureed food, packets of store bought foods (mostly fruits) and finger foods.  he had a little period of time where he was really picky and wouldn't eat anything but puffs and fruit, but that was when he had a little stomach bug and now he is back to eating pretty much anything we give him.

at the park

-personality:  he is so strong willed.  i love that he is curious and determined.  he definitely challenges us to be patient and he makes us more active because he is so active.  he loves to be outside and explore new places.  he is at this stage now where he loooooooooves other kids, it's really cute.  he is kind of aggressive, like he will grab and pinch and hit a little bit, but i think it's not intentional, and we are teaching him to be gentle.  hahaha but he is definitely still a very intense little boy.  most of the time he is happy.  the closer we get to bedtime the more he starts to lose it and the more grumpy he is.  basically, when he is tired, sick or hungry he is grumpy but otherwise he is pretty happy, smiley and giggley.
-likes:  being outside, getting into stuff, being mobile, bath time, other kids, food, having all the attention 100% of the time
-dislikes: falling asleep, being by his self for a second, being told no, bonking his head
-me:  i started school part time last week and it has been really nice to have a few hours away from the house by myself.  it's nice to listen to npr in the car on the drive to campus and catch up with what the heck is going on in the world.  z stays with one of my besties while i am gone and it works out perfectly, i am comfortable that he is with someone i trust and he just loves her, and her little dog, so i am so thankful that it worked out so well.  for some reason, i have been catching every kind of virus that comes near our house, so i need to do some things to boost my immune system i think, like taking some good vitamins and exercise.  life gets a little overwhelming sometimes because of school, homework, housework, house projects, baby z, hubby, my photography business, etc. and sometimes i lose my patience but i am really trying to keep it together and get it all done.  even though life can be a little overwhelming at times, it is with things that are fulfilling and that make me happy, so i have to be grateful that i am so blessed to have all these "things" to "do".  oh, and i am really really excited about summer time because i probably won't be in school and z will be a little bigger so we can play outside and go to the park and all that stuff.  wooohoooo!  it's going to be great.

taking an afternoon nap