9 Months Old

In three short months our little baby boy will be a year old, so I take every moment I can and enjoy him being a baby; even though he is already acting more like a little boy and not so much like a baby any more.

He has grown up so much this month it seems like. Late last month he started pulling himself up on furniture and now he is walking along the furniture, even standing without holding on for a second or two.

 What the little guy is up to...
 - Wearing both 9 month and 12 month clothes. The 9 month clothes are becoming a squeeze length-wise.
 - Learned how to climb stairs by himself (surprising mommy and daddy)
 - Learning how to put toys into containers or baskets, but they quickly come back out.

Daddy and Grandpa say red tractors are the best

 - Walking along furniture.
 - Starting to eat some table food, but still mainly on baby food.
 - Will crawl out onto the deck if we hold the door open and ask if he wants to go outside.
 - Loves to stand at the kitchen window and talk to the neighbor's puppies or bunnies in the yard.
 - Still loves to read books...especially those by Eric Carle

 - Could be outside for hours if we let him. Loves to play with the grass, dirt, rocks, really anything he can get to.

Look Daddy Mulch!!!

 - Gets very excited when we ask him if he wants to go take a bath.
 - Does pretty well on long car rides. Usually sleeps for an hour or so, plays for two and a half hours, and fusses for the other half hour.

We were up visiting family this past weekend so we took advantage of Todd's parent's acreage and got some pictures of Andrew on this 9 month "birthday".

 

Our Little Stair Master

This evening while Todd and I were in the kitchen, Andrew decided he would attempt the stairs. Well he has it all figured out now, this video was his third time up...

 

Busy and Fun Weekend

This past weekend we had a lot going on and it turned into a really great weekend.

The weekend started early for us, Toby Mac performed at the state fair and we were able to go. Yup that's right we went out for an evening with just the two of us...the first time since the little guy was born 8 1/2 months ago.

We had a great time enjoying dessert before the concert with our fair must have...ice cream from the Dairy Barn, yum yum! It was great to spend some time with family too as my sister and her husband joined us for the concert. Of course Todd's ears rang for the rest of the night and the next day but he said it was well worth it.

As an added bonus, we got to see fireworks after the show!!

 

The little guy did great going to bed for grandpa and grandma. I will admit I was a little nervous, but they just worn him out and laid him down; the big boy only cried for 5-10 minutes. This made for a very happy mommy :)

 

The weekend continued with many, many sewing projects. A few skirts for myself, one for my sister, and new pillow covers for the living room (sorry no pictures yet, I will post once the whole living room is complete). It was great to have the time to complete some of these long awaited projects and they went well with the help of my teacher, Todd's mom...but something tells me I will be hemming my own pants from now on.

 

We took advantage of our happy boy and numerous babysitters around on Saturday morning and went for our first bike ride of the year. Yes, yes, very sad that it is August and it is the first ride we have had but it was a great one. We kept it short since we had so much going on and only did 15 miles. Oh did it feel good to get back out there, riding has been greatly missed in our home.

 

We wrapped up the weekend with an extended family gathering for lunch at our house. We try to do this once a month with all of Todd's family that lives in the area. (We were beginning to feel left out since the family gets together every second Sunday up in the NW portion of the state, so we started our own).

 

After everyone left on Sunday there was an odd quiet in our home.  

 

8 Months Old

Eight months old and growing up so fast...So much has changed in the last month as our little guy grows and isn't so little anymore.

What Andrew is up to now... 
- Still wearing 9 month clothes
- Crawling on all fours now...It is amazing how fast he can go after things (more about that later)
- Got his first tooth and the second one came right behind it. He is such a trooper, only minor fussiness, extra drool, and some spit-ups. Tough guy never has needed any pain re-leaver.
- Pulling himself up on so much stuff now. Started out with mommy and daddy when we would lay on the floor with him but now have advanced to the couch.

- His exploration of the house continues and it seems like he finds something new every day that excites him.
- Napping has greatly improved. On a typical day he takes a 45 minute nap right away in the morning, 30 minutes around lunch time, and then 45 minutes in the afternoon...AMAZING!!!
- Still has the same bedtime and morning routines
- Has a great love for books and blocks, can be entertained for hours
- Favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? He will cry if you only read it once or twice and then put it away (extremely cute).  

- Loves helping with laundry, always pulling the clothes out of the basket. 

We usually receive a warning when he is going to go after something that he shouldn't. There is usually a giggle and then a consistent pounding on the floor from his hands and knees as he crawls as fast as he can to ensure getting there before mom and dad see what I am up to.

He has a little 'game' that can keep him entertained for quite a while. He loves to sit on the kitchen floor and use his feet to spin himself in circles. This is usually done with something held in his hands above his head and fun little squeaks coming from his mouth. Always making mommy and daddy laugh.

Mini-Golf Fun

Our summer has been super busy so this past Sunday we finally got around to using part of Todd's Father's Day gift...a round of miniature golf at a golf course not far from our house. We weren't real sure how the whole thing was going to work out with Andrew but we knew we could do it one way or the other. Once we got there we realized with how the greens were set up it would be very easy to just push the stroller around...thank you golf course for making this stroller friendly even if it wasn't intentional.

Not our best scores but it was a lot of fun. Andrew loved watching the bright colored balls as they rolled around, always pulling himself up on his tray to get a better look.

It was a warm afternoon and Andrew was finally overtaken by heat and fell right to sleep, but I think he really enjoyed being out there.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY...

Hope you are having fun...I'm going to take a nap now.

Becoming such a big boy

Our little guy is showing us that he isn't such a little baby anymore as so much has changed with him over that last 3 weeks.

First he started crawling, and not just his army crawl that he started out with, full out hands and knees cruising. This has turned him into a very mobile little guy, exploring every inch of the house and getting into things left and right. Most things he can't hurt so our only major struggle are the plants. We usually have a clue he is going after them because he will make a half giggle noise and then you can hear his hands hitting the floor as he takes off as fast as he can.

Next came his teeth. With some extra drool and small amount of fussiness the first one poked through and within the next two days the second one came on out too. We have a tough little guy who did this all without being too fussy and no fever. I pray that they all go this well for him; we will know soon enough as his top gums are very swollen right now, so it won't be long.

Our big boy also has started to drink out of a sippy cup. for a while he didn't like it at all but would drink very well out of a normal cup. We kept trying and now he does great with the sippy and is getting really close to holding it himself. 

Finally, our big boy decided it was time to start pulling himself up. He started out by pulling himself up to stand next to our legs while we were on the floor with him. This was very wobbly and never lasted long, but the sturdiness and length kept improving. This morning while we were eating breakfast he decided to try the couch and made it look super easy. Happened so quickly that I didn't have the camera ready though :(

With all of these new adventures pain will come...He decided to see who would win; himself or the coffee table...daddy told him the table will always win and daddy was right.

It is so much fun watching him explore the house and come find us when we are in different rooms. My personal favorite is when he comes to find me (usually wanting some food from me) and will climb up to rest against my legs with a sweet face that says "Mommy, please" and who could resist.

Making Little Man's Food

When we had our little guy we decided that when it came time we would make our own baby food for him for two reasons...make sure that he gets wholesome foods and it is much cheaper than purchasing baby food from the stores.

Coninsidently I was at the library shortly after we introduced him to oatmeal (this is one one thing that we bought from the store) and on the shelf of new books was a cookbook for baby food...Amazing. I knew the process was going to be simple but I am still blown away by how easy and benficial it actually has been. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with purchasing baby food for your little one, we just wanted to do something different for our little guy - we eat very little prepared or packaged foods so why should our little guy.

We started by arming ourselves with these items...

1. Emersion Blender
2. Ice Cube Trays
3. Cookbook (see below)
4. Lots of fruits and vegetables
5. An evening after the little guy went to bed

The book that we used is titled "The Wholesome Baby Food Guide" by Maggie Meade. It has been a great resource on how to prepare hundreds of different foods (obviously we haven't done them all yet) along with what freezes well, what doesn't, and so much more.

I went to the grocery store and spent a total of $10.13 on produce for the little guy (the only non-fresh item was the peas, however these are just as good for you and much, much cheaper).

It took two evenings of cooking and blending and the end result was over 60 meals for our little guy. 

Averaged out to about $0.16 per meal and when you compare it to about $0.50 per meal of the leading baby food brand and the stores, it can't be beat (over $20.00 in savings)...especially when it gave Todd and I two nights in the kitchen together and time to chat about just about anything.