9 months old- May 2013

Observations:

• He is pulling up to his knees all the time!
• On May 10th, we have been back in the U.S. for a year!
• We celebrated Mother's day with all the moms/grandmas! :) We are so lucky to live near all of them, we love you!
• We celebrated Mother's day here with a BEAUTIFUL photo book made by Colin.  Pic is below. :)  I love my boys!
• He is getting to be a quick crawler.  He loves to explore the kitchen and laundry rooms.  
• We put up our baby gates to keep the living room safe for baby.
• Colin is seriously such a happy baby.  He loves to laugh and giggle!
• He got his 2 top front teeth.
• Mommy joined the 21st century and got an iPhone.  My other phone died and I got an iPhone from a fam member, thanks! :)
• He is getting really good at getting from a sitting position to a crawling position. 
• It took him a while to sit gracefully from standing, but he's working on it!
• We attended Aunt Brooke's graduation from grad school, congrats! :)
• We took a trip to my classroom for the day to check things out.
• We discovered that So Long (our fave restaurant) has ONE booster seat, and he sat in it pretty well!
• He has started chewing on his crib...I went in his room and he had white paint all over his mouth. :)  We're in the market for some teething guards!
• Mommy and daddy celebrated their 5 year anniversary!  I can't believe everything we have done in the last 5 years!

Mealtimes:

• Colin eats about 5-7 oz. of formula about 5 times a day.
• New foods- peaches, mango, dirt and sand at the park, cucumbers, and black beans.
• He can feed himself pretty well.  Os are the easiest for him.

Schedule:

• Not much has changed.  He gets up between 5am and 7am.  If he gets up before 6am, he'll usually go back down after a bottle.  He naps at about 10am and 2pm (and I REALLY mean ABOUT! :) ) for about 1-2 hours.  I would really like to have him sleep consistently until 7:30am, but with teething and an occasional cold, we just don't want to push it yet.  

Size: 

• 9 month doc appt. stats- Weight- 19 lbs 5.5 oz. (31%).  Height- 28 in. (34%).  Head- 18.5 in. (82%)
• Colin wears mostly 6-9 or 9-12 month clothing.  Some hand-me-down 12 month clothes fit just fine.

Play:

• One of his favorite toys is a real remote we no longer use.  Why don't they make toy remotes that ACTUALLY look like remotes!?
• He still loves to chew on Sophie.
• He also loves to chew on/bite us, but we've noticed it's usually when he's cutting teeth.  With 4 teeth he has quite the chomp!
• He still uses his bouncer, but not as often.  
• We have an upright toy that he can also push.  He has learned to put the balls and shapes into the openings!
• He loves to read.  In addition to chewing on books, he now really likes to look through them (YAY!)

Nicknames: 

• Stinker bug, baby boy, angel, not really any new ones.

Mommy& Daddy:

• We love being parents!  Colin is such a happy boy, and we can't imagine what we did before him.  We all love to watch the Royals together each night, and hope they can keep this winning up (thanks to their new hitting coach, George Brett!)
• Zach is DAYS away from his last day of active duty Air Force.  At the end of June, he will be able to take the 20 or so days of leave he has until his actual last day, July 18.  We are looking forward to a LOT of fun family times!
• I am still loving staying home!  Colin and I have somewhat of a routine and we love it.  We have met so many friends through the Little Apple Mommies group, and we get together with them at least weekly.  In June I will attend some curriculum workshop days at my school.  I will have July COMPLETELY free, then will start with mentor and work days in early August.  
• Enjoy the pics of Colin as a 9 month old baby!

9 months old!  19.5 lbs, 28 in.

My Mother's Day present! :)

Crawler!

Our garden

A pic of me at 9 1/2 months

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Congrats, Brooke!

Hook 'em horns!

Staying in the shade on the pool deck. :)

Storm clouds over our house