month nine

I have to admit that I don't know where the last couple months went. It's like all of a sudden you're 9 months old and I am not keeping up. I still need to buy you a toothbrush! Luckily, it doesn't seem like you care if I keep up or not - you fully intend to keep growing up. You can pull yourself up to stand, you're starting to eat real food (I think you prefer it), and you are learning to explore the house now that you have perfected your crawl. AND! For the first time in your life, both numbers came back in the normal range for your hypothyroidism check!

One thing I am happy to report is that we finally made it to the dedication service at church! This is something I've wanted to do since Andrew was a baby, but we just finally found a church we love and wanted to become members of. The dedication was a nice service. It is a time for us to commit to going to church regularly and praying for you every day. At the same time, our church 'family' commits to setting a good example and supporting us in the journey. It's pretty cool!

You still prefer to be with me. You like other people, but if you see me, you choose me (thank you!). You also prefer to be with me, rather than alone. I've done a bad job of getting you use to sleeping in your room. Basically, we both sleep better if we're snuggled in our bed, so that's what happens most of the time. That has to end soon. Seriously - you're NINE months old!

I've overheard a couple people talking about how cute you are recently. Both times they didn't know I was there to hear. It makes me smile because I know how cute you are and it's fun to hear others agree. :) I love you to the moon and back. Love your mom.

month eight

Another month cruised right on by! You keep learning new things and you keep growing up. So much has changed this month for you. You crawled today, on your eight-month birthday! A real, legs and arms moving together, crawl! (Thanks again for saving the cool stuff to do at home - dad and I both got to watch as you took your first crawl steps!).

You moved out of our room, your carrier car seat and your baby stroller. You seem to like the new freedom and better views!

You're still pretty easy going. However, if I try to take paper (your favorite thing in the world!) or a cord/string (your second favorite) out of your hand, you instantly cry harder than you cry for anything else. I first found this out when you were grocery shopping with me and grabbed for my shopping list. You dropped it a while later and cried so hard that I thought you had hurt yourself. But nope - you just really wanted that list back!

They say babies don't really notice other babies around them. I don't think that's the case for you. At daycare they've told me a few times that you love it when your friend Vera gets there. And I have a couple pictures of you grabbing a friend's hand! I guess that goes along with being charming. You charmed the nurses at your last checkup and they all fell in love with you. And the way you reach over and touch my cheek when you want my attention is done in such a charming way that I can't resist but to stop what I'm doing and play. You're going to charm yourself out of trouble - I have a feeling...

I'm loving all the changes and continue to look forward to what the next month brings!

Love mom.

month seven

What a fun month! You're doing something new every couple days - it's hard to keep up with all your new stuff. To list the technical stuff... you have sitting and rolling mastered (and just yesterday when I sat you down, you wanted to be on your hands and knees! - it only lasted a few seconds but it's a sign you're interested in crawling). You're taking a bath with Andrew now - sitting up in the bath chair. You have 2 bottom teeth and I think the top 2 are going to be showing up any day now. You're sitting up in the stroller and you ride in the cart - you love both of these! You are enjoying food, but I think you want more. You're losing interest in bottles already and since you're a big boy (already in 12 month clothes!) you need to eat. I asked daycare to start feeding you twice a day and I was told they started doing that earlier this week. I guess they could tell you like food too!

You continue to be a cutie. You've started to do a little squeal/giggle thing that is so fun to listen to. It's funny though because you do it at random times - I guess you're good at entertaining yourself! You also like to snuggle. Sometimes you'll be standing up on my lap and you grab some of my hair in each of your hands and pull yourself close to me and snuggle into my face. It might not sound cute, but it's adorable.

You're always happy and smiling. I love how easy it is to make you smile! And you continue to love Andrew. He can make you smile and laugh too. Maybe even easier than me or your dad can.

The next big step in your life will be moving out of our room. And even though you're a good sleeper, if you're anything like Andrew, you'll sleep even better in your own room. It's hard for me though. I love, love having you in our room. And if you're not sleeping well I love to pull you into bed and snuggle. You like it too. When I pick you up you instantly get into cuddle position and rest your head on my shoulder.

Thanks for being such a wonderful, easy going, fun little guy who likes to eat, sleep, smile and snuggle. And even though I am trying to remind myself that babies learn new things at different paces, thanks for being on track with your milestones so far...

Love, your mom.

month six

Merry Christmas my little six month old baby boy! You are so much fun these days. You love to be held, you love playing with toys, you love food (you had your first veggie today - squash) and you love tags. You have been doing a lot of talking lately. I swear you say 'hi' and we've heard 'dada' and 'mama' a few times, although we both realize it's not being said to us, just at us. And just lately you have started to talk using a lot of little 'words' instead of just cooing. Then you'll stop using sound but still move your mouth like you're talking. I've decided it looks like a movie with subtitles. :) It's adorable.

I'm going to try not to compare you to your brother, but there is one thing I'm excited about and it is that you seem to like food, just like he did. It was such a relief to not have to worry about making sure Andrew had enough to eat and I'm hoping you continue along that path and continue loving all the food we start introducing you to. It only gets better!

You're starting to drool quite a bit and you put EVERYTHING in your mouth so I wonder if you'll be showing us your first tooth before long! I guess I'll just have to wait and see what kind of good stuff comes this month!

Love you more every day. Your mom.

month five

Life just keeps getting better and better for you. You're starting to be a little more independent/mobile which gives you more freedom, and I think you like that. You love spending time in the exersaucer, you're grabbing some toys, and you roll a few times in a row - just enough to move off your blanket and get frustrated, but it's a step in the right direction! You're working on sitting up - you should have that mastered in no time, and you seem to be trying to work on your crawl position as well. On top of that, your medicine dose was lowered again! There is a chance that the medicine can make you a bit antsy. I didn't think it was, but every time they lower your medicine dose, you seem to get a bit calmer. I'm guessing it's a little from the medicine and a little from just getting older. Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see you're a pretty easy going little guy.

You started daycare and don't seem to mind it too much. It's fun to pick you up and see your face light up (I love you too!). This picture is after your first day - I was glad to get such a big smile from you! It reassures me that things are going okay.

We celebrated your first Thanksgiving with the Dyk family. Grandma hired a photographer to take a picture of the whole family. It's hard to get us all together at the same time so those pictures will be pretty special. I can't wait to see them!

I'm making sure to enjoy the time while you're still my little baby. It can get tricky because I am definitely looking forward to the time where we don't have to have you tested so frequently, but I love all the things you're doing now and need to remember slow down and enjoy this time while I have it. I think I'm doing okay, but even so, time is sure flying by (for the most part).

Thanks for being such a fun little guy. You are so much more interactive these days and you really enjoy having someone to talk with. Luckily for you, you have me, dad, and Andrew to help keep you entertained.

I love you to pieces! Love, your mama.

month four

Seriously?! I can't believe another month has already come and gone... That happened too quickly. Well that means you're four months old today. I must say you're the perfect addition to our family. We always knew we wanted to have another baby - I'm glad we got you - you have definitely completed our family!

This month I would say that you've fallen in love with your brother. You laughed for the first time - it was because Andrew was jumping off the couch toward you. He can make you smile, he can get you to stop crying, and as you can see in this picture - you seem to enjoy watching him. I hope you will grow up to be best friends. Having a brother or sister is something I never experienced. I was happy being an only child growing up - but seeing you guys together kind of makes me feel like maybe I missed out on something pretty cool.

I'm happy to report that all your checkups (and you've had quite a few in your short life) have come back absolutely wonderful. You're doing great and continue to grow and keep up with all the milestones. I'm so glad we have such wonderful doctors around us - with them and all the prayers from our friends and family - I know you're in great hands. It's nice to be able to worry about that part of things less and less as you continue to do so well.

One thing that is a bit of a bummer for the next couple months is the fact that you are too young to get your flu shot. The swine flu (or H1N1) is spreading like crazy and it is recommended that everyone get a shot. We are on the high-priority list since we have you but even with that, we have yet to be able to get the shot because there isn't enough of the vaccine. Hopefully we'll get that taken care of soon, then the main worry will be sending you to daycare. Although our daycare is pretty great and I know they will do their best to keep the flu out of there! It is stressful to me though and I will definitely be happy when this flu season is over!

Other than the flu, we have been enjoying a beautiful fall. I don't have any great pictures of you playing in the leaves because it's been too wet. Since you can't sit up yet, it didn't seem right to plop you down on them just for a picture... Don't worry though - next year you'll be able to play in the leaves for sure! Get excited.

Looking forward to another wonderful month!

Love mom.

month three

The first thing people have been saying about you when they see you is that you're charming! You have the biggest smile and you love to show it off. You're so sweet and I'd definitely have to agree that you're a little charmer.

You are starting to take a big interest in things recently. You love grabbing your blanket and pulling it to your face. And you love to watch your brother. Andrew has been a pretty good big brother so I can see why you'd like him. You really like it when he dances or sings to you and he likes it when he is able to make you smile. I hope the two of you grow up being friends - even though it'll probably make things harder on me and your dad because you'll be able to work together to talk us into things!

It won't be long until you're rolling over. And then you'll be crawling. Then walking. And before I know it, you'll be two! Okay. I'll slow down and enjoy the cute, lovable guy you are now instead of worrying about you growing up too fast.

Thanks for choosing me to be your mom. :) I love you.