Nine Months

This time last year, little man, I was lying in bed, wondering what the future would hold for us. There was a little stitch holding you in there and we were settling in for a whole lot of sitting around and waiting.

So how ironic is it that this is the month you have decided that sitting around is the last thing you want to do? I know I said it last month, but clearly you've shown me the error of my ways. You're still not crawling, but you will pull or roll yourself anywhere you want to be. You're the king of the reverse crawl; if only you knew how to situate yourself in front of whatever you wanted, you could crawl back to it in a matter of seconds. But no, instead I watch you eye your yellow and black striped ball desperately as you inch further and further away from it. I shouldn't, but I laugh. And then I try to help you scoot up to the ball, but you are already pretty independent and you don't respond well to the help. Your reaction? Your entire backside just plops to the ground in a "I'll do it myself, woman!" response. Fine. Have it your way. As a matter of fact, yesterday you rolled yourself right off the beach chair and into the sand in a mad attempt to grab your new favorite toy, the package of diaper-bag sized Huggies wipes, as they fell to the ground. You protested mightly with a mouthful of sand, but this is the price of having it your way. If I can't hold you 24/7 or help you get where you're going, you're going to take your share of diggers.

You've also ruined our best "put Ethan down when Mommy has to run to the bathroom" places, like your crib and your pack n' play because now you will pull up onto your knees and hang out the side. Fabulous. That doesnt' have "trip to the ER" written all over it, now does it? We lowered the bottom of the pack n' play, so it's a true play pen now. The crib is next, although I can still get away with putting you on your back in the crib and turning on the mobile. But that isn't going to last much longer because...

Ethan realizes there is a world beyond the pack and play...and starts planning his escape

You are also very interested in trying to sit up when you are lying down. At first you started trying to sit up when you were lying flat on your back. You might have abs of steel little man, but they aren't ready for that type of work out yet. So you've figured out that rolling to your side and then trying to pull up on mommy, or a pillow or whatever is handy that won't roll or run away from you (i.e. balls or the poor disgruntled kitties) is likely to be the way to go, but you've not yet mastered that. Usually something distracts you (i.e a ball or the disgruntled kitties) and you simply roll away onto the next adventure (and handfull of fur).

Yes, I am trying to teach you to be gentle with the kitties. And Abby is the peaceful little girl and joins us for our naps. She is of the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" camp and jumps up on the bed at naptime with us. She waits at the foot of the bed until your "I don't want to nap!" drama is done and then she curls up next to your sleepy little body and purrs. Penny is the glutton for punishment who wants to spend time with you when you're awake. Why, I don't know. It doesn't get her much but a few less clumps of fur by day's end. Sometimes you pat, sometimes you grab hold and pull like fur collecting was one of your milestones. "Let's see...rolling, check; pincer grasp, check; ripping kitty's fur out, one pudgy fistful at a time, check."

Speaking of pudgy fingers, you are a foodaholic these days. And I mean that in the best possible and least "you've got childhood obesity in your future" type of way. Last month I was having daily panic attacks because you seemed to be weight-gain challenged. We upped your solids to three meals a day, started mainlining yogurt into you and voila!!! You gained almost an entire pound in a little over 2 weeks. So the upside, you can totally gain weight without a problem. The downside? Mommy getting the "Bad Mom of the year" award because she didn't realize she was starving you with only two meals a day and all the boob milkshakes you can drink. I guess there was a part of me that didn't want to give up being your primary source of nutrition and then there was the part of me that was just plain dumb new mom and didn't realize that it was time for you to start eating more solids.

So we've tried a variety of chow this month. Big thumbs up to all the jarred foods you can get your hands on. Yeah, the stuff that one of your doctors says he wouldn't feed to his daughter's dog? You love the shit. Oh well. Vegetable beef puree, it is. In an attempt to give you protein, I flaked up some baked tilapia and put it on your high chair tray. Yeah, clearly fish isn't food to you. Neither are avocado or real bananas (again, Gerbers bananas rock your world, but the real stuff is shite). You are working on picking up your own food and putting it in your mouth, but unfortunately everything seems to stick to your fingers and it ends up being an exercise in frustration for you. You'll get there, babycakes. No rush.

And also to be filed under "getting there" is your sleep. Last month I sort of decided I would commit myself to not talking about your sleep and/or lack thereof because everyone's got an opinion and sleep seems to be one of those topics that really riles people up. Some of my best friends swear by Ferber, others by Sears. We have read all the books. And we know you inside and out when it comes to how you do or don't like to sleep. But still, somehow you seem to amaze us when you do something like lie down at night, smile at daddy, close your eyes and drift to sleep all on your own. It doesn't happen often, but it happened tonight and it is amazing. And now you're sleeping several hours at a time, waking up to nurse and then poof, right back to sleep. You sleep until somewhere between 7-8 am everyday, so it's hard to justify letting you cry it out when we're no longer technically sleep deprived and you're so happy during the day. We'll deal with the next sleep hurdle when we get to it, but for now, we're all pretty well-rested and content.

And what did we do with all this energy we have from being so well-rested? Well, we went to the zoo. Still, more for Mommy & Daddy than for you, but at least you didn't sleep through the entire trip this time, like you did in September when Grammy & Grampy came to visit.

I'm the cutest baby animal in the whole zoo...

We also went outside and played in our first snow! And by "played", I mean Mommy held you in your snow suit while you cried. Good times!

It's freaking cold, woman! Stop kissing me and get me indoors to a warm boob!

We also started our water babies class and made the leap from Mommies meeting at Starbucks once a week with their babies in strollers to a real, live play group. You got to roll around on the floor and swap toys with Katherine, Chloe, Kate and Lily. We went home with a Whoozit and a Lamaze fabric shape sorter that may or may not have originally been yours, but it's all good. After the first week of water babies class we realized that you were a smidge chilly in the water so we got you a skin suit

dude, surf's up, I am, like, so there...

and a wet suit to keep you toasty warm.



You are so cool now, it's ridiculous.

And this week we are in sunny Honduras, visiting family and soaking in the sunshine. You're having a blast sprawling out in the king size bed with mommy and daddy and jumping waves in the warm ocean and lying underneath palm trees. Life doesn't get much sweeter, little man.

mmmm, sandy fingers...

contemplating life as a beach bum...

More water! More waves! More sand! Bring it on!

Okay, nevermind. No more water, waves and sand. I need a nap...

Ethan & Tia Emi enjoy the big wedding, moments before Ethan falls asleep amidst all the merengue music and cheek pinching associated with a 500 guest Honduran wedding. Who needs Ferber?!