9 months

Hudson,

(aka: Huddy Buddy, Snuggle Bug, Nugget, Bug, Stud Muffin, Hud, Hud Stud, Sweet Pea, Puppy, etc........)

You are NINE months old!

How can this be!?  You are growing up waaaaaaaaaaay too fast! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of our little man but we are in disbelief of how quickly the baby phase is passing by.

So much has changed since last month.

Your checkup is Thursday, so I will update your weight then, but you weigh between 23-24 pounds.

At nine months old, you are wearing size 4 diapers and size almost all 12 month clothes with a couple of 12-18 months outfits.  You can still fit some size 3 shoes.    

You eat three meals a day (B: cereal, L: size 2 fruit, D: size 2 veggie and size 1 fruit) with a snack of puffs/yogurt melts with a water/juice cup around 3pm. You drink 3 bottles of about 26 oz total of formula a day.  We have offered you a few table foods but you weren't too crazy about them.  Not long after you turned 8 months old, you started crying every night at dinner time.  At first I thought it was the high chair, or maybe you just didn't feel well, but then we discovered you longer like meats in your veggies.  And SOMETIMES you are even picky about your veggies! My child that finished every meal and never turned down anything for 8 months is suddenly a picky eater.  But you don't push it away or spit it out.  You just cry! So right now we are back to just veggies. 

Some of the biggest changes since last month:

YOU ARE SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT IN YOUR CRIB! 

This is a BIG deal.  We tried various things at various times throughout the past 5 months but after you became like a flopping fish/karate kid in our bed, we HAD to do something.  You woke frequently for no apparent reason and we were all getting pretty restless.  We felt like you loved sleeping on our squishy mattress, so we put an old quilted doubled over in your crib and secured it so you couldn't move it with all of your moving.  The first night or two you did your usual wake up at 10pm for a few minutes but we stalked you like a hawk on the video monitor left you alone to see what you would do.  After a few minutes of whining and playing with your pacifiers, (yes, multiple pacifiers are sprinkled in your bed so you can find one if you wake up) you went back to sleep.  You go down about 7:30-7:45 every night after a bath, books, and a little rocking.  You usually sleep until 6-6:30 with the occasional weekend gift of a 7:00 wake-up time.  It has been wonderful!!!  You still take two 1 1/2-2 hour naps a day, but if those get cut short you will need a catnap around 4:30 to get you through the evening.

Teeth, teeth, and MORE teeth!

Look at those pearly whites! 

You top left central incisor is through and coming down and the right central incisor is cutting through as we speak! You have definitely had some teeth pain that has made you a little fussy in the afternoons, but thankfully it is not waking you up at night.  This makes 6 teeth!  We use Orajel almost every night.   

You are saying DaDa now and just started clapping! It is funny because you don't really open your hands, so it is more like banging your fists together.  But it is pretty cute! 

You have the biggest, most beautiful smile and you love to talk and laugh all the time.  

AND........................

YOU ARE CRAWLING!!  

It's an army crawl, but you are definitely on the move.  This has just made your will to be more independent even stronger.  You love to be held and cuddled, but you are very hard to hold now unless you are very sleepy.  You want to turn around, stand up, and push away, even though you can't get to where you want to go as fast as you would like. This, combined with you continuing to roll all over the place, makes you quite the busy bee! I got a lot of much needed cleaning and organizing completed the past few days and you have just played with all of your new toys and scooted all over the place! I would go to put something away and you would be across the room with toys in hand when I came back!  This had made changing diapers and clothes much more challenging!

Hudson, you melt our hearts with every new sound, funny face, and toothy grin!  We love you more than you know!