Nine Months

Parker Holt, you are nine months old!

You went from this newborn babe...

 To this one month old...

 To this two month old...

 To this three month old...

 To this four month old...

 To this five month old...

 To this six month old...

 To this seven month old...

 To this eight month old...

 To this nine month old...

As of Tuesday, you weigh 19 pounds 7 ounces and are 29" long.  You had your 9 month check-up this week with Dr. Rester and he said you are looking great and right on track with everything.  You still have the most awesome big blue eyes and hair of gold - although in some light you can see the red in it. Your hair grows more and more.  Daddy brushes it every night after your bath and I'm sure a hair cut will come a few months down the road.     

You are still wearing size 3 diapers, but we have been putting you in a size 4 at night for the extra room.  You are wearing mostly 9 month and 9-12 month clothing. You wear 12 month pajamas because you are so long.  You may be moving into a bigger pajama size soon.  It's time to clean out your closet again - there is a lot you have outgrown.

Typically, you take a bottle 4-5 times a day - about every 4 hours or so and eat solids 3 times a day with an evening snack.  Mommy is still making most of your food.  I just made another batch of food over Thanksgiving weekend.  I say "most" because we have been incorporating some organic food pouches if you ate all that I made you for the day and need more or if we are out and on the go, we take one with us.  We've also been trying to introduce you to meat so you've eaten a few pureed organic meat blends (with vegetables) that come in glass jars.  You've really done well with the meats.  The first one you ate, you gobbled up quick.  We've also been trying to experiment with different table foods from time to time. 

Your sleep is a bit unpredictable.  Sometimes, like the past 2 nights, you'll sleep 9-10 hours straight and sometimes you'll wake up once or maybe twice in the night.  A lot of it has to do with how well you ate that day and/or if we are in a teething time.  But overall, you sleep well and take 2-3 naps a day of different lengths - sometimes you are good with a couple of cat naps and sometimes your naps are an hour or two. You are all over the place in the crib through the night. You start out in one position and direction and by the time you wake up, you are in a completely different spot.

You have two more teeth coming in right now on either side of your two bottom teeth so that makes six total thus far.  You look so grown up with more teeth and are starting to look more like a little boy than a baby - sniff sniff.          

You are crawler and are all over the place!  As of Halloween afternoon, you are crawling. It's been quite an adventure with you going to and fro all over the house.  You love it!  We have done lots of baby proofing, but so far it hasn't been too bad.  We do have to watch you like a hawk and there are several things you've tried your best to grab or get into, but no major issues so far.  As of last week, you can now also pull up to a standing position.  You have pulled up on the furniture, your exersaucer, your toy box and various other things. Sometimes you'll stand for a little while and play and sometimes you let go and plop back down on your bottom.  I'm sure cruising and walking aren't too far off. 

You are still ever so curious about everything!  So many things catch your attention especially with you now crawling.  Sadly, now that you are so mobile, you don't much care for your exersaucer and jumperoo.  We do put you in them occsasionally, but not too often.  You do like to pull up on them and play with the toys on them from the outside - too funny.

I could go into detail about all of these things, but here are a few things that you LOVE....

You love being outside....chasing Calvin around and trying to grab him and pull on his fur...the big furniture lint roller and vacuum cleaner...bath time (you even crawl to the bathroom when you hear Daddy start the water)...music...playing with toys in the floor...sitting in the grocery cart...toys that make noise (anything you can shake and hear a neat sound)...books.  Oh, there is so much you love little Parker. 

Something you really enjoy a lot these days is playing peek-a boo.  You will grab a blanket, clothing item, bib, towel...whatever you can get your hands on and put it over your eyes and then we promptly say "Where's Parker?" and you quickly move it and smile and we say "There he is". It's a game that could go on and on and you really get a kick out of.

There is picture overload this month, so we'd better get started.

You celebrated your first Halloween.  I did a post on this already (see below), but the church e-mailed this picture to me after I had done that.  Mommy has a silly look on her face because I was trying to get you to laugh, but it didn't work.  It's still a cute family photo.     

Grandma and Grandad came for a visit at the end of October.  They gave you a new ride-on toy as an early Christmas present.  While you can't sit on it by yourself just yet, it won't be long.  You do really love playing with the handlebar portion of it which can be detached so that works out great.  They sure enjoyed playing with you.       

Granny and Grandpa came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving.  They came to see you and to visit your cousin Seth for his birthday.  They brought you a really neat gingerbread house to put together with us, but it's a Christmas barn.  We hope to put it together soon - just the first of many fun Christmas projects and crafts.  We all went out to eat on Friday night and had a great time.   

Like I mentioned, while they were here we went to Seth's 10th birthday party at his house.  This was your first birthday party.  Unfortunately, we didn't get your picture with the birthday boy because he was pretty busy with all his little friends in the bounce house.   However, Alyssa and some of her friends were more than happy to play with you in the grass and keep you entertained.  They told me they wanted to play "Mommy" with you - cute!  It was a beautiful day and Daddy and I had fun playing with you too.   

With you crawling, Daddy is doing an awesome job of keeping all of the floors cleaned for you.  As I said above, you love the vacuum cleaner so you get to see it a couple times a week.  You sit there mesmerized when we vacuum and follow it wherever it goes. 

A precious boy waiting for his breakfast. 

One day a week or so ago I was putting up laundry in your room and when I turned to put something in the closet, you decided to help me hang some things...or did you just want to play with the hangers and make a mess? Such a big helper. 

One day you crawled into our room where we have a few books on the bottom of our entertainment center.  You grabbed two books, which both happened to be baseball related.  Your Daddy was so proud!  It did his heart good.   

 A new use for the exersaucer.  Rather than getting in it, you crawled under it and had a big time. 

Laying around with your pal Scout.  Scout is your buddy.  He knows your name and how to spell it and knows your favorite things.  He also talks and sings to you.   

The first time you pulled up was on one of the bar stools.  What a big boy you are.  You expression makes me think you are saying "Wow, standing is so cool.  I didn't know I could do this" - such amazement. 

On November 22nd, you celebrated your first Thanksgiving.  You wore different Thanksgiving outfits during the week leading up to Thursday, but we saved the cutest one for the big day.  We had a great day as a family of three.  We of course missed all of the rest of our family and wanted to be with all of them, but we decided to stay home and not travel for your first Thanksgiving.  Mommy spent the morning cooking and preparing our lunch while you played with Daddy.  We also watched the Macy's parade and you really enjoyed watching the Rockettes with Mommy.  We tried giving you a little bit of Thanksgiving food, but you weren't really up for it and didn't eat the best that day.  Not to worry, there will be more to gobble up next year. We spent the afternoon watching football, resting and playing. 

We had different things to do over the weekend, but also got our Christmas decorations put up.  We decided to start a tradition of giving you a new tree ornament each year on Thanksgiving.  This will help grow a collection of special ornaments for you and give you something to open on Thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas season.  This year, we of course gave you a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.  We loved it because it's of pajamas with feet which you love and wear every night.  You've done fairly well with the Christmas tree and decorations.  You have gone toward the tree and grabbed a branch or the lights a few times, but not too many.  I set up a little area of Christmas toys and books for you in the hallway by the kitchen.  It was such a special Thanksgiving and we look forward to more memories. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we wanted to do a family holiday activity and after debating about different things, we decided to go on a Christmas train ride.  We bought the tickets a couple of weeks ago and were very excited about the trip.  We had tickets for 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.  All of the children were asked to wear some Christmas pajamas - precious.  We enjoyed a little pre-ride singing and picture taking...then ALL ABOARD! We walked through a maze of Christmas trees and snow machines blowing "snow" so it gave us the feel of walking through a snowy forest.  On board the train we heard some carols and got to meet Santa.  Santa gave all of the children a commerative bell that you love - it makes music and you love shaking it and hearing the ringing.  The train ride lasted about 45 minutes and you did really well overall, but started to get fussy toward the end. It was time for a diaper change and dinner.  We went out to eat afterwards and then back home.  It was such a neat time and again, just the start of wonderful holiday memories.     

We are really enjoying this special time of year and it's so hard to believe that in less than three months we'll be celebrating your first birthday.  We adore your sweet little life Parker and as your Daddy says "We love you love you".  You have grown and changed so much in the past month.  Oh what fun you are P-Man. 

Until we meet again...
Riley