Baby Owen- 9 months

I just looked back at how hard month 8 was.. with Owen teething and being cranky. Thankfully we are past that and have had pretty smooth sailing lately (watch, that will all go to pot now that I jinxed us!!)

So here is where we are at the 9 month mark!!

Growing

-Weight- 19.6lbs (47%)

-Height- 29.5" (90%) whoa! big growth spurt!!!

-Wears 9 month clothes but they are a bit tight. Moving into 12 month and even a few 18 month sized things!

-Stands, stands, and stands some more! He is just like big brother where his main way of playing now is crawling to something, pulling up on it, then crawling to another thing and pulling up on that!

-He can let go of furniture while standing and balance!

Blurry pic.. but standing without holding on!

-Cruises furniture and can walk the whole length of the couch!

-Babbles constantly. No real words yet.. but I think he knows that "ba-ba" means bottle. He definitely perks up (or starts fussing) if we say "do you need a ba-ba??" and will start saying "ba-ba-ba-ba" back to us.

-Still only 2 bottom teeth.. no one else has shown up at the party yet.

-He's got some hand movements down.. he claps well, we are working on waving, and the other night he kinda smacked his fingers together when he was done with his Puffs and I asked if he wanted "more" and did the sign again.

-Bear crawling! Especially outside. He's not that sure about grass... so he always gets up in a bear crawl.

-Loves his little walking piano and walks all over! He's terrible at steering. :-) but is getting pretty steady walking with it. It's only a matter of time, and this one will be running around with brother!

-He moved into a convertible car seat! He didn't like it for the first few days.. then he realized he can see brother! And they blow raspberries back and forth and Austin shows him toys and hands him things. It's kinda adorable.

-He is very, very into Mommy. He is all over me like white on rice, all the time. He has started to cry when I leave daycare (god, that breaks my heart!!) and even cry if I put him down at home. I took a pic of his grip on my tank top strap just to show that if I'm holding him.. he is holding me too!

Eating

-Owen's favorite thing! I think his motto is "if it's on a plate, I want it. If it's going in your mouth, I want it. If it's on the counter, I want it. If it looks like food, I want it." He is a very enthusiastic eater. 

-He is much better with texture now and gets a lot of table foods. He's had quinoa and black beans (pic above), meatballs, meatloaf, chicken broccoli risotto, ground turkey, shredded cheese (he really liked the soy cheese I buy once and awhile), and blueberry waffles... he just shoves it in! He still gets a lot of puree's too, but I try and give him our dinner as much as I can. 

-Seriously, this kid loves to eat. 

Sleeping

-We have an improvement!!! He is pretty consistently sleeping through the night. I don't know if it was all the extra food from solids in his tummy, or because he's not teething right now or what.. but we've had a few good solid weeks of good solid sleep at night. I on the other hand, still wake up several times at night, but that's another story. 

-He's still not the best napper. I just don't think he ever will be. Weekends are hit or miss for naps, and he just catches short snoozes in the car or stroller a lot. 

Playing

-Owen's #1 favorite thing, of all time.. is Austin. No question. He is DELIGHTED by his brother and just thinks he is the coolest thing. We were at dinner with my parents and I got these pictures.. he was watching brother from across the table:

"what is brudder doing over there??"

"oh, he's doing a funny..."

"eeee! Brudder is hilarious!!"

"I wuv him"

Owen puts his head down when he giggles, or when he's tired... it's so cute. 

-His other favorite thing is getting into stuff!!!! Austin was busy... but this kid... this kid is busy and INTO stuff. Water glasses knocked over, papers grabbed and ripped.. dog food grabbed. Whatever he can get into, he's all over. He's very mischievous and likes to get into all of brother's things. 

"Hmm... what's in brudder's toy box??"

A whole pile of baby toys.. but brother's sword is way cooler!

-He loves to pull the DVDs off the shelf, and open and close the entertainment center door, and dig toys out of the toy boxes, and chase after balls while we play soccer or tennis or baseball with Austin. 

-I keep him busy with the fridge sometimes. The pantry is a good option too. 

-He has realized we have a dog and loves to swat at Henry, stick his hand out to get licked, and feed him bits of food. 

-He likes the door stops and the wipes box too. Seriously, why do we even buy kids toys??? Just throw a wipes box at them. 

This month was a lot more fun... Owen is really starting to get a personality. He's very laid back... it's nice because he is easy to take places. He sits in the cart at the store, and loves stroller rides so I can take walks on weekends. Austin used to hate to be "confined" and I couldn't do those things easily with him. Owen is more content with riding and sitting. 

He's very curious and like I said, grabs EVERYTHING he can and tries to put it in his mouth. 

He's also very sweet and affectionate and the easiest way to play with him is to just lay on the floor. He gets so excited to come over and pull up on you, and crawl on you, crawl over you, chew on your face, pull your hair, squeal in your ear... he never plays long without crawling back over to "check in" with us (mostly me) for a bit of touching and some kisses. Then he's back exploring. He also loves to be held and is pretty happy in my arms for long amounts of time. As long as he has a grip on me!

So that's it.. 9 months with our BoBo. It really is getting better and better all the time.. and we just love him.