Silly Faces

Ah, I love this stage where the silly faces begin!

Luke is getting good at wrinkling his nose and then laughing.

He thinks it's funny to squint his eyes and snort.

He's got so much personality stored up in such a little body!

Nine Months

Luke is nine months old!

Height: 30 inches (97%)

Weight: 22 pounds, 14 ounces (90%)

Head Circumference: 47.5 centimeters (98%)

And just to make sure his emotions receive equal representation, here's proof that these chair pictures aren't always fun and rosy -- for either of us.

But, that aside, he really is a fun, smiley baby. 

See?

This past month was filled with one milestone after another.

About a week ago Luke's two bottom teeth FINALLY came in. He handled it pretty well, having a few grumpy episodes here and there and a few shorter than usual naps.

He has LOVED being mobile.  And Luke especially loves using that mobility to play in Noah's room.  He is constantly crawling off to play with big brother's toys.

Luke stood up in his crib for the first time on his nine month birthday.  Oh, he was so pleased with himself! 

And now he spends most of his play time finding things that will help him to stand up.  But he's also pretty content to be on his knees as well. 

Anyone who sees his inchworm crawl gets a good laugh.  It's slowly being replaced by getting up on his hands and knees, but inching is still faster at this point. He's got great break dancing potential.

It seems that every day Luke is testing new boundaries to see what his body can do.   Oh, I'm so grateful that I'm here to watch it happen!

Luke started waving and loves the interaction of someone waving back.  Such cuteness!

He is, still, a champion eater.  I finally added more solids in to the mix of things: bits of banana and pears, pasta, rice, peas, and black beans are what I can think of right now.  No complaints about any of it, including those gross teething biscuits.

Grandpa taught Luke to drink out of a straw, and Luke is a pro at drinking out of Noah's sippy cup.  He's not interested in the baby sippy at all.  Might as well be a big boy like his brother I guess.  I'm hoping the transition from bottle to sippy at the one year mark will be easy.

Luke loves books, especially Eric Carle books.

He makes little grunting sounds when we make the animal noises in The Very Busy Spider.  He'll usually sit through a few books and likes to turn the pages.

It's been such a fun month.  I can't wait to see what the next one will bring!

Meeting Super Why

Earlier this week I took Noah up to the mall because Whyatt, from the PBS show Super Why, was visiting Pottery Barn Kids.  He's one of Noah's favorites.  I joked with Nate that I've never seen so many children or ridiculously expensive strollers at the mall.  Noah kept saying, "Look Mom, I be patient," as we waited about twenty minutes to get to the front of the line.  He gave Whyatt a high five and a hug.  That's about all the time we had before it was the next kid's turn.  But he was totally satisfied.

After looking around in the store we rode the 'oxilator' (escalator) a few times and then headed back to the car.  We finished off our date with a stop at McDonalds.

Such a silly guy.

I realized after this simple adventure that I want to take more opportunities to be with just him.  And I'm not talking about taking him on an errand with me.  We had such a great time holding hands, talking about the trucks we saw on the road, and just looking at each other while we were eating.  It's not very often outside of our home that I get to focus on him alone.  It was special.

As we sat there at lunch I thought about it being the first week of school, and if I was teaching I simply could not have done this.  I would have been in my classroom.  I am so grateful we made this decision for me to be home with our boys.  I'll never forget what a shock and change it was in the beginning after ten years of teaching; but, wow, I feel blessed every day that I don't miss a thing, even meeting Super Why.