9 months

 

I know, I know, I've been slacking on my blog posts lately. But the last month is the busiest time for me at work all year, so nighttime has equaled rest and nothing else!

Thankfully, work life will slow down considerably now and extra thankfully, the weather is finely nice!!!

Well, enough about me...My baby boy is not 3/4 through his first year of life! I tell ya, this eighth month has been a doozy in terms of his development.

At the beginning of the month, he was still scooting around, doing his army crawling and sometimes going up on all fours. But now, all he does is cruise around on his hands and knees and man is he fast!

He also pulled himself up to his knees on pieces of furniture. Followed exactly a week later with pulling himself up to his feet. Now, he can't go very long without getting up on his feet. All he thinks he needs to do is stand. He also thinks he's able to let go...but he's not! He is good about just sitting down on his butt though. We know it's only a matter of time before he's walking along the furniture and then letting go and standing on his own!

His second bottom tooth is officially in and by the looks of his finger-gnawing, he might be working on one further back now.

He talks up a storm too! He has been saying "da da da" for a long time now, but is now relating it directly to Chris. Unfortunately no real "ma ma" yet, but I get a "rah rah" sometimes that seems like that's directed at me and a few others that sounds really close to it. He also knows how to scream and whine when he doesn't get his way (so crazy how fast that comes!) and laugh, giggle and smile! We prefer the latter of course. :)

He went in for his 9 month check-up and was given the thumbs up! He is doing everything he should be in terms of development and is even doing some stuff listed under 12 months!

He tipped the scales at 20 pounds, 13 ounces (70 percentile) and is 28 1/4 inches long (50 percentile).

He LOVES solid foods. He will still eat cereal and some purees from time to time, but the kiddo just wants to pick up stuff and feed himself. We can't help him either! By far his favorite thing is cheese!! While he can't have cow's milk yet, he can have whole milk yogurt and cheese. He will take down an entire cheese stick in one sitting!! He is eating a lot of what we have for dinner and still loves his puffs and Cheerios. Probably all contributing to Mr. 70-percentile-in-weight :)

He still loves a good cheer (us cheering for him), but now he joins in! He claps along with us when he does something good. He also now leans in and opens his mouth nice and wide when you pucker up for a kiss. And he can wave when you say both "hi" and "bye bye."

And again, thankfully the weather has gotten nicer. He loves being outside, both at home and school. They are outside on the playground and in the sandbox a ton at school and our notes always talk about how he loves it! We take him out for walks and to parks near us as well. We also just sit outside and blow bubbles a lot. Can't wait to do more and more out there!!

Our happy guy!!!

8 months

Now that he can sit so well, we thought we'd give this pose a try! We still had to give him a couple other blocks to keep him occupied and away from the other ones though!!

 

 

Eight whole months old!! Our little man is getting closer and closer to one year. I can't even imagine what that is going to feel like!

 

Evan continues to hit major milestones. He is still scooting around like a maniac and has the one tooth. But his other front, bottom tooth is right there under the surface just trying to come out! He is able to crawl (he crawls OVER stuff), but when it's going from place to place, he still scoots. He will go up on all fours and even move a tiny bit, but I think he just knows he already can get to where he wants to go and takes the easy way out. Oh well, I'm sure it will be no time before he is doing that, let alone walking!!

 

As I said, he can crawl over things, usually our legs as we're trying to block him from getting to places he's not supposed to be going (plant stands, entertainment centers, fireplace, etc.). He is one smart cookie to try and go over us instead of around. :)

 

Just in the last week or so, he has figured out how to pull himself up! He was pretty shaky at first, but now can get himself up to his knees in no time while holding onto something.

 

He also plays so well. He is still doing great at daycare and is now officially in the "Big Bear" room instead of the Baby Bear. He gets to go outside a lot now that it's getting nice out (finally!) and does art projects and has more advanced toys. We have his first conferences coming up!

 

We did have our illness bouts this month. His ear infection didn't clear up with his first medicine, so they gave him a stronger antibiotic. Unfortunately, this caused some tummy trouble and we were going through diapers pretty quickly! Through it all though, he continued to be a happy-go-lucky little man! The only major change was the lack of sleep, but that thankfully has gotten back to a more normal routine.

 

He is eating more and more solids, but we need some more teeth to move on to some of the bigger pieces of food! He loves vegetables, toast and puffs.

 

We're excited for the weather to warm up so we can spend a lot of time outside. We have a couple of really nice parks within walking distance. We go on walks through the neighborhood and he loves being in the stroller and looking around at what is going on out in the world!

 



Happy Easter!

Evan had a great first Easter! While he was getting over some tummy troubles (thanks antibiotics!) and his ear infection (what the antibiotics were for), he still was a happy guy all day and had lots of fun.

We spent the morning at home celebrating as a family. The Easter Bunny hid a basket for Evan in his "fort" aka the cardboard box that his new car seat came in. The bunny brought him some cars, a puzzle and some baby-friendly treats. He crawled right for it and dug through it like a pro.

Finding his first-ever Easter basket!!

 

We spent time with both our families as well and Evan got even more goodies. He even got a package in the mail the next day from his Auntie and to-be Uncle! Evan is one lucky boy to be loved (and spoiled!) by so many people.

At my parents, the kiddo did an egg hunt. Evan went for a few, but he had to be in close proximity before he even knew they were there. Our 5-year-old niece really cleaned up since the two boys weren't quite ready for the full-on finding. :) She'll have some competition in a few years though!!

One special tradition is that the kids (and us still actually) get an egg with $1 in it. This is something my Grandma Sell did for all of us grand kids and we loved it so much. We've kept the tradition alive since she passed away with the grand kids and now her great-grand kids!

Dressed in his Easter best!

Found an egg!

7 months

The little man is just to squirmy and interested in getting the blocks to do our usual poses, so Chris had this good idea!

 

 

Seven months old! Well, Evan is really 7 1/2 months old, because Momma is getting behind in blogging!! Chris has been traveling more for work lately which means that after Evan goes to bed I pretty much get everything ready for the next day and head to bed myself. It's really tiring taking care of him by myself! I seriously don't know how single parents do it!!

 

There have been a lot of milestones hit in the last month or so. Evan is scooting all over the place! He doesn't stick to the living room anymore (where his toys are). He explores into the dining room and kitchen now - and does it quickly too! We have baby-proofed a lot more of the house and installed the gate at the top of the stairs. We still have a little more to do, but it's all in places he hasn't found yet - yet being the key word!! He gets up on all fours and rocks a lot, sometimes moving his knees, but hasn't quite figured out the whole crawling thing yet - again, yet being the key word!

 

Evan is also the proud owner of a tooth! One of his bottom teeth popped out a few weeks ago and he's currently working on the other one. Thankfully it wasn't too much of a struggle. He is a little fussy at times and doesn't like to eat off of a spoon when his gums are sore, but mostly he just loves to chomp on things and drool.

 

He's still doing well with food, trying new things and eating things with a little more consistency now that the tooth is there to help chew! He loves to pick up and eat his puffs and he's also managed to feed himself some banana, carrots, bread and sweet potatoes.

 

Overall, he is still our happy little guy! He loves, loves, LOVES to play toys and read books. He has started talking, even saying "da da da," but we're not sure if he is associating it with Chris or not. We get lots and lots of smiles, snuggles and even some kisses. What more could parents want!!

My new tricks

Evan is really doing some amazing things!

He is army crawling all over the place. He is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth but no movement yet. We officially need to make sure everything is baby-proofed because he has already gone after outlets (they are already covered), air vents and our TV audio/speaker system.

Check out his skills! I took this on my phone last weekend. Our entertainment for the weekend was making him crawl after things. Yes that may sound mean, but hey, we let him get it in the end and he thought it was fun! We're only helping him improve his skills :)

He also can eat some foods by himself! He likes to try to eat with a spoon, but he usually ends up banging it around and knocking all the food off before he gets to his mouth. He is learning the concept though! The really awesome and impressive (to us at least!) thing he can do is pick up some items and eat them. We have some puffs that he is really good at getting into his mouth.

Check out his skills!

6 months

This is what happens when you try to take a picture with an active 6-month-old! We might be done with the block pictures!!

 

 

Some very big things have happened this month as Evan turned a whole half-year old! We cannot believe it's been that long, though it also feels like he has always been in our lives.

Major accomplishments this month - sitting on his own (the length of time he can do this is increasing but he is still a little wobbly with it), eating three meals a day of solids and...crawling/scooting!!

The last one took place for the first time last weekend. He's really been trying to do it for awhile now, but he pulled himself to get a toy last Saturday. He was pretty slow at first, but even in just a week, he can now move pretty quick. Let the baby proofing begin!

It has been so fun to play with him recently. He is so engaged and active. He goes after toys he wants and bangs things around. He grabs well and passes things between his hands. He is just so much more aware that it is a blast.

I think his accomplishment for next month will be his first teeth. While we have felt like he has been showing the signs for awhile, I think his gums have a different feel to them these days. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Being that he is 6-months-old, we also paid a visit to the doctor this weekend. He got an "A+" from her for all aspects of his health and development. He tipped the scales at 18 pounds and measured up at 27 inches. He is in the 65 percentile for height, weight and head circumfrance. Mr. Proportionate!!

He also got some shots (his last for a little bit!) and did well with them. There was crying after he got poked of course, but after a quick hug from Mom, he even gave the nurses a smile as they walked out of the room. One said, "We never get smiles after it's done! How cute!" And other than being a little extra tired, he showed no other side effects from the vaccines.

Mom played photographer again to get some 6-month portraits. As with the blocks, it's hard to keep him still, but I managed to get a few good ones.

Here are my two favorites!

 

What a ham!

Back in action!

Sorry for the absence! With work, a baby and all three of us battling colds recently, there hasn't been much time for blogging.

But I did do a little digging and found out why my photo uploader wasn't working - I had hit my 1G limit! My very nice camera has a downside - very large file sizes for photos. So I worked on shrinking down the existing photos and also purged a few too. Don't worry, there's still plenty of Evan on here, just maybe not quite as much.

And here's a few more! Even though he's one week away from being 6 months, here are his 5 month photos!!