10 Months

Wow, Adam's first birthday will be here before you know it!  He is now TEN wonderful months old. His major developmental milestone over the past month was pulling up, which is now one of his favorite activities.  He likes to let go with one hand and look around and smile at you, so proud of himself!  He's also working those leg muscles doing of squats - pulling up, crouching down, repeat.  He has recently tackled climbing stairs and (with Mommy hovering right behind him anxiously) was able to crawl all the way to the top of the stairs.  Although I was beginning to think he never would, he finally started getting up on all fours with his stomach off the floor and rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, and is now doing "real" crawling on hands and needs for up to a few paces at a time before he reverts to his tummy position. He'll also do kind of a hybrid where he is crawling on hands and knees with his stomach off the floor, then lifts his right leg and puts his right foot on the floor to push himself off - so crawling with his left knee and right foot, if you can picture that. Adam is bright and curious and enjoying his ever-increasing opportunities for exploration.  I call him a "Danger Baby," though, because sometimes this gets him in a pickle - like when he was opening and closing a kitchen drawer and ended up with a blood blister on his poor little fingertip.  He definitely is requiring a closer eye these days, but I'm enjoying every moment of this age. He is also at an age where he is becoming more expressive in terms of his thoughts and feelings.  He will give me a "help me, Mommy" look if big brother just took away a toy that he wanted to play with, and he is very expressive with his face and vocal grunts when he wants whatever food or drink someone else has.  He can drink from a straw.  He recently had his first sips of cow's milk and seemed intrigued and willing to try more.  He continues to have a ravenous appetite for table foods and is a skilled eater.  I took him to the pediatrician recently for a suspected ear infection (he didn't have one) and he weighed in at exactly 26 pounds. What else can I say?  He continues to be a light in our lives, but that's nothing new.  :)

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9 Months

Our sweet, precious Adam is now, astoundingly, nine months old. Adam can now get himself from prone to sitting and enjoys the increased ability to interact with his world.  I love to watch him on the baby monitor when he awakens and sits up in his crib looking around.  One night he woke up and just sat in the corner of his crib crying and then said "mama" (which, again, I'm not counting on him actually meaning to say my name) -- aww, one mama coming right up, sweetie!! He is working very, very hard to pull himself up and is so very close.  He gets up on his knees now and he also gets onto his toes and wants to pull up, but the poor child just has a lot of poundage to try to heave up. He's starting to look so much older!  His hair has grown in a lot more on the back and sides - shaggy enough that he's likely in for a real haircut before his first birthday. There are now FOUR teeth in his little smile - two top and two bottom.  He is a great eater and is now almost completely on table foods. His curiosity continues to emerge as his abilities develop.  He can now use handles to open drawers. He loves to play with little balls, grabbing one tightly and expertly in each hand and then banging them together. He is fascinated by the (motionless) vacuum cleaner, Davis' toy broom, and grabbing on the bottom of a chair and pulling it around.  His greatest desire is to play with the "big boy toys."  It won't be long and he WILL be one of the big boys, he is growing up so fast! Here are his stats from his 9 month well baby visit: Weight: 25 lbs. 4 oz. (98th percentile) Height: 30.5 in. (99th percentile) Head circumference: 18.25 in. (85th percentile)

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Togetherness

(Disclaimer: I wrote this post at the beginning of January, I swear.  I just now got around to adding the pictures so I could post it.  Oops!  Life happens.) As I type my first post of 2015 - the first post of the first full year in which we are a complete family of four, I am still on the high of 2.5 weeks of family togetherness.  Greg has been on vacation and we have just been basking in lots and lots of TIME.  Time to just be is a true gift.  I have to give massive props to my husband for giving the entire house a rigorous cleaning before Christmas, and along with just the luxury of having someone else around to tag-team with the kids, these past weeks I really feel like I have begun to feel like myself again.  Those hazy, foggy, sleep-deprived days of infancy have given way to a new normal and many hopes and dreams for a happy and well-balanced 2015. We had a good Christmas the year - everyone was healthy (fingers crossed that this continues) and Davis was enthusiastic about Christmas festivities.  We enjoyed fun times with family and friends and Davis is already asking when it will be Christmas again - haha!

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8 Months

Today is such an exciting day in our house.  It's Christmas Eve and, not unimportantly, is also Adam's 8 month "birthday." Just within the past week, Adam has suddenly become a proficient creeper.  His crawling technique is interesting . . . For some time, he's been sticking his right leg straight out to the side while lying on his tummy.  Now, his crawling method consists of sticking his right leg straight out and then pushing off with that foot to propel himself forward.  He can maneuver himself anywhere in the room in this way, persisting until he is successful in his quest to obtain the remote control or other tantalizing non-toy object . . . which, lately, is the Christmas tree.  (He like nothing better right now than to pull needles off the tree.)  It was so odd because he had a couple of very fussy days where I felt he was frustrated at his inability to crawl - then the very next day he suddenly "got it" and now he is exploring a whole new world with his newfound mobility.  Life is very exciting for Adam these days, and the rest of us are having to learn how to keep on our toes again so that he doesn't get ahold of anything dangerous!  He is starting to practice some of the movements that he will need to get from prone to sitting, and experimenting with trying to get up on his hands and knees, although his super chunky thighs are making that position difficult to master. He shows exceptional strength in bearing his weight on his legs when you hold him in a standing position.  He is now babbling and sometimes gets into quite a talkative mood.  One day he looked at me and said "ma ma."  I realize that this was purely coincidence and not a first word, but it still brought a smile to my face!  And, in other exciting news, Adam is cutting his first tooth!! I loooove the mobile stage of babyhood and am so excited to watch Adam continue to learn and grow rapidly over these next few months!

From Loving the Life We Live

Joy

From Loving the Life We Live

7 Months

Adam recently marked his seven month birthday.  Yes, he did finally learn how to roll from back to front!  He did it for the first time on October 27 and quickly realized "hey, I've got this rolling thing down!"  Now he loves to roll around when he's feeling active.  I have started seeing some indications that he may soon be attempting to creep (pull himself along the floor/pre-crawling).  He has become very adept at reaching for toys from various postures and angles.  One of his favorite hobbies is pulling off one of his socks and stuffing it in his mouth.  I get the giggles when he does this because he looks like a little puppy dog, sitting there with a sock hanging out of his mouth.  He recently learned how to stick his tongue out and also how to stick his bottom lip out, which is super cute.  We visited family in Missouri for Thanksgiving and everyone commented on what a "good" baby he is and how he's so calm you forget he's even there.  It's true that if he would just take long naps in his crib and sleep all night long, he would pretty much be the perfect baby. ;)  He has also experienced his first trip to the zoo (for ZooBoo) and his first haircut (sigh) - it was just a trim of his bangs because they were soooo long and in his eyes, but it changed his looks so much already!  Here are some pics of our sweet angel. before getting his bangs trimmed and after hanging out at the zoo loving on Grandad!

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Halloween Flashback

I know I have to get a Halloween post in before Thanksgiving (yikes!), so here goes!  Davis was a cowboy this year and Adam reprised the role of Little Pumpkin that Davis performed so well three Halloweens ago.  We did a trick or treat event on one of the trails at our local park again, which was a good thing since Halloween itself was bitter cold and rainy.  We braved the elements to visit several houses in our neighborhood, but Davis was quickly ready to call it a night!  This sadly led to less candy collected for Mommy to pilfer Davis to enjoy, but we still had a good time. A damp and concerned pumpkin

From Loving the Life We Live