9 months old!

Well another month has passed us by and sweet, little Nico is 9 months old!



His 9 month checkup went well. He is hitting all of his milestones and developing great. Just what we like to hear. No fun news to report other than that he did have thrush in his mouth which apparently is some fungus that babies commonly get. And as of today, he has a potential yeast infection in his private area too. It's always something. He's on an oral medicine and a cream for those.

And here's the usual monthly update...

The stats: Weight: 19 lbs, 15 oz (38%)
                        Height: 29 inches (71%)
              
The clothes: Size 3 diapers. Wearing 9 and 12 month outfits. Less onesies and more shirts/shorts combos.

The schedule: It's fairly consistent. Wakes up 630-7ish and has a bottle. Breakfast at 8. Naptime 10-12. Lunch at noon. Naptime 2-4. Dinner at 6. Bedtime 7-730. He starts scratching his eyes and sucking his thumb by 7 most nights!

The sleeping: He still gets up in the night. Yes, every single night. Thankfully, David took over the middle of the night shift. He's the BEST! We have encouraged a bad habit by continuing to feed him in the middle of the night. It's a horrible habit we are encouraging but before you judge, let me tell you our reasoning...  So even though it's the middle of the night, it's been 8 HOURS by the time 3 a.m. rolls around, since he goes to bed so early. And get this. he actually drinks 4-6 oz at that time. Very weird. So it's hard to let him cry it out when you know he would easily down a full bottle. Plus, his weight is only in the 38% so you can't help but want to feed the little guy.

The appetite: Pureed veggies/fruits/meats with recent addition of pastas! He is most definitely NOT a picky eater. We've done a few real foods like turkey burger, pancakes, peas, and bananas. He snacks on little cheeto looking things and loves them.

 

So this was finally the month that I gave in and stopped breastfeeding.... *gasp!*  His constant biting (literally with every attempt for a few days straight) made it easy.  I pumped for a few weeks after that for the sake of mixing formula with breast milk, but then figured enough was enough. Freedom at last!!! I was kinda sad about it, not just because of the obvious bond that a mother has with her baby, but just feeling a little guilty that I was choosing to dump powder into a bottle rather than supply him with the best milk option (so they say).  He seems to drink it all up though, so maybe I will quickly get over feeling bad about it!

What he's like/milestones:

He survived the worst of his teething phase and has become really fun again! For the first week or 2 once he turned 8 months old, we were referring to that time period as the Terrible 8's. Did I mention that he has 7, going on 8 teeth already?!?!


On the left: A view from our monitor. Love the pants falling down.
On the right: Ruining his cribrails with teeth marks. Thanks, Nico. 

 

He is crawling all over the place, and especially to the things we want him to stay away from like the ficus tree and doggie door. When we say no, he stops and looks at us with a sh*tty grin, and then continues on his way. He is pretty good at sitting and playing with toys for short periods of time. He is always squirmy whenever you want him to just sit on your lap or you lie him down to change his diaper.

He loves to stand. He has gotten strong enough to be able to pull up on just about anything now. He still will turn and look at us with such a proud grin.

He holds his own bottles now and has started to drink a little bit out of a sippy cup. We call him Frank Jr. like his mama when he does this...

He really gives Miley a hard time. He waves her toys out in front of her and doesn't let her grab them. The best part about it is that he just laughs and laughs. Poor Miley.

Other fun facts:

His first real word: da da!

His new trick is clapping (patty cake, I guess an all star mom would be calling it) and he smiles so big and proud when he does that too.

His fav toys: a turtle on wheels, little toys that he can bang together, and a little light up lantern thing that plays music

The new favorite moment: Jessica says... When he starts to crawl for a toy but then turns and looks towards me and decides to crawl to me instead    David says... the way Nico looks at him with that big smile when he walks in his room after he's been sleeping for a while

 

I do still smile every time he goes in for an attack kiss AKA bite...

Overall, he's usually very happy, as you can see from that huge grin in most of the pics! He smiles, laughs, and is so alert and interactive. He will lay in his crib and just talk to himself for 15-20 minutes.

We have done a lot of fun things in the past month!.....

We have continued to get in our little weekday *family* day which consists of running a few fun errands and lunch. That's always my favorite day of the week.

 
We have taken Nico to a few outside patios lately to hang out, and he's been really well behaved. He loves to be outside and people watch.

 

Nico was dressed appropriately for Ranger's Opening Day! We went to Champps to meet up with friends and watch while my parents watched Nico, then we stopped by to visit cousin Caitlyn.




 

David and I have had plenty of us time this month and are slowly back to becoming the really cool people that we once were (note the sarcasm). With Nico being older now, I haven't felt as bad about handing him off to his grandparents. In fact, we have gotten a night off for 2 or 3 weekend nights this past month! Aren't we such party animals. I also joined a monthly Bunco group with Misty and Deanna (the ones that watch Nico 2x a week) and some of those kid's moms. It's nice to get back on track and have things to look forward to for myself!

I gotta brag on other recent news... David's baseball team won their past 2 tournaments! He is such a great coach and really loves what he does!

And here are some extra pics of our little guy...

 

Even though the teething has been a little frustrating for us, each month truly gets better and better. He is developing into such a cute BIG GUY (as we call him often) with a really fun personality, and we couldn't love him any more.