Brady, you turned 9 months at the end of July! You are such a ball of fun these days. You rarely stop moving. At the beginning of this phase RaRa stayed with you while mom and dad were in Colorado for almost a whole week. We are so grateful for her coming up here so you could stay in your own home while we were gone. She took great care of you and showered you with love. I was in a beautiful friend’s beautiful wedding in a meadow on the top of a mountain in Crested Butte, Colorado. Then, dad and I traveled through the mountains of Colorado to stay in Vail for a few days. It was a very fun and busy trip at the beginning and we got to spend great time with great friends then, our time in Vail was restful and so lovely. It was hard being away from you for that long,  but it was also good for us (and I had to deal with the dreaded breast pump for an entire week- yuck). I hadn’t spent more than 1 night away from you in nearly 9 months and it was a good healthy adult-time break for me.  I prayed and prayed and prayed we wouldn’t have any trouble re-adjusting back to nursing when I returned home. That was NOT the case for almost 4 days. It was so emotionally draining and frustrating. You just wanted a big fat 8 oz bottle to guzzle. Although, because of my desire to continue breast feeding and your dad’s strong support and encouragement (and lots of prayer) one afternoon you just took to nursing like there was never a break. It was a pure answer from God. Whew! You still took a couple days to normalize back to nursing, but it became even better and more efficient after you re-adjusted!

You are incredibly mobile! You are pulling up on any piece of furniture (or human legs) you can. You also quickly crawl everywhere.

You’re routine hasn’t changed much. You’re still taking 2 naps a day (10 am – noon) & (2 pm – 4 pm ish) and nursing 4x a day (8 am, 12 noon, 4 pm, and 8 pm). You mostly nurse sitting on my lap facing me like a chimp. You’re very monkey-like – hehe. You still eat solids 3x a day after the first 3 nursing sessions, which are still homemade baby food. I don’t think you’d ever stop eating if you had a choice. We even increased your food a bit so that you’re eating anywhere between 4-7 oz of food per meal.  You have TWO TEETH on the bottom. It’s so adorable. Sometimes you eat cheerios (which you pick up so gently with your pointer and thumb). You are putting EVERYTHING in your mouth, which scares the living daylights out of me sometimes. So far, I’ve pulled out a big bug, grass, leaves, dog fur, a button from the ottoman in the living room, and some unidentifiable objects.

The noises you make lately consist of a loud squeaky exhale until you’re out of breathe. You kinda furrow your brow as you’re doing this – hah. You seem to stick with noises for about a week at a time. At another point in the month it was “Guuh!”  Then, you did this Darth Vader sound often and would sometimes smile afterwards. You extend your pointer finger A LOT. Even while you’re sleeping – it’s too funny. You touch & explore everything with your pointer finger(s).

You had your first BEACH experience. We stayed at a family friend’s beach house in Galveston with the maternal side of my family like we do each year. You got to see all my cousins and family – which you’ve actually gotten to see most of them quite often this year.  You enjoyed the beach a lot. You concentrated so hard while you played in the sand. Of course you ate handfuls of sand. You enjoyed the water, as well, and played with seaweed (yuck).  For some reason unknown to man you did NOT sleep well at the beach. At all. It was horrible. You slept in the pack’n’play in our room, which was pretty warm at night, and would cry for sometimes hours on end. Nothing seemed to soothe you. Even nursing you to sleep only helped maybe 5% of the time. It was strange. Once we got home it took you 1 last night of weirdness, then you were comfortable and re-adjusted, thank God.

One evening in the backyard you were swarmed by mosquitos (even though you were covered in repellent and sitting next to a citronella plant). You had about 4-5 bites on one side of your face, some on that same shoulder, 2 on your scalp. It was so sad. You didn’t seem to care, but it looked like you had the measles or something. It’s difficult to find times to play outside since it’s so hot (95-100 degrees at this point). Sometimes we go up to the mall to walk around just so I can get you out of the house. You seem to get cabin fever after a day of not leaving the house. We usually go to the lake for a jog in the mornings, but you still get so hot and sweat so badly when it’s 85 degrees with a breeze.

You’re beginning to exhibit actual little kid temper tantrums/fits. You literally push & kick at me. You stiffen your body and arch backwards. It’s mostly funny right now because you’re so passionate about it, but it wont’ be for long. It’s hard trying to figure out how to discipline you when you’re so little. We mostly save the disciplining to safety hazards. Like the couple of times you’ve pulled out the plug covers to play with.

You started waving lately. Mostly with your left hand. When you figured out how to do this, you repeated it over and over.

Your hair is growing quickly. You are starting to get these adorable little curls it he back mullet area of your hair!

Everything was great at your 9 month check-up! No shots!

Weight: 18 lbs 4.6 ounces (20%)

Length: 28.5 inches (70%)

Head: 18.25 inches (80%)

This month was a very busy, tiring, fun, travel-filled month. I have a few separate blog posts for our various trips, which will include more fun photos. Here are some from this phase- with a few from the beach, as well.

 

BRADY ON INSTAGRAM: