9 Months!

Tomorrow Max is 9 months old!

He is finally getting some teeth. In fact, all four front teeth are coming in at once. No wonder the kid won't sleep. Hopefully the poor baby will be able to get some sleep soon after they all come through. (And then mama can get some sleep too...)

Thanks to his hearty appetite, he gained almost 3 pounds in 3 months - going from the 15th percentile to the 25th in weight and now weighing in at a whopping 18.2 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. And once again he had three needle pokes and didn't cry. But then cried and screamed all the way home because he didn't want to be strapped into his car seat. Crazy kid.

He has a new trick, which is climing up the entire flight of stairs to our bedroom. He is quite a daredevil. He learned how to do it really quickly! Literally one day he was inching his way up one or two stairs and the next he climbed the whole flight. I sound like an overly-proud mama bear. : )

Happy 9-month birthday kiddo! You have now been out in the world as long as you were in my belly.

Crawler!

Something just clicked for Max this afternoon, and now we are really in trouble!

Happy Valentines Day

Mike left for Switzerland yesterday afternoon, sadly leaving me home alone with Max for Valentine's Day. This weekend is also our 10-year anniversary of meeting. Thanks Diana!! : ) Mike and I went out for a date on Friday and I thought that was the end of our V-Day celebration, but these flowers arrived this morning "from Max".

Max and I had a relaxing morning with a trip to Target. He gave me the wonderful Valentines Day present of sleeping in until 6:15 am! Two mornings in a row of sleeping past 6:00 am. (Now that I have typed that, I am sure it will never happen again.)

I had to dress him up in red and white as my little valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Growth Spurt

Max seems to have hit a growth spurt over the past couple of weeks - all of a sudden his 9-month clothes are getting too tight so I had to go to the bins and pull out all of his 12-month hand-me-downs. I am not too surprised considering the quantity of food that this kid eats - easily at least three or four times as much as other babies we know who were born the same day. So far I got my wish - a good eater. We'll see how long it lasts. And his hair is really starting to grow now too!

He still loves his bath, and we signed him up for swimming lessons starting in April, just to get him used to being in the water.

Here he is, about to steal Iris's toy (aka an empty play-dough tin).

We are looking forward to taking Max to his first White Sox game this spring in Arizona during spring training.

He is not looking forward to wearing this hat in the sun.

Wrestlemania

For the past month or more, every diaper change and clothing change has been like Wrestlemania. Max wants nothing to do with laying nicely and getting changed. He flips over, scoots around and tries to get at anything and everything on the table.

Just this week he has started waving. He has been staring at his hand while he opens and closes it - but this week, when prompted, he waved to Mike as he was leaving and also (prompted) waved to me after I dropped him off at Grandma Alyse's for a few hours. Cute, cute.

He loves sitting in the family room playing with his toys.


And he loves fruit. Here's his first taste of blueberries.

One of his favorite comfort objects seems to be the (clean) cloth diaper wipes. They are now scattered around the house because he has been carrying them everywhere.

He can get to standing up in his crib, and now also in the Pack and Play - he proved it this morning when I was in the shower. When I went to get him, there he was standing waiting for me. Strong baby!

TV Debut

Max made his TV debut last week in this clip from a local Chicago show called Check, Please! that reviews restaurants in the city and suburbs. We happened to be at one of my favorite lunch spots, Urban Belly the day that they were filming for the show. You'll see a really quick clip of us in the first one-minute-plus segment and if you click 'play' again you'll see more footage of Max and mama in the next six-minute-plus segment.

Here he is with one of his favorite "toys" - a travel-size lotion bottle.


And after slobbering all over the window, giving it kisses:

He just loves standing at the window looking out, and also standing at the full-length mirror checking out that baby that looks just like him.

We had a warm-for-January day last week, so we headed over for a walk in the Morton Arboretum. Max was so peaceful in his stroller and just took it all in.

Max has been cruising around his crib lately. And though I haven't watched him figure out how to get from laying down to sitting up to standing (we have seen him many times go from sitting to standing, but never from laying down) - he has been standing up in his crib waiting for us to come get him the last few mornings. Time to lower the crib mattress again. He is very proud of himself.

He is still not liking the car normally, but he does get all snuggled up when we go for a ride now.

What a face!

Yesterday Max discovered the joy of the teething biscuit. Still no teeth coming in (as you can see), but man did he love sucking on it and gumming it. I have gone from having spit up all over my clothes to having his food all over me (and of course all over him ) after each meal. Now I will also have teething biscuit residue all over me apparently. He needed a bath after his first experience with the biscuit!

His winter coat is still a little big for him, but it does keep him warm. By the end of the winter it should fit just right. : )

I have been doing some grant writing the last couple weeks, and Max has already started with the separation anxiety, so we have had some fussy times, but here's a happy smile - playing with a new toy from the Barrs.

I see baby Mike when I look at this picture of Max:

I just took this picture off my phone. At Christmas we definitely thought there were some teeth coming - but still no evidence. With as much as he enjoyed gnawing on the chair, I am surprised he hasn't started doing this with his crib rails.

In less than a week Max will be 8 months old. He is starting to wave, cruising around his crib, holding up his arms to be picked up, showing a preference for certain toys (especially non-toy cell phones and remote controls!), and sleeping through the night!!! Hooray sleep training. It is certainly a work in progress, with short short naps during the day, but having him out of our bed and sleeping almost 12 hours at night feels like a small miracle.