9 month stats

This is our crazy little man. This is the best picture I could get for his 9 month shots. THE KID WILL NOT SIT STILL!!!!!!! (He also tried to eat the sign, so I gave up on it!) Also, this is the chair his aunt Kim and uncle Brad got him for Christmas. It has his name on the back of it. He loves it, however, he doesn't use it for sitting. Instead, he loves to stand and climb on it!

Jack had his 9 month appointment today and what an appointment it was. Jack cried from the moment I took his clothes off until the moment we got in the car. Nothing I did was helping. And since he was crying so much it was really hard for the doctor to look at anything on him since he was crying so much. However, she did think he looked great and was right on track. She looked at me kinda weird when I told her that Jack was taking steps. I can't help it that our son is brilliant and wants to try and do everything. hehe I have said all along that he will be walking in February, and I think he is right on track for that.

Onto the stats:

- He is 20 lbs. 1 oz (50th percentile) and 30 inches long (95th percentile). (I asked if we should be concerned about his weight and she said no since he has been consistent with his height and weight gain since birth!)

- He drinks three 8 oz bottles a day. One at 6:30 am., another at 3:00 pm. and then another right before bed.

- He has recently started eating finger foods and he loves them!!! He loves pasta, mac and cheese, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, blueberries, mixed fruit, mandarin oranges, yogurt, cheese cubes, crackers. So far, every food we have put in front of him, he has liked!

- He sleeps all night but tends to moan in his sleep. He normally goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps till 6:30. When he can, he normally goes back to sleep for an hour or so.

- He crawls like a crazy man. He is all over the place! He is able to crawl up the stairs without any help! (Don't worry, we bought gates!)

- He cruises around the furniture.

- He can stand without holding onto anything for a significant period of time.

- He has taken 2-3 steps without holding on to anything. The first time he did this was at my family's Christmas party, so my whole family got to see it!

- He is a daddy's boy! Whenever Kevin is around, I am chopped liver. He loves to wrestle, be thrown in the air and just do anything with Kevin!

- He loves taking baths. He is like a fish. Jack now takes baths like a big boy...no more baby tub. He loves his rubber ducky. He especially likes to suck on the wash cloth and splash in the water. He is not afraid to get his face wet. He will lay on his back and kick his feet. I think it is time to take the boy swimming. I have a feeling he is going to love it!

- Jack is in his big boy car seat now. The carrier was getting to heavy for me to carry. He loves being able to sit up more in the car. He also loves the fact that he now gets to sit in a high chair at restaurants and ride in shopping carts like a big boy.

Time is flying by. His first birthday will be here before we know it. It has been so much fun watching him grow and develop this past month.

New Favorite Toy

When we were at cousin Katelyn's second birthday party last weekend, she got this tunnel and tent set! Jack LOVED IT!!! He wasn't afraid at all to crawl through it. So this weekend, we were at my parents and had Christmas with my dad's family. My cousin Erika had the tunnel for her son and then Jack got one too! We decided to keep it at my parent's so he would have something fun to play with when we are there.

We had a lot of fun with my family. For many of them, it was the first time seeing Jack. He did great around everyone and he even took his first steps! We were sitting in the living room at my aunt's house and Jack was standing about a foot away from me. I put my arms out and he took about 3 steps to get to me. So I tried it again, and he did it. Then I called for Kevin and he did it again. He ended up doing it 4 times in a row and then he did it a few more times later in the weekend. What a big boy he is! I am still betting that he will walk in February.

We have started Jack on some finger foods and so far he is doing well with them. He enjoys mac and cheese, ravioli, fruits, veggies, crackers and the new favorite ICE CREAM!!! He tried it for the first time at Katelyn's party and loved it. So last night, we went to Handle's (the best ice cream place...ever!) and got Jack a kid's scoop of vanilla. We got home and he sat on my lap and ate the WHOLE SCOOP! He even cried when it was all gone. I think we have created a monster. No more trips to the ice cream store without getting some for Jack! We are going to have so much fun this summer!

Tomorrow Jack will be 9 months old. We go to the doctor next Tuesday, so I will post all of his stats after that!

We have enjoyed our day off as a family. Too bad it is back to reality tomorrow!

Christmas Recap

We had a lot of fun this year at Christmas with Jack. He wasn't too interested in the gifts. He ripped some tissue paper and wore some bows on his head, though. He loves all of his gifts now. His favorites are his soft tool set, Hokey Pokey Elmo and Ball Popper Machine! We tried to take a lot of pictures to capture all the excitement! Here are some of my favorites!

In his cousin Katelyn's new car...she wasn't too happy to share

The front of this shirt says, "My aunt Kassie rocks!" Its a little big on him now, but he will grow into it and I am sure many more pictures will be taken!

Eating the bag!

A family picture on Christmas Eve!

Jack being the conductor of the train!

What a happy boy!

We won!

We entered Jack into a contest and we won. The photographer who took his newborn pictures and our Christmas pictures asked us to pick our favorite picture and submit it to a contest she was having. Well this is the picture we picked and after receiving 45 votes...Jack won! We get a 11x14 canvas print of that picture! I can't wait.

In other news, Jack is changing by the minute. We were up at the lake with my family over new years and he was being a little crabby on Friday morning. I just happened to look in his mouth and discovered he has 3 new top teeth. They all came through at once. He is also standing without holding on to anything. He has made it about 20 seconds at a time. Today, we also moved him into the next car seat. It was getting too hard for me to carry the other one, so Kevin installed his big boy one. With this means, he has to sit in a high chair when we go out to eat and has to ride in a shopping cart. Both of these we tried before making the move and so far so good. He loves the high chair. He is becoming very picky with eating. He only wants to eat finger foods. He has refused to eat his cereal the past 3 days, but give him a graham cracker and he is a happy camper. So right now we are trying to figure out what he likes and start making the switch to finger foods.

Our baby is growing up so fast! Make it stop. I'm not ready for all of this. If he keeps this up, I am guessing he will be walking by 10 months...which is February.