9 Months

Jackson is 9 months old today and just wrapped up yet another exciting month.  I swear, every month truly does get more fun as we get to see him learn more and more new things every week.

This month, he:

• Perfected really crawling.  He's so quick, he gives us a run for our money - we're constantly running to block him from things we don't want him to play with (Roxy's toys, Roxy's water dish, hot heater vents, lamp cords, and the list goes on).  He loves to play with anything we don't want him to have.
• Dances (i.e bounces) and sometimes claps along to music.  Doesn't matter if it's coming from a toy or if we're singing, he loves to dance.
• Started clapping when we say 'yay!'. 
• Doesn't wave much but will more often clap when you exit or enter a room if you say 'hi!' or 'bye!' and wave.  Very cute.
• His second tooth popped up right around Christmas, so he has his two middle, bottom chompers now.
• Now pulls himself up on furniture, in his crib and on our legs.
• Started walking along furniture.
• Got his first haircut and looks quite the big boy now.
• Experienced snow for the first time.
• Is easily entertained for fairly long periods of time with stand up toys like his activity walker; however, he screams when we put it in walk mode (vs. stationary mode), even though he loves to walk when holding our hands.
• Loves when I fake cough or sneeze.  And sometimes, when I fake cough, he'll fake cough back.
• Is still not a huge solid food fan, expect for his LOVE of puffs, Mum Mums, Cheerios and bananas.  He tried cheese, tofo and chicken this month, but doesn't seem to like any of these new foods.  He'll eat some veggies, but often it's only if we're sneaking bites in when he's cramming the above mentioned foods in his mouth.  He does like many fruits just not as much as he loves his daily banana.  And oddly enough, he only likes to pick up puffs, Mum Mums and Cheerios.  We have to feed him all other foods.  Must be a texture thing.
• Hit a rough overnight sleep patch.  The day he turned 8 months was the day he started really crawling and since that day, we've gotten a lot less sleep.  While he was sick for one week in there, I think developmental issues caused the  majority of the sleep issues, which have been known to keep him up for several hour blocks in the middle of the night.  We've started some sleep training to try to nip these episodes in the bud since we're both exhausted.  More to come soon.

I can't believe there are only three more months before he's a year old!

No, you're not mistaken - he definitely looks a bit pissed off this month.  It's because he was going on five hours of being awake (3-4 hours is much more his style) since he woke up from his afternoon nap early, and because we wouldn't let him grab everything on the table next to the glider and kept making him sit still instead, which is not nearly as fun.