Carter: 9 months

What's new-
Carter is trying desperately to gain the courage to crawl.  Every day, I am wondering if it'll be the day.  As much as I want to watch the little guy lose this crazy frustration, it's really nice to know he won't go far when I sit him down on the floor.

He can sort of scoot himself around when he is in sitting position.  He hates to be on his belly and seems to have an even harder time getting things that he is interested in unlike sitting upright.

He still only has his two front bottom teeth.  He loves everything about Maddie and always wants to know where she is or what she's doing.  He loves to be held.  He'll sit in the stroller for about 30 minutes and then he fusses until picked up and carried the rest of the way.  He loves to chew on metal things like silverware and keys.  He is such a sweetheart and hardly ever resists cuddling.

I can't believe that I never mentioned before, but he loves to be fully naked.  He also loves the hairdryer.  Every night after bath, we take both of them into our room, dry them off with the hairdryer, Maddie jumps on the bed like a crazy person throwing pillows around and watching herself in the mirror, while Carter is completely giddy giggling and waving all of his limbs (and usually peeing so we're always quick to grab a diaper or the towel).

Sleeping-
Now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I'm the only one who has ever been able to put him down to sleep (after nursing every time).  Lately, he's been a great sleeper.  We've also been here at home for over a month, so maybe that's why it's been going well.  He goes to sleep at 6:30/7pm, wakes up around 3/4am to feed, then wakes up at 6/7am.  He always takes an afternoon nap around 1:30pm for just over an hour, at the same time that Maddie goes down.  If we're at home, he takes a morning nap around 9am for about an hour.  If we're not at home, he falls asleep completely exhausted around 10:30am (which is usually a bummer because he's woken up about 30 minutes later depending on the day (German lessons 2x/week, we go to a little gym class for Maddie most Wednesday mornings, and then she has play group on Thursday mornings).

Eating-
He is a good eater but isn't as crazy I-want-to-eat-everything-in-sight.  Most days I will give him different purees for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He chews on bread, eats pieces of Maddie's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which he loves, eats chunks of banana, green peas, saltine crackers, rice cakes, yogurt, and almost anything else that I will give him (that I don't think he'll choke on).  He's still breastfeeding 5-6 times a day.  He is (and always has been) really finicky about the bottle.  He will drink water, juice, or dairy milk out of sippy cups and bottles, but no formula.  If it's before nap time or bedtime, he always nurses, burps, then falls asleep on my shoulder.

He got his first black eye this month!

I love this scrunched nose laugh.

His beautiful eyes

Trying to get a look at his teeth.

He looks like such a big boy with his hair parted!

He is a professional reacher.  He often touches his nose to his toes or the ground reaching far to get things when he's sitting on the floor.

He gets up in this odd position with his bottom off the floor and his legs fixed like he's sitting on the ground.  I always try to encourage him to move, but he hasn't gained the courage and either pushes himself back into sitting position or falls onto his belly.

Another side note, he is extremely attached to mommy right now.  As in, checks to make sure I'm around often and sometimes only will eat when I'm feeding it to him.  Thankfully, he does well at the German class childcare where we go twice a week.  I think it helps that he arrives with a fully belly and Maddie is in the same room with him.  He doesn't do well in the nursery at church (I've only left him a couple times for the duration of church).  Aside from those things, he's never been away from me for more than 3 hours.  On one hand, I know these will be precious moments that I'll remember and long for later in life.  On the other, I'm looking forward to the day when I can go out to dinner without checking my watch and obsessively checking my phone for a call with him screaming in the background or a text saying "When are you coming home????"

[Maddie at 9 months.]