NINE MONTHS!!

 Paxton is nine months old today.  It feels like I was taking his eight month pictures two weeks ago.  It seems like every month goes faster than the last month.  I think he's at my favorite age right now...it seems like I feel that way pretty much every month.  I am just really enjoying watching him grow up and learn new things.  I am doing my best to just enjoy every minute because I know it goes by faster than anyone expects.

 Here is what Paxton is up to this month:

• His social skills are expanding so much lately.  I think this is the biggest change we have noticed.  He tries to repeat things we say and do.  He says "dada" to Jared sometimes.  Most of the time when he says it he is just babbling, but we definitely think he knows what it means.  Thanksgiving was the first time he used it correctly.  He looked right up at Jared and said "dada", it was precious.  He has done that several times since then.  If he's fussy in the car, we can say "dada" and he'll repeat it and then just take off babbling.  When he is told to say "mama", he just says "mmmm".  He'll get it soon.  He also says "mmm" when he takes bites of food or a drink.  He shakes his head no if someone does it to him.  He is still doing the "w" face and the fake cough.  Sometimes I ask him what Santa says and he fake coughs.  Jared taught Paxton to click his tongue, and Paxton will repeat that also.  If he isn't sure how to repeat something, he will resort to the tongue click. 

•  He is taking baths in the big tub and he loves his rubber duck and splashing.  His fearlessness is definitely an issue in the tub.  When his toys float away, he tries to crawl after them.  We have to keep our hands on him at all times.  
• He can still squeeze in to his six month onesies, but some of his nine month Carter's onesies are getting pretty tight.  His jeans are 12-18 months.  He has also grown out of nine month pajamas and is in 12-18 months.  We moved him up to size 3 diapers. 

•  He is army crawling all over the house.  He goes from room to room now.  I've been waiting for him to crawl to come find me and that finally happened yesterday.  He was in the living room playing and I was in the bathroom getting ready.  He crawled all the way down the hall and into the doorway.  Then he just sat there and talked to me and smiled at me while I finished getting ready.  It was so sweet.  He chases his car that he got for his six month birthday all over the living room.  It's his favorite toy right now.  He plays with it all day and fusses when it gets stuck somewhere.  
• He's getting really fast at going from laying down to sitting up.  Most mornings when I go in to get him, he's sitting up in bed.
• He lifts his arms to be picked up.

•  He is obsessed with the Christmas tree and is constantly taking off ornaments and trying to open presents.  We had a metal stocking hanger stand that we had to put up because he kept pulling it over on himself.  
• He loves to play with balls.  He also chases those all over the house, but his favorite is when we sit across from him and roll the ball to him.  He rolls it back and gets so excited.  He flaps his arms and squeals.  He will roll it back and forth with us for hours. 
• He is still on a very similar schedule to his eight month schedule.  He wakes up between 9:00 and 10:00 (usually at  9:30) and eats 7 ounces.  He plays until about 11:00 and takes a nap until about 1:00.  Then he plays until lunch at 1:30 (usually 4 ounces in a sippy cup and either rice cereal and a vegetable or a jar of something with meat).  If we have errands to run, we usually go after lunch.  He is up until about 3:00 and then takes a nap until 5:00.  He eats dinner at 5:30 (usually 4 ounces in a sippy cup and fruit and oatmeal).  Jared and I usually eat around 6:30 and he usually wants in on that.  We either give him some puffs and other baby snacks or pieces of what we're eating.  Last night we had spaghetti and he got some too.  He is usually a little fussier than usual from 7-9.  We give him a bath at 8:30 and he has a 7 ounce bottle and goes to bed at 9:00.

Spaghetti Night

"W" face

•  He has perfected the pincher grasp and can pick up tiny pieces and slippery food and feed them to himself.  
• He has had more table food lately.  He's tried grilled chicken and the chicken inside chicken nuggets, fries, avocado, shredded cheese, bread, and a lime.  He loves it all.  So far the only thing he won't eat is a Cheerio.

•  He loves standing up still but is not pulling up yet.  He has great balance, so when he figures it out, I think walking won't be far behind...he's fearless so I don't think that will be an obstacle.
• He has started smiling when I get the camera out or hold my phone up.  He only does it for me, but I am able to get pictures of him smiling pretty consistently.  He is also reaching for the camera most of the time. 
• He can find "hidden" toys.  If I put one of his toys under a cup, he immediately knocks the cup over and gets the toy out.

 He is such a sweet and fun little boy.  Sometimes when we're playing with him, he'll stop for a second and lay his head down on our shoulder and cuddle.  Then he's back to playing.  He's a really busy baby, he doesn't like to sit still or be confined.  I love watching his personality develop and I wonder what kind of little boy he will be. 

New Trick

Paxton has been shaking his head "no" for about a week now...he doesn't mean anything by it, he just does it. All of a sudden, he started doing it back if someone shakes their head at him.

And last night he stayed up about an hour past his bedtime and slept until 10:45! I kept going in to check on him because I couldn't believe it. When we woke up, he was in the best mood. He was so giggly and kept doing all of his new tricks right in a row. He would say "dada", "mmmm", shake his head and click his tongue. Then he leaned in to give me a kiss. He also was pretty insistent on trying to lunge off the bed and get to his bottle. The kid is fearless. I've got my work cut out for me trying to keep him safe as he gets bigger.

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Muffin Top

We went downtown today to eat lunch with Daddy (Friday tradition) and this little guy was sporting a muffin top with his new Gap jeans.






He's so outgoing and loves people which is amazing because he gets lots of stranger attention. Everywhere we go, someone will come up and talk to him and he always has a smile for them. I love it because I think it makes them feel good. It's also nice that I don't have to worry about him bursting into tears when a stranger approaches.

He is in a phase right now where he needs to be eating when we're eating. If we're at home, it's not as bad because he has lots of toys to distract him...but when we're at a restaurant it's a different story. I've tried bringing toys, but he just throws those on the ground. We usually have Puffs for him which works pretty well, but we thought we could try Cheerio's since they're cheaper and they come in a huge box. Apparently Paxton hates Cheerio's. He refuses to eat them when they're in front of him (which is very unusual for our little vacuum cleaner). So, every time we eat out, I spend most of the meal tearing off little pieces of the baby appropriate parts of my meal...I don't mind sharing but it takes a lot of time, and he is so excited about grown up food that he shoves it in his mouth all at once and then squeals until I replenish his supply.

So, Paxton and I went to the store today and bought this:



$17 of baby snacks. Hopefully that will last us for quite a while. (I'm sure all these snacks have nothing to do with that cute little muffin top)

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The First Present of Christmas

We let Paxton open his first Christmas present on Monday night. We thought of a lot of good reasons to do it:
1. Our first Christmas celebration will be Monday night at Jared's mom's house. That would be where Pax would open his first present...and how could his first present not be from us?
2. He was bored of his toys and needed a new one.
3. He would be getting so many toys for Christmas that he might not even play with this one.
4. He had already started opening it a little anyway. (apologies to our families...most of the presents under the tree are a little bit opened or have teeth marks or are missing a bow...)

...But I think the main reason we let him was just our excitement. He was excited too.








Yep...that's a bow on his head. And Jared didn't object. Now I'll be satisfied if I never get a daughter.








What is it?


Merry Christmas!!


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Santa

We took Paxton to see Santa at Quail Springs last week. We were pretty excited because we just knew that Paxton would love Santa this year. He has seen some pretty different looking people and has smiled at them and talked to them like he does everyone else. Sure next year might be different, but this year we just knew we would get a perfect first Santa picture.

We were wrong.

Paxton saw Santa from far away and smiled at him. He was in a great mood. He looked adorable in his new outfit. Then it was our turn. I put him on Santa's lap and he freaked out. He didn't start crying, he just made his crying face and was silent. It was pitiful. My mom and I were standing behind the camera trying to get him to smile...he would look at us with a terrified face and then slowly forget he was on Santa's lap and almost smile. Then he would look up at Santa and go back to the crying face. Needless to say, we didn't order any pictures so here are the iPhone pictures we got:

Terrified:


Almost ok:


Reminding himself of where he was:





It was a disaster...

Yesterday, we rode to Tulsa with Jared. He had to visit a credit union for work and Paxton and I didn't really have anything better going on. While he was inside, Paxton and I entertained ourselves with a photo shoot.








He's getting so big! He looks like a little boy instead of a baby.

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From Crawling to Sitting

Paxton has officially been army crawling for a little over a week now and he's gotten really efficient. He sees tiny Christmas tree needles or maybe a dropped Puff on the floor from across the room and army crawls straight to it. The past few days he has also been obsessed with making his way into the kitchen. It's probably because he knows there are Puffs on the floor under his high chair that he would like to snack on (what? He's in the throwing phase...I can't possibly keep up with him and maintain a clean floor) but I prefer to think that he just wants to be close to me while I do dishes or bake Christmas cookies.


The first few days of army crawling were pretty easy. He was slow and awkward. He would see something across the room and his face would light up and he would start for it...but I could always beat him. Not anymore. He's super fast now...and he has eyes like a hawk. He can literally see the tiniest pieces of fuzz from across the living room and speed crawl over and have it in his mouth before I can walk three steps.


He can also pretty easily go from sitting to crawling position and then back up to sitting. He was playing on the floor on Thursday night while Jared and I watched the Office, and all of a sudden we saw his little head pop up above the coffee table. We looked over and he was sitting there playing with a toy. I kept asking Jared if he was sure that he didn't leave Paxton sitting up...Jared kept saying he was pretty sure...but we just couldn't figure out how he did it. Well, he has been practicing since then and now we know how it happens.

1. The lean: he is playing happily but suddenly sees something he wants across the room. He leans towards it.


2. The All Fours: ready to scoot across the room (don't worry this quickly flattens out into the army crawl position. He still rocks back and forth but has yet to crawl more than two crawl steps in this position).


3. The Army Crawl and the Reach: (look at that cute jeans butt...love it)


The Tripod: the transition between crawling and sitting. It's funny to me that he gets in the correct crawling position before laying down to army crawl and then as he's sitting up...wouldn't it be more efficient to just crawl correctly?


The Sit: the final product plus his proud face.


He really seems like he's growing up lately. In the past week he has started army crawling, sitting up from laying down and started making tons of new sounds and doing new tricks. He has started saying "ba", "ha", and most importantly "ma". He hasn't said mama yet and he's only said ma about three times but I know it's coming and I can't wait! He has also started a little game where he puffs air and wants air puffed back at him. His puff face is adorable and Jared thinks it's fun to make him puff by rubbing things across his face.


I think the other reason he seems so much bigger now is that he's understanding more of what's going on. If I ask him if he wants to go outside he flaps his arms and starts breathing really fast. He loves watching cars drive by. He loves standing up and he always tries to lean back really far when he's standing. He also likes to shake his booty when he's standing. On Friday morning when I went in his room to get him, he was sitting up in his bed. I know that means he's growing up.

At least we have the thumb sucking to keep him a baby for a little longer.




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Catching Up (Picture Edition)

Here's what we have been up to lately:

Going out to eat with Grandpa:


Falling asleep while eating:


I thought this was hilarious because usually he only goes to sleep in his crib, and he's usually awake for at least an hour after lunch.


Playing at the Sears portrait studio with Daddy after getting pictures taken:


He is obsessed with the Christmas tree. He rolls or army crawls to it every chance he gets and either kicks the branches or takes off ornaments and eats them:








Paxton has learned to give kisses lately. So,sometimes he does it on his own if his face is close to mine. Other times I can tell him "give me kisses" and he makes this face:


...and goes straight for my lips. It's pretty spitty but precious. It's definitely my favorite trick he has learned so far. He has also learned to give high fives, but sometimes would rather just eat the high fiver's hand.

Kiss face:


Downtown for lunch with Daddy:


Paxton is also loving to stand up. He can't pull himself up yet, but if he is put in a standing position he gets so excited and will play for a few minutes at a time.


He's pretty proud of himself.


Swinging:


At the park with Mommy:


Christmas pajamas!!


New hat:



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