9 months

Well Henry turned 9 months old. I am so behind that he's almost 10 months, but i figured I'd give him a 9 month post anyway. I am continually amazed at this stage at how different my children are. By now, Blakey was crawling, standing independently and cruising on furniture. Henry seems so far away from that. He scoots a little bit, but has no interest in standing (on his own) and can't hold himself up on anything. But I also know how quickly they can change at this stage, and he could be walking in a couple of weeks. (Though I highly doubt it.)

At his checkup he weighed 19lbs 5oz. Significantly more than Blakely at that age, but he has dropped to the 25%. He was 30 something in height.

We are a little concerned because he is still not really eating solids. He rarely eats any baby food. We are seeing an early intervention speech pathologist soon for an evaluation. I know he is ok, but he has really slowed down in growth and eating is a huge stressor for him and me, so we are trying to get it worked out.

He is still a very happy boy. He's so easy to get to smile or laugh. No matter his mood, a little attention makes him completely content. He is still pretty frustrated playing by himself since he can't move exactly where he wants.

He is wearing 9-12 month clothes and a few 18 month things as well. It is so confusing to me how he can only be 25% in weight but wear 18 month clothes.

Nursing has gotten a little better- much less fussing- but still very easily distracted. He is eating every 3 hours most days since he isn't eating solids. I still nurse him once or twice at night also. He always starts out in his bed and ends up in bed with me. He has actually started sleeping a little bit in his own real bed. I need to crack down and work on getting him to stay all night in there; it just hardly seems worth it at 3am.

He is talking up a storm and saying all kinds of sounds. Momentarily he is out of the raspberry phase and I am so thankful. I know it will be back shortly.

He loves bath time, especially when Blakely joins him. He is a BIG splasher. And Blakely HATES it. She always wants to take a bath with him, then shortly after is asking us to get him out so he'll quit splashing her.

He is very content in the car, and is a great travel buddy. We just got his new car seat in the mail. I couldn't loosen or tighten the straps on his infant carrier, so I figured it was time for the big boy seat. We will keep him rear facing at least until May though. I still occasionally bring him in places in his carrier, but he is just so heavy to lug around that I don't think I will miss it too badly.

I took him to my staff wives retreat a fee weekends ago and drove 4 hours by myself and he did awesome. We stayed in a hotel, and Henry and I both think that we need a king size bed. He was great considering we were away from home, and since he was the only baby there, he was welcomed to all our meetings by several ladies happy to hold him. Some how he slept through most of the talks and was only awake for a little bit of the discussion and down time. I also need to say how much I LOVED driving by myself. I normally hate to drive alone, but I can't remember having that much alone time and it. Was. Awesome. I didn't even listen to the radio much. I just listened to the sweet sound of silence. :)

I had a blast, and it was just what I needed. I stayed up until 2:45am Saturday night just chatting with friends, and despite the fact that I'm STILL tired, I don't regret it. I came back more thankful than ever for my husband, with practical goals of being a better wife and mom, and most importantly, a better follower of Christ.

Anyway, back to Henry. He's a little sweetheart. Loves to snuggle, loves to wrestle, loves to laugh, is terribly ticklish, and looks exactly like his dad- which is a good thing. :)