9 Months

9 Months

This by far has been my favorite and my least favorite at the same time.  

You are gaining an attitude and while I love that, it is very clearly that you are going to be your mother's son and be a very willed child.  You laugh when I say no well because it is funny mommy!  

You are also becoming a little more independent which I am loving.  

You can play with your books and toys while I make dinner or empty the dishwasher.   

You are officially cruising and I know any day you are just going to start walking.

You want to get into everything and you are fearless.  Even your teachers at school have commented on how fearless you are.   

Your food intake has not really changed from 8 to 9 months.  

This does not surprise me.

We have started to give you more real people food which you are loving and am hoping that by 10 months you will be completely on real people food.  

I really have not enjoyed the whole baby food phase because it means a lot more planning on my part.  

You have officially learned the sign for “all done” which has helped during meal time. 

You can also hold your own bottle which has proved to be amazing.

You know the sign for milk but are not doing it yourself yet.  

You are sleeping great going down around 7 pm and sleeping till 7 am and then still taking two naps.   Nothing has really changed here either.

You are starting to become more verbal and say "Ma ma ma" all the time but I do not know if you mean it.  

At your recent 9 month appointment, you weighted 21 pounds even and are almost 30 inches long- still 90% for height and 80% for weight.  You are in 12-18 month clothing depending on the brand.  

You are absolutely love Clemson puppy and we spend most of our day chasing him around the house which means him and you both tired.  

This month we had a lot of first such as our 

First Thanksgiving

Our first Trip to see Santa 

(which you rocked by the way)

I was warned that you might cry the whole time but I was smart and went on a Monday Morning when no one was there.  I put you on Santa’s lap and you just started babbling to him and then tried to pull his beard, which was real.

 Up next...

Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving

Joe wanted to do Thanksgiving up this year,

after talking him down we decided to go with a laid back Thanksgiving.

I was so glad we made this decision.

Collin slept in till 8 am- yes our little Champion!

We spent the morning playing and just hanging out.

Then in the afternoon my parents came over to Celebrate Thanksgiving with us. 

 Collin loved Thanksgiving dinner.

He actually ate some green beans, and mash potatoes.  

I was so happy we decided to do low key because it ended up being much more enjoyable.

Seriously, who ever thought up pre-made Thanksgiving Meals is a genius!!!

That night we placed Collin in his Santa PJs that I scored for super cheap! 

Because you can not begin to celebrate Christmas until AFTER

THANKSGIVING IS OVER!!!!

8 Months!

8 Months

Thank you Jesus- you are back to being Collin.

The day after I took you into the pediatricians office just to make sure you did not have like a subacute ear infection or something going on, you decided to be our little “Champion” again.  

THANK YOU!!!!!  Your father and I appreciate it. 

You are still continuing to grow like crazy.  I currently have you in 12 months clothing.  

When I took you into the pediatricians office you were roughly 21 pounds.  

You will get an official measurement around 9 months in December.  

You are sleeping now from around 7 pm till around 6-7:30 am.  

Your naps are rocking!!! 2 hours in the morning and then 1-2 hours in the afternoon.  

This is giving me more time to get other things done since now you are official mobile and I can’t take my eyes of of you.

Yeap you are on the move!  You are crawling, climbing stairs, pulling yourself up and tonight you pushed your toy car for 3-4 steps on your own.  Your teachers at school state you will be walking by Christmas.  Personally I just love that you now know that when I leave a room and tell you to follow me you can- you are getting too heavy for me!  However, this means I can not leave you for a second now which means that your nap time is so important for me getting anything done.  

You are eating three meals a day now- anywhere from 4-8 ounces.  

Seriously you can eat!  

Your favorite is Plum Purple Carrot and Happy Baby Mango-  

We will not be giving you Plum anymore because of a recent recall.  

Still on all breastmilk and drinking 20-28 ounces a day, however I am noticing that this is decreasing which inside seriously makes me yell - YES!!!!! (As this is one more sign that I can stop pumping soon!)  

We have started giving you cheerios and puffs and slowly starting to get small amounts of table food.  You have still not perfected the pincher grasp but it will come in time.  

You love to read!  

You will sit down with me and have story time for 20-30 minutes three or four times a day.   

This is one of my new favorite times we share.  

You have become quite the talker at times.  I think this because you have been moved up to the next room in school where you are the youngest.  You love to say “Mama” all the time… which totally makes your dad upset.  When we were at the cabin I actually think you said Mama and meant it.  

You now know your signs- meaning if I do the sign for milk you will start making a noise if you are hungry, and the sign for “more” as well.  You can’t sign back yet but I am hoping that will come soon.

You absolutely are in love with Clemson and now like to chase him around the house- if Clemson only shared in that love.  

You have started your baby swim class and I kind of feel you are indifferent about it but you are already kicking on your stomach and back.  We went under last week and while you did not like it, you did not cry.  

This month was a busy month…

With our trip to Clemson….

Our first little cold…. (It was bound to happen!)

Yes despite your cold you were still a rock star!

Our First Halloween…..

Our first trip to the Cabin in NC with Granny and Grampy

All in all it was a really good month...

Next up Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween from our COL-LION

If you would have asked me a year ago what Collin would be for Halloween you could probably have  guessed my answer..... A Clemson Tiger. 

But then this little boy was born and over the first couple of months our first nick named developed while spelling Collin's name everyday for him.

He quickly became our C-O-L-LION

So I found an Lion outfit on Amazon, and placed it in my basket.  

Starting at $35 dollars-

I watched it and watched it until it dropped to $22.

I quickly purchased it with some remaining Baby Amazon Gift Cards that we had.

Yes I know this was a splurge... but I would do it again.

Collin ended up wear his costume multiple times. 

The first was at his school the Friday before Halloween.   This was the night he caught his first cold and was not feeling well.

= FAIL

The second was actually on Halloween.

My parents came over and we went by our friends house and "Trick or Treated" at a couple of houses.

He slowly started warming up to the outfit.

The third time was a day I invited all my neighborhood mom's over for a play date.  

This was a blast and trying to get a group shot was absolutely fun!

Ha ha you have to love children.  

And yes that is a new playroom for Collin- more to come on that later.

The the weekend after Halloween my hubby decided to take a couple shots while I was out with my girlfriend.  

Lion, Tiger and Bears

Oh MY!

I loved his costume and am so glad it worked out.....

We had a very good and happy 1st Halloween.  

Collin's First Clemson Trip

 A couple of weeks ago, 

we boarded our third adventure flight with Collin.  

Collin was amazing on the flight.  

Taking his bottle and then falling asleep for the whole flight.

Rock star!!!

We stayed with our friend in Greenville which is about 45 min away from Clemson.

This was great because Collin finally got to meet their 9 month old daughter Emma.

It was so great having two babies the same age- they actually played with each other.  

Collin's sleeping was a little off but this is to be suspected as we stayed out late while we were there and slept in later.  

On the day of the Clemson/BC Game we headed to Clemson while the babies took their first naps in the car.  We then ate lunch at our favorite watering hole...

Triple T- Tiger Town Tavern. 

I will say it was a little odd walking in with two babies but

in true southern fashion people are awesome and nice

and volunteered to move tables to allow us to have a bigger table.

Seriously I miss the south!

We had probably a little too much fun.

We then headed out wander around campus, 

getting a couple of family shots.  

We then had Collin and Emma play a little...

AND THANK GOD CLEMSON WON!!!!

I think Collin had a good time 

on his first trip to Clemson.

7 Months

7 months!

This by far has been my LEAST favorite month so far!  

This month has been a month of increased fussiness and difficulty sleeping.  

However, I think we have finally figured out why that is- BASICALLY YOU ARE HUNGRY ALL THE TIME!!!!  And also you are going thru your next wonderweek- i.e crawling and pulling yourself up which you can get very frustrated with. 

You also now need to put yourself to sleep and thanks to a doctor that grampy works with we were given some good tools that have helped.   

Do not get me wrong, I have still had moments that I have loved, but I am ready for the happy all the time Collin to be back.  

Your sleeping this month has stunk..... 

Some nights sleeping 10 hours and some nights waking up every 3- seriously this is not fun!  At first we just thought you were going thru a phase, we tried the Ferber Method on night and failed miserably!  After 2 hours we gave up, that is when we decided.... maybe you are hungry.  BINGO.... 

Then you went back to sleeping well for a couple days then back to being a terror-

this is when we figured out that you need to learn to put yourself to sleep.  

No more rocking, no more singing, etc.  

So now you are drinking 35-42 ounces a day  of breastmilk and then eating 2-4 ounces twice a day of level II food with a snack of 1-2 ounces in the middle of the day.  Yes I know this is more than is recommended but as your grandmother pointed out to me... YOU ARE HUGE... and once we increased your food intake you were much happier and also sleeping better.  

Your favorite fruit are Mangos and Apples.  

Your favorite veggies are Yams.  

You have started eating more meat and grains.  

You absolutely love yougurt!

You are starting to grab for food and wanting to hold your own fork and feed yourself.

We have started working with a slippy cup but really you just play with it right now.  

You know the sign for “Milk”- you can’t sign it yet but if i make the sign and you are hungry you get fussy.  I am starting to love signing.  Right now we just do-  More, Milk, All Done, Mama, and Dada.  

You can pretty much move completely around the room in between crawling and inch worming.  You are starting to try to pull yourself up and trying to stand on your own.  You will not sit still for me to change your diaper, for me to dress you and now for me to feed you.... not fun!  I am learning distraction and giving you a toy that you can mouth seems to help.  

I no longer can get good pictures because you are too fast!

You are taking two naps each day-  they range anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours but you are definitely down to two naps now and they are thankfully longer.  

You are huge in 9-12 month clothes.  

I actually returned some 9 months for 12 months.  

You were 19 pounds 14 ounces at your 6 month (90%) and 29 inches (98%)  - again not from the Oliveria side.  Your eyes are still blue and I think are going to stay blue.  

You said “Mama” way before “Dada” and now have to point to mama and dada at our picture when we walk in the house because that is something that I have done with you for the last couple of months and now it is our routine. 

You are doing well at school, and loving your teachers.  I know it is only time before they want to move you up to the next room.  This is something I am not happy about but know that it is what it is.  

You now love Clemson- I wish he loved you.... 
He is being a pain in the butt but hopefully will come around.  

Coming up next month....

First Halloween