Nine Nifty Months

Mathew turned 9 months on Wednesday. It also happened to be the day that Grandma passed away, and everything has been rather out of the ordinary since then. Grandma passed, Mathew turned 9 months and had to go to the pediatrician, and we had a blizzard all in the same day. It was quite a strange day to say the least.

MJ originally had his normal check up scheduled for Wednesday, but we'd cancelled due to the weather. But shortly after cancelling, we got the call about Grandma and knew that we'd be leaving town soon. One of the shots he needed only has a two day window in which it must be administered so we had to call the doctor's office back and ask if we could come in after all. He was quickly figured out that he HATES the doctor's office. From the minute the nurse even approached him he cried and screamed. He cried throughout being weighed examined, shots, you name it. The doctor even commented, "Wow, he's really a handful at home, huh?" The odd thing is NO, he's not. He hardly ever cries. I don't know if he is becoming fearful of strangers or he knows that shots are coming or what, but he just does not like it one bit.

I take lots of pictures, but I'm always certain to take one at each month's milestone. It used to be so easy to get a great picture of him. He would start hamming it up the minute the camera came out. But now, it seems nearly impossible to keep him still long enough to even take a picture. He's all over the place! And if you can get him still, or just put him in the highchair (like I do), he closes his eyes every single time the flash comes on. Do you have any idea how many photos I've taken trying to get a good Christmas card shot?? Ha!

This is how the majority of my pictures turn out lately. Still pretty darn cute though! Such a happy boy at 9 months old.

Finally, when mommy turns the flash off MJ keeps his eyes open. He's getting so big!

At 9 months, Mathew is now crawling, pulling up, and cruising all over the place. He likes to pull himself up over and over again. He loves to play with his LeapFrog Music Table! He has his two bottom teeth, but none on top quite yet. He's still drinking a few bottles a day, along with an occasional sippy cup of juice, baby food 3 times a day, finger foods for snacks, and trying bits and pieces of our meals. We haven't found anything that he doesn't like. He babbles every once in awhile, but still not a whole lot of "talking." He weighs 19 lbs. 11 oz. and is 28.5 in. tall. He only gained a few ounces since his last checkup, so the doctor was slightly concerned and asked us questions about his eating habits. But, since he's still eating so well she chalked it up to him becoming more active, and we'll check his weight next month again. He dropped down between the 10th-25th percentile in weight, but is in the 50th percentile for height. His newest skill is waving hello. He likes to wave hi to us, people in restaurants, his babysitter, and the camera, as seen below...

This picture was taken last night as we celebrated Christmas, just the three of us. We were planning to do our own Christmas before heading to St. Louis, but since we're now leaving early for the funeral we decided to go ahead and do it. I made a crock pot of chili, we put MJ in his Christmas pajamas and we pretended it was Christmas. He certainly didn't know the difference, and we still got to have some special time together! He had more gifts to open than either of us (of course), but his faves were the crinkly paper, the bows, and they shiny ribbon. I wonder how many years we can get by with that??