Nine months

He was nine months in the making (well, technically speaking, in actuality he was eight months in the making since he actually came a month early, but it doesn't sound as nice) and now he's nine months old. What an amazing way our world was turned upside down and how we are so continually blessed with having Benjamin in our lives.

His first Christmas went as we anticipated... more interest in the boxes and tissue paper than the gifts but Santa came and blessed him with some new gadgets and gizmos just to keep his interest. He spent the morning with his dad while I took Josh to the airport to head to Iowa (and the extreme frigid cold -- the low today is 1. As in UNO... O-N-E... can you say, "Brrrrrrr?").

He's had a great day so far celebrating his 9 months on this earth. So far he:

• woke
• smiled
• nursed
• played in his playpen
• ate some bananas, pears and graham crackers
• played with Daddy
• slept in his swing
• crawled
• played with his new toys

I mean, can it get any better than that? What a life!

9 Month statistics - he hasn't had his check up yet, obviously, but for now here's what we know:

Diaper - Size 3

Clothes - 9 month

Says "Mmm mmm mmm" and "ma ma ma" and "da da da" and just started "naa naa naa" the past couple of days

He still tends to "Army crawl" around but has started in the past couple weeks actually doing what looks like a real crawl.

He loves to pull himself up on ANYTHING he can get his hands on. He will stand there and can actually scoot his hands and follow them to wherever he wants to go. He will briefly let go at times and plop down on his bottom. Though, sometimes his landing is a little harder than he likes.

He loves to eat pears and peaches. He tries apples but hasn't really taken to them yet... or any veggies. I see the fact that he didn't like baby food AT ALL a hindrance in this arena since he hasn't learned to like those flavors. He will eat his Mum mums, too. He's snacked on samples of toast with a bit of apple butter and sometimes lets me try to feed him some oatmeal with cinnamon applesauce mixed in.

He still sleeps snuggled up next to me and while this is a pain at times... waking up to that little face is one of the highlights of my day. Plus, I get the benefit of it being nice and quiet at night.

His two bottom teeth show clearly now so there are no more gummy grins for us to see. Clearly signs that you can't stop them from growing up, no matter how much you want them to stay little.

He, of course, prefers me to just about anyone as is customary for this age, but he loves to see his PawPaw and generally goes to him with no fuss whatsoever. He loved playing with Grandma on the floor on Christmas. His Pop sees him somewhat regularly and, unless he's fussy or tired already, he hasn't given any problems with going to him either. He went to Becky (Drew's friend Joshua's mom) at the Kindergarten Christmas party without incident, either. Hopefully, we'll be okay. I remember the days of Drew having screaming meltdowns just pulling up to his Mimi and Pop's house. Insane the separation anxiety was, but what can you do?

He sleeps through the night 99.9% of the time and prefers to go to bed anywhere from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Any later and he is generally letting you know that it's his time for bed. He "sleep crawls" sometimes. He will lose his "binkie" (pacifier) in his sleep and then just head up and crawl straight ahead resulting in a bump on the head on the headboard. This greatly confuses him and he whimpers and I give him back his binkie and scoot him down, cover him up and he's right back to sleep. It's rather funny.

It's still an amazing journey watching him grow and I just adore him and my husband for giving me the opportunity to stay home to take care of my flock.