9 Month Check-up

Mmm...mmm...eyeballs. Oh so tasty!

Boys and their toys. Anything with wheels are a hit.

I'm coming to get you Mommy.

What a flirt!!!

Today Henry visited Dr. E for his 9 month check up. Dr. E observed that Henry was "quite a healthy boy." He also commented: "I think you are growing a linebacker here."

Henry's 9 month stats:

Weight: 22lbs 4.5oz (89th percentile)

Height: 29.5 inches long (85th percentile)

Head: 18 cm (75th percentile)...all those who have said Henry has a big head are WRONG!!! : ) He is perfectly proportional.

Dr. E said that Henry is right on target developmentally and said that he wouldn't be surprised if Henry starts standing on his own and cruising around the house holding onto furniture soon.

Other updates for the week: Henry got his third tooth!!! He also started pulling himself up to his knees. He's getting more and more verbal by the day. New sounds for the week include "baba" "gege" "boowa" and "wawa". He still routinely says "mama" and "dada" (which just melts my heart). We have had to start reading board books exclusively because Henry thinks books are for eating and/or ripping, even though I constantly tell him that "books are for reading, not for eating." His favorites this week include Otis and Chicka Chicka abc. We have been trying more and more big boy foods, including pizza tonight (okay, really just peices of chicken, spinach, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, zucchini and cheese). Yum...what a treat. He also was a big fan of corn and yams this week. We now have officially installed two of the three new car seats. This weekend we will probably finish the process and get the new one installed in Ryan's truck. Amazing how I think I will complete things in a weekend and in reality it takes me three weeks or more to finally get around to the task. But hey, at least it's done now. I think Henry prefers the big boy car seats. They sit slightly more up right, even though still in the rear facing position.

Motherhood - The First 9 Months

Baby Boy is 9 months old today. He has started to pull himself up on furniture now. Not quite up on his feet yet, but up on his knees. It is just a matter of time before he makes it to his feet. He also discovered the kitchen cabinets this weekend. What a great new toy to bang on. I'll take it for now since he doesn't know how to open them yet. This weekend he got to see lots of kids. We went to Madison's (Ryan's cousin Travis's little girl) birthday party on Saturday where there were a handful of kids. I really like family gatherings, I wish we got together more. Yesterday Henry and I hosted a play date. Cameron, Jade and Layton came over to play (plus their mom's). It is fun to see them mobile and snatching toys from one another. Cameron is not quite crawling yet, but he is the youngest (a month behind Henry). I'm sure by next month he will have mastered it. I told Kellie that she should relish this time because once he becomes mobile her life will become much busier. I love this stage though. Henry is so inquisitive and likes to play independently (for a least a little while). But, he still loves his snuggle time with Mama. I know the day will come when he doesn't want to snuggle with Mama anymore, so I am cherishing these moments.

Lately, I've been reflecting on motherhood. Here are the top 5 surprises about motherhood:

1. Passion. I've always been one of those people that wanted to find my passion. I've been interested in lots of different things in life, but not passionate about anything. I had gotten to the point of thinking that I just didn't have a passion. I know it may sound cliche, but being a mom is my passion. I LOVE being a mom. There isn't anything that brings me more joy in the world than being a mom. It is all consuming. It is ever-present. From the time I get up until the time I go to bed, I am thinking about Henry. All I want to do is spend time with him. I never tire of being with him. I knew I would like being a mom, but I had no clue how much I would love it. I thought I was career driven and would be itching to go back to work after Henry was born. But, ironically, after all the time and resources I've spent becoming a lawyer and creating an amazing lifesyle, I would give it all up in heartbeat to be a full time mom. Funny how I spent almost a decade of my adult life not wanting children and now all I want to do is be with my child.

2. Love. I knew I would love Henry, because all moms love their children. What I didn't know was how deeply I would love Henry. Unlike other forms of love, that grow and are earned in large part, the love I have for Henry is different, its primal. It is truly unconditional. And he didn't have to earn it. I just love him with all my heart. Period.

3. Attachment. I have been very surprised with my parenting style. Because I'm so type-A about most things in life, I thought I would be scheduled and formulaic about my parenting. Surprisingly, I've gravitated much more toward attachment parenting or baby-led parenting. Because I don't believe infants are manipulative, I find myself letting Henry tell me what he needs. I feed him on demand when he's hungry (even in the middle of the night) and let him sleep when he is tired (although he does have a pretty set bedtime). He still primarily naps in someone's arms, even now. I don't necessarily think other parenting styles are wrong or bad, I just have naturally fell into this type of parenting...which is polar opposite of how I thought I would be. Tons of moms told me before Henry was born that I would just know what to do when Henry was born, and somehow, this is what I "knew" how to do. Fascinating.

4. Nursing. Before Henry was born, I was skeptical if I was going to be able to nurse for even the 12 weeks that I was scheduled to take off for maternity leave. I had hoped I would be able to nurse for 6 months, which was a goal I set for myself, but deep down I was skeptical. On the flip side, I am super stubborn, so since I set a goal, I was pretty determined to meet it. What has been surprising about nursing, is how emotional it has been. It has been one of the biggest sources of stress. I am constantly worried that I won't be able to keep up with Henry's demand, but here we are 9 months later, and he's HUGE and HEALTHY. Clearly, I've been able to keep up, yet I still stress about it. You would think the stress would lead me to supplement with formula, but I stress more about giving him formula...why, only heaven knows. I never thought I would be one of those moms who nursed for the whole first year, but with only 13 more weeks left, there is a good chance I'll nurse for the entire first year (or at least pretty close to it). Another surprising thing about nursing is my husband's perspective on breastfeeding. Before Henry was born he thought it was creepy for women to nurse for much longer than a few months, but he would tolerate the first 6 months. Now, he could care less how long I nurse. Go figure. I think the biggest perk of nursing, and also surprising (because again, I was skeptical), is that nursing has helped me lose over 60 pounds since Henry was born. Woo-hoo!

5. Guilt. I have heard time and time again from working moms about the guilt they feel after becoming moms. I never really understood it until I became a mom. I feel guilty when I spend time away from Henry. There is the undercurrent guilt about working generally, but most of the guilt revolves around spending time doing other things that pull me away from Henry (like grocery shopping, cleaning, paying bills...you know...life). I feel a tremendous amount of guilt, which I know is ridiculous, but I still feel it. This usually results in me trying to postpone those activities until after he goes to bed or when Ryan can play with him, but it means I have NO time for the things that I used to do for me (painting my nails, reading a novel, scrapbooking, playing the piano, gardening, etc.) But then, I even feel guilty for wanting time for those things. I don't think I can win this battle, nor do I think this battle is logical. Emotions are a tricky thing, something that you can't always control.

38 weeks

Henry puts EVERYTHING in his mouth now, even the couch! On Saturday we went and played next door with the Ko kids while their folks went out on a date. We had such a good time, but Bennia might have some slobber to clean off her couch now. : )

Happy Halloween! I love my little monkey.

Henry enjoyed his first college basketball game. Go Pilots! The earmuffs lasted about 10 minutes, but hey, that's 10 more minutes than I thought they would last.

Yes indeed, Henry's got two pearly whites.

Henry is a crawling machine now. He is all over the place. His new trick is to go from crawling to sitting to crawling again. He is developing so quickly, it is mind boggling. He also has become quite opinionated about stuff. He wants to hold (and eat) anything that I have in my hands, trash bags, newspaper, light bulbs, Windex, whatever. If he can't have it (because it isn't safe, or just plain gross) he screams...LOUDLY.

Halloween was a bit of a whirlwind. Henry started his morning off at Grandma Sherry's school. I think the kids got a kick out of having their teacher's grandkids come for a visit, in costume. Daddy brought Henry to Mommy's work to show him off. He was the talk of the day. : ) That afternoon we went over to Jeff and Vanessa's house for a kid costume party. We were a little early, so we didn't see many other kids in costume, but it was fun to see Jeff and Vanessa (and their two boys). Their next door neighbor Finn was over as well, who is just 2 months older than Henry. They had a nice game of keep-away with a plastic strawberry and hot dog. That evening, Henry and I went back home to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids and hit the sack at a reasonable hour.

On the food front, Henry has been trying big boy food. The other night, Henry wasn't digging the pureed food I had made, even though it was stuff he usually likes (avocados and sweet potatoes). So, I thought perhaps he might want to try what I was eating for dinner (beef stew). He LOVED all the different bits of stew I gave him. We started with the beef, then the carrots, then the potatoes, and ended with peas. All cut into TINY, TINY pieces. I am still super nervous he is going to choke, for goodness sake he only has two teeth. The next morning he was eyeing my Cheerios so we gave them a whirl too. He thought they were awesome and was not thrilled that I got the last bite. : ) Last night he actually ate a fairly good dinner of pureed stuff (beets with corn, sweet potatoes and roasted cauliflower) but he seemed pretty fascinated with my dinner (butternut squash mac n' cheese with broccolini and hot italian sausage). So, I cut up some of the noodles and broccolini and he was in HEAVEN. Yum-o. I love that he is so willing to try new foods and it is exciting that I might not have to keep pureeing everything. Henry also tried yogurt this week. He seems to be handling the dairy just fine. Thank goodness, no food allergies to report. : )

Gosh, Henry is growing up so fast. How in the world can I slow down the clock!?!

Fun with the Grandpas

On each trip to the beach I take a picture of Henry in Daddy's recliner. This past weekend he didn't really want to sit up for Mommy. Leaning forward and making it rock was way more fun.

Grandpa Jim is SOOOOOO funny!

I turn my back for one second and Grandpa Keith decided to give Henry a little pick-me-up. I think this is Grandpa's way of getting back at Ryan for all those sleepless nights when he was a baby (although if I remember right, Ryan was a great sleeper as a baby...perhaps this is pay back for something I did...)

This past weekend, we were very fortunate and had both sets of grandparents down at the coast. The men-folk (plus my mom) went crabbing on Saturday. Although they didn't have much luck (just caught 7), it was plenty for dinner that night. I made some awesome homemade clam chowder as well (I'm allergic to crab, so this was a great seafood alternative) . On Saturday afternoon I got Soph down to the water for a swim (her all time favorite activity). Henry stayed behind and played with Grandma Sherry while Soph and I were down at the beach. Henry thought playing with Grandma Sherry was great fun because she let him bang his toys against the table for more than an hour straight!

Henry's biggest achievement this week is crawling in the forward direction. He isn't exactly an expert crawler at this point, but he now knows that he has to move each of his limbs independently. It helps if he has something in his sight line to go after, like the vacuum cord, which is a "not for babies" item, but oh so enticing.

His favorite food this week is avocado. I think we might try salmon tomorrow.

Henry loves being outside, even though we have been in the high 50s/low 60s. Although chilly, he doesn't seem to mind one bit. The stroller is a back-saver. We sometimes still go for walks using the front pack, but the stroller is my preferred walking appliance now. Henry likes the stroller because Mommy straps on a few toys to chew on.

As for Mom, I'm doing pretty well. I am struggling to find the time to work on Henry's baby book and play the piano, two things I wish I had more time to do. I also recently realized that Christmas is just around the corner and I should start working on my cards, otherwise they will end up being Fourth of July cards instead of Christmas cards. On the mom-front I am toying with the idea of weaning again. Six weeks ago I gave Henry a bottle of formula. It didn't go well. So I continued nursing. Now, I'm thinking about giving him formula again, but part of me also thinks, only 16 more weeks and you've made it to a year. But, on the flip side, it's 16 more weeks! Perhaps I'll wait until Henry goes in to see the doc for his 9 month appointment and chat with his ped about weaning. Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion he will convince me to continue nursing until Henry's one. I should just accept it and look at my breast pump with more affection rather than irritation. After all, it has allowed me to continue nursing and work full time. Two things that mom's historically couldn't do at the same time. Thank goodness for cultural evolution.

Pumpkin Patch

Dad, this pumpkin is too big for me to carry!

On Sunday, we took Henry out to the pumpkin patch for the first time. It was such a beautiful sunny day. Henry loved all the people watching.

Wow, my head is as big as a pumpkin!

By way of other Henry updates, he turned 8 months last Friday. He is approximately 22 lbs now and very wiggly. He gets closer and closer to crawling forward, but he still primarily moves in the backward or circular direction. His favorite foods these days are bread, papaya and pumpkin. He tried chicken for the first time this weekend, and thought that was pretty awesome too (he gets that from his Dad). He can now sit in the bathtub like a big boy, but has recently learned how much fun it is to splash Mommy. We also retired the car seat adaptor on the stoller. He much prefers to sit upright and face forward so he can see stuff better. On the agenda for this week: retire the infant car seat and install convertible car seats (thank you Britney for the hand-me-downs!!!).

Buddies

On Saturday, Mama and Henry went to play at Kellie's house (Cameron's mom). Henry had a great time playing with Cameron (pictured left) and Cayden (pictured middle). Sarah (Cayden's mom) took this great picture. Who knew it would be so hard to get three little guys to look at the camera at the same time. It was comical. Henry was way more interested in playing with Cameron's toys rather than looking at the camera. We try to get together once a month. It has been so fun to watch the kiddos develop and great to have other moms to chat with who are going through the same developmental stage as us. Sometimes there are a couple of girls who show up, but this was all about the boys this weekend. It will be even more fun when they actually can play games together. At this point they like to stare at each other and grab at each other's faces, which is also adorable. Can't wait for next month's playdate, Henry and I are hosting.

All smiles and drool

Last weekend Mommy, Sophie and Henry went to the beach for a night. This was the first trip to the beach without Daddy. Henry was such a good traveler. He didn't fuss one bit on either the car trip down to the beach or the car trip back home. He usually doesn't like to be stuck in the back seat without any company for more than about an hour. It probably helped that he could see and hear Soph's rhythmic panting (she travels in the "trunk" of the Outback). Henry also was a trooper when we went down to the water so that Soph could play fetch. On past beach trips, Henry has been a bit sensitive to the wind. This trip, the wind seemed almost amusing to him. Every time a big gust would come up and hit his face, he would take a deep breath and then smile.

ALMOST crawling. Henry started to get on all fours this week. You can see here that he is quite proud of himself. Now he just needs to figure out how to coordinate all of his limbs and he will be in business. He now likes to get in this position and rock back and forth as if it is going to propel him forward. When it doesn't work as planned, he usually resorts to scooting backward, turning 90 degrees, scooting backward, turning 90 degrees and so forth until he gets either to his original intended destination or some new destination that seems just as appealing. Mommy doesn't know if she is happy about this recent development, or fearful.

Drool happens. My boy drools ALL the time. Sometimes it is kind of cute though. : ) Henry and I hosted a baby shower for Aunt Sarah and Cousin Mason last Saturday. Although he may not have been the guest of honor, he sure was a hit among the ladies attending the party. He is such a flirt! This picture was taken shortly after everyone left. Henry seemed to be happy that the world was back to revoloving around him...at least in Mama's world.