NINE Months!

Well Nolan is nearly 9.5 months old now, but we did take the photos right at nine months... I was just too backlogged to post them until now! :)

I'm nine months old!!

Curious George gets kicked in the face!

9 Months of Silly Faces!

Hanging out with George for 9 months

Nolan has officially spent more time outside my body than in :)

These photoshoots are getting more and more difficult by the month. Especially the chair one with Curious George. It takes him approximate 0.2 seconds to grab George after I plop him down. Next month I'm sure I'll be scared of him trying to jump down from the chair (which rocks/swivels)!

The plus side of these shenanigans are that they make for spectacular out-take shots. Including my ALL TIME favorite out-take below:

Now THAT's determination!

That photo speaks for itself. This kid can not be stopped when he puts his mind to something. Hmmm... sounds familiar. Remember all those times your mom said "I hope you have a kid just like you one day so you'll know what it's like".. maybe i'm in for it! :)

Some more examples of what a struggle this photoshoot was are below. At least we had a great time!!

What? I'm being well behaved!

Looking at dad who is desperately trying to distract from monkey grabbing!

Preparing for Monkey Takedown

This is so fun!! 

But Mom I love this monkey - how can I leave him alone??

We're old friends.

Mischievous look!

Time for Monkey aerobatics! 

Up he goes!

SLAM!

Heave....

Ho!

Where'd he go???

Mr Monkey?? Are you down there?? 

Casualty of the photoshoot

The laying down series wasn't quite as difficult. Nolan was in a silly mood so we got lots of big smiles out of him!

I know the drill!

Preparing for cuteness 

Laughing at Mommy and Daddy

Double teeth, double chin

I have something important to SAY!

I've got a lot more hair now!

Big smile!

Silly boy

Having fun!

MUCH bigger than Curious George now!

 9 Month Notables:

• Nolan's third tooth finally made an appearance after 3 months of just having the two bottoms. His top right front tooth is coming in.
• As mentioned in previous posts, Nolan's absolute favorite pastime is walking with both of his hands held. He can go pretty fast too! I'm noticing him getting stronger on his feet, balancing himself while standing pretty well and he is able to push his walker solo.
• We're pretty sure Nolan will walk before he crawls. He still hasn't really figured out the crawling thing yet and doesn't have much interest. He can do a great push up in the front, but hasn't figured out how to get on his knees yet. The most he does right now is push himself backwards on his belly.
• He can do a full 360 turn scooting on his butt while sitting :)
• Food: Nolan's eating his purees great! He eats pretty much anything we throw at him - he prefers the homemade purees to the pouches (I think the pouches are too sweet!) and he still loves his green veggies. He's tried chicken, turkey, and beef now and we tried eggs for the first time this weekend (his Dr gave us the go ahead at his 9 month appointment).
• I need to do another "favorite things" post, but right now Nolan likes his jumperoo and musical toys best.
• Babbling! Nolan is babbling like crazy. His favorite word is still "Dada" (or should I say "Dadadadadadada"). Although I've heard him make other sounds too. My favorite thing right now is him experimenting with pitch. He'll go from a regular dada up to a high shrill and back down - it is absolutely adorable. He'll also "interact" with talking. We especially love doing it in the car. He'll say "AH!" and i'll say it back. He'll smile/laugh and say it again. Again - adorable, and it melts my heart.
• 9 Month Stats: 18lbs 4.8oz weight (26.11%), 2'4'' height (31.5%), 17.52'' head circumference (34.33%). He is evening out! He has moved up in the weight percentile (6 month he was only 13th%) a little down in the height percentile (6 month he was in the 40th%) and a little down in the head circumference (from 56th% at 6 months). His growth looks consistent on the growth chart so his pediatrician was happy.
• No shots at his 9 month appointment (YAY!) but he had some blood taken (by fingerprick) to test for Lead and Hemoglobin. He looks good for both (no lead and low-end for normal hemoglobin). The low hemoglobin can be from his constant sicknesses, but we will make sure to give him lots of iron rich foods.
• Sicknesses! He is constantly sick from daycare (congested, runny nose, cough, etc). These love to rotate around our house to me and Joe.
• Ear infections!!!!!! Poor guy has had near-constant ear infections since 6 months. We were finally referred to the ENT specialist this month. He suggested we get ear tubes put in. This is a minor surgery which will require full anesthesia, which obviously makes us nervous, but we are done with the constant pain we see our little guy in and all the antibiotics he's been on (5 rounds thus far). We are going for a second opinion this Friday, but all signs point to tubes in our near future.
• Sleep. Despite his ear infections, Nolan is doing awesome sleeping recently! We had the longest stretch by far of him sleeping 10-11 hours straight (he's been doing it almost every night for over two weeks now!!) I can certainly get used to this! All the times he has woken up are obviously due to his ear infection as he pulls at his ears and isn't hungry - he just wants comfort. Poor guy. We'll get you fixed up soon.

That's all for now. He is just changing at an astounding pace at this point. It's hard for me to keep up. I love him getting more interactive - it is SO much fun. I am so in awe that he is starting to understand us (he knows his name, looks around when I ask where is the dog?, etc!) He definitely knows a bunch of words/phrases now... i really look forward to seeing his language develop and one day having a conversation with him. I can't wait to hear what he thinks about everything!! :)