Nine Things About My Nine Month Old

1. Braden's favorite thing to do is stand, stand and stand some more. As well as walk around from room to room (using my assistance of course) with a smile of absolute bliss. While this is good times for baby, this is hard times on mommy's back.

2. We are not crawling yet and I'm trying my hardest not to worry about it. Braden has mastered scooting in a circle on both his butt and his tummy and has also figured out how to get on all fours from a sitting position, but as soon as he gets on all fours his feet shoot out from underneath him and he lands on his tummy. Very frustrating I'm sure!

3. He loves using his pincher fingers to eat bites of cut up fruit, avocado, veggies and cheerios. It should also be noted that he loves to use his pincher fingers to pick up every tiny piece of lint, hair and dirt that is left on the floor. He also has realized that he can use his pincher fingers to grab his "little guy" in the tub. We are working on putting an end to this :)

4. Braden HATES and I mean HATES getting his diaper changed. Now this is a new issue for him b/c when he was tiny he LOVED being on the diaper changer...in fact sometimes if he was fussing I would put him on the changer and he'd stop crying. Bizarre - I know! So now we avoid and dread diaper changes at all cost. It is all out war as he is arching his back, lunging off the table, flipping over and screaming bloody murder, trying to grab every Desitin bottle, wipe and diaper that is in reaching range for him. We are talking to the doctor today about how to handle tantrums on the changing table!

5. Okay, this boy gets up with the chickens! Lately it's been before 6am which is excruciatingly painful for me. He doesn't get his last bottle until about 8:15ish which means he's only sleeping about 9.5 hours at night. Wow! How does he do it? I need about 9 hours of sleep a night which means that Austin and I don't get a whole lot of down time together after Brady is asleep. Now he doesn't make a peep for 9 straight hours, but once the clock hits 5:58am, he's rarin' to go. Here's the funny thing though - sometimes he lays in there and talks and plays for 45 minutes, sometimes like yesterday, he lays there for 30 mins and then passes out and goes back to sleep for another hour and sometimes he will sleep straight through for 10 hours. There is ABSOLUTELY no rhyme or reason about his mornings. But very rarely these days do we make it till 6am w/o hearing him cooing in the monitor first.

6. My boy has 6 teeth. Two on bottom and four on top. I can see the whites of another one on his bottom gum so I guess those are next.

7. Some of Brady's favorites: riding in the stroller, flipping the pages of books, banging on anything that is loud and obnoxious sounding (particularly pots and pans), brown puppy, his musical table, Tyson and pretty much anything that involves the outdoors.

8. Little man has suddenly become fearful of strangers. Now this is definitely a new phase for my normally social little man. He likes to smile at strangers from afar, but if you are a new face you better not try to hold my boy or he will most likely start crying.

9. And here are the 9 month appointment stats:

Height: 30 inches

Weight: 20 lbs 15 oz