9 Months?! 9 MONTHS?!!

On the 17th little baby Conner turned 9 months old! Now that he is closing in on the year mark, I feel as if I am being forced to face the reality that my little baby is not going to be my "little" baby for much longer. He is growing, and growing fast. In the last 2 months even he has changed and matured so much! I feel like every day he is doing things new, mastering skills more, and interacting in an older way than he was the day before. And every day he just seems cuter, smarter, sweeter and funnier than he was...if this is even possible.

I love this little boy to pieces. He just fits into our family so well. His personality brings such a great balance to our home. He is such a joy and a love to be around. He seems to just make all those he is around happy and smiling and is just a peaceful, loving little soul. I really feel like as he gets older and starts running around with his brother and sister that he is going to bring an element to the dynamic that will be such a blessing to our family and home. Since being pregnant with him I felt like he was going to be the peacemaker of the family. Knowing him and seeing the boy he is growing into becoming every day just confirms this for me. We are so blessed to have Little Con in our lives.

Conner had his 9 month check up today and everything went great. He is healthy and strong and doing all things that little 9 month old boys should be doing. He is 22lbs 1oz (75%) and 30 1/4 inches (95%). The doctor took a look at his hemangioma and thinks that it has stopped growing, or if it is still growing it is VERY slowly and will most likely stop any time. We are definitely feeling at this point that there is no need to treat it right now and we will just wait and watch for it to start to go away.

Here is what Conner boy is up to these days:

-Finally cut his first tooth (bottom right tooth). He has 2 more coming in close behind...his bottom left and his top right. But the top tooth that is almost in is not his front tooth, but the one right next to his front tooth. He is going to look like a fanged baby for awhile :)

-He is getting all over the place by a combo of rolling, sitting and scooting. Just this week he is starting to actually crawl on his hands and knees for small distance, then drop on his stomach and then do it again.
-Conner started pulling himself up to standing about a week ago. He stands up at the tub, the coffee table and in his crib. Tonight he even started cruising along the coffee table and was taking a few steps holding on to the furniture. Watch out!

-Last week he started saying "mamama". I do consider this him saying my name because he only really says it when he is getting sad and frustrated and is wanting me to pick him up, or if I walk out of the room and he is calling for me. So cute!

-He is getting better and better about feeding himself finger food and we are trying new snacks every day. He will not eat breakfast in his high chair. If you try he will just scream his head off. Other meals he is fine in there, but just not breakfast. He wants to be on the ground playing, so breakfast is a bit of a chore with him. He is definitely not as interested in food as his brother was.

-Conner is getting a bit more separation anxiety, but nothing that is not manageable at this point.

-He is sleeping through the night completely about half the time, the other half he is usually only up once. He is taking 2 naps a day, each lasting 1 - 2 1/2 hours.

-Conner has definitely taken upon himself 2 nicknames. Con, or The Con and mini-bud. It is the cutest to hear the kids (especially Kellen) call him Con. Kellen will go up to him all the time to give him kisses and say sweet things like "Oh, Con Con" or "Hey little Con" and also "Hey Conner babe". So sweet. So much love!

Conner is a total spaz during meal time. He is always moving and bouncing and grabbing at everything when you are trying to feed him. He makes it just about as difficult as possible to get the spoon successfully into his mouth, all baby food intact. I don't think he dislikes eating, I think he just feels there are much better things to be doing than eating....like playing. Usually I try to clean up and keep things tidy while I feed him and he knocks baby food everywhere. The other day I just gave up and let him make a mess and see what the after effect was. There is is.

The best way to get all the toys out of the bucket is to just put your whole self In the bucket.

And this is where the fun begins!