Braddock @ 9 months

Go to ‘Baby Braddock‘ page to see his 9 month picture. It is getting increasingly harder to take his monthly pics btw. We only have 3 more monthly pictures to take and then he will officially not be a ‘baby’ anymore. We are still in shock with how fast he has grown and how time has flown by! I can’t believe that by the end of summer he will be 1 year old!

Here’s his 9 month update:

Between these 2 collages, you’ll see…

• Braddock scaling the walls to walk where ever he pleases
• Trying a lemon for the first time (which he really enjoyed surprisingly)
• Hanging with MeeMee
• Showing some teeth – his first 2 teeth popped through together! (see if you can find which collage shows his real teeth!)
• Hanging with a friend from church (and sharing his new cool wagon!)
• And… showing some affection with me, Ryan, and even himself

At Braddock’s 9 month check up, the doctor reported that he is a very healthy, active little boy. The doctor and nurses were surprised to find just how active Braddock is. He weighs 18lbs, 3oz (15th percentile) and is 29.5 in tall (87th percentile!). Where he is getting this height, I don’t know! But he is as tall or taller than most his 1 year old friends.

On to more developments:

• Naps: He is finding a nice rhythm with naps (thank goodness!). He’s napping for an hour or more (yay!!!) around 11am and then taking another nap before his dinner at 6pm. That afternoon nap still varies but is usually a catnap.
• Sleeping: He is no longer sleeping with us in the mornings. He was just getting way too adventurous with wanting to fly off the  bed. So… Ryan and I sneak some cuddling time when we can (yes… you may have seen a picture of Ryan cuddling Braddock IN his crib). And I must admit that we have both crawled into his crib a time or two because we miss sleeping with him (he’s just so cute when he sleeps!). Gosh, that is probably really weird… Anyways- he is, however, sleeping better through the night. He is waking around 7am now and he drinks a bottle in his crib watching his fishes swim and then plays contently for a while (looking at books, talking to himself, etc.) until I get him.
• Food: We’re slowly increasing his diet to more foods and chunkier foods. I’m still making his food and am looking forward to him eating table food soon. I think that will encourage me and Ryan to eat more healthy, balanced meals. He’s still a bit behind though – I am slowly introducing him to dairy and so far so good. We still haven’t ventured out to meat yet. But he did just learn how to pick up food to feed himself! He’s eating 3 meals a day now with lunch being more of snacking.
• Mobility: He’s still about the same as last month. He can speed crawl (and I mean SPEED – he disappears in a flash!) and walk just about anywhere. He is still holding onto furniture, walls, etc. to walk – but there is a big difference in his balance. I really think he could walk unassisted if he wanted to, but he seems like he’s too unsure to try. We encourage him, but I know he’ll do it when he’s ready.  He’s also figured out how to open and close doors and is really interested in the knobs (still trying to figure out how to turn them).
• Temperament: He is still a very happy and smiley boy. And he is still our little explorer with his hemi gusto. He’s got lots of energy and spends the day getting it out by crawling/walking from room to room to play with his toys and dig in any cabinets we let him into. He is really content playing and exploring by himself. He seems to like to tackle new things and isn’t scared off by much. And he seems to be semi-obedient… he usually listens when I say “no”.
• Play: He loves other babies and gets really excited to play with his girl friends. He is thrilled with any baby or adult who will get down and crawl/chase him around. He also likes being surprised/startled. He loves us to surprise him by making a loud noise, popping out from furniture, etc. Sometimes he’ll be startled so much he loses his balance – but will still laugh.  And he’s been playing “games” with us more and more. He loves it when I make his stuffed animals talk.
• And the most exciting development thus far (at least for me) has been Braddock showing affection! Up to this point, Braddock just wasn’t an affectionate baby (hence why sleeping with him was so precious for us). Well, he has recently started laying his head on our chests at random times. He will contently just lay into me or Ryan, as if to give us a hug, and just stay there for awhile. It is soo sweet and makes my heart melt every time. This is a big deal because for those first 8 months, I would often wonder, “Hey, does he even like me?” And for some reason, this makes me feel like he does! He’s also more content to just lay on our laps while we read, etc. And another thing he does that I think is affection are head-butts (you’ll notice him head-butting himself in the mirror). It’s cute and I’ll take any affection I can get from this lil guy (even if it is a head-butt).

I think this has been my favorite age so far. Maybe I’ll do another post later about what I have enjoyed most about this age. We’ll see. I guess his next big update will be ‘Braddock @ 1 year’! In the meantime, there will be more posts on visitors, random pictures with smaller updates, and videos of course!

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