Nine Months Old

Amazing! Our boy is moving out of babyhood and into toddlerhood. I can't believe it. He is truly an amazing gift; we are so grateful to be his parents. We haven't had his nine month well check yet, so I'll update with his "stats" after we go.

Food

He is eating oatmeal cereal, finger foods, two servings of fruits and veggies a day and drinking between 28 and 32 ounces of formula. He has an occasional water with a little juice bottle, but it's not really his favorite. We've tried plain yogurt and tofu, but he's not too interested in those either. We're getting ready to try cubed lean meat like turkey and chicken. He has just started holding his own bottle.

Sleeping

He sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes two 1.5 hour naps. He goes to bed around 6:30 and wakes up anytime between 5:00 and 6:00. Luckily, he doesn't wake up in the night too much anymore. When he does, I let him fuss a little bit and he usually falls back to sleep.

Play

As I've stated many times before, the kid has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. He plays hard and fast. He enjoys banging things; crawling over everything (Trey calls it off-roading); climbing into things; throwing spoons, bottles, etc. and watching me and Trey fetch them for him (just started this - he LOVES this game but it gets old real quick for Trey and I); playing peek-a-boo; and exercising his voice (screaming and whispering baba, mum-mum-ma, dada, ahh-ahhh-ahh). We also play a game we've named So Big. Trey and I say, "How big is Holden?" Holden raises his arms above his head and we say, "Sooooo big!" Holden also growls like a lion. If we growl first, he responds back with a growl. We think he learned it from a little girl named Aine at daycare. She loves to growl, and we think she's passed this on to our little one.

Development

Holden is a big boy. Last time we went to the doctor (a month ago) he was 20 pounds and 29 inches long. He's wearing 12-18 month tops and 12 month pants. He's got a long torso and short legs like his dad. He is also wearing 12-18 month shoes. We're not quite sure where he's getting all this BIG, Trey and I are not big people. He has five teeth, three of which have come in the last week. His teeth are in funny places. He has his two bottom middle teeth and one just to the right of those. On the top, he is missing his four middle front teeth but has the two on either side of those. Fangs. He's still walking with his walker, and is starting to let go of the furniture and just stand there. I think his longest no hands stand was about 4 seconds. He's a funny, funny kid.

Our funny boy!

Holden holding his own bottle.

Finger food, oh so fun!

Holden loves his daddy.

A toy in the back of the basket no longer deters him.

Cool kid.
"Soooo big!"

Thanksgiving Week

What wonderful family time! Trey and I had off work this week, so our family spent the whole week together. We started the week by going to my parent's house in Visalia. While there, we also got to see my sister, Jill; her husband, Randy; and two of their girls, Mackenzie and Tabatha. As usual, my mom pampered us with wonderful meals and great down time. They all loved seeing Holden and were amazed by his energy. As my mom put it, he sometimes appears to be run by a motor. They all agreed that the girls never had energy quite like this.

We spent Thanksgiving day at the beach house with Trey's family. It was great! The weather was nice and Holden loved playing with all the kids. It was also Nathan's 13th birthday, so we celebrated with a little birthday cake and gift opening. Holden started a new thing while at the beach house. Anytime I was holding him and Trey was near, he would dive out of my arms and into his daddy's arms. Trey has become his favorite person in the world!

On Friday (11/24), we took Holden to see Grandmother. She enjoyed seeing Holden. She had some singing Christmas characters that Holden LOVED! It was nice catching up with her. After leaving, we got some lunch, did some grocery shopping, and cleaned out closets and cupboards. We felt really productive. It feels so great to be organized before the holiday season gets under way.

We are so grateful for our family, and for our energetic boy! We're looking forward to the Christmas season; we can't wait to start our own holiday traditions for Holden.

First Supported Steps

I bought a new toy for Holden a couple of weeks ago that, at first, upset me because I thought it was dumb once I got it home. It had some twirly toys that he could play with on the front, and it converted to a walker. He wasn't too interested in it at all. Then one day, I was driving home from work talking to Trey on the phone and he said, "Holden just stood up on his walker and walked across the room." Now, I don't want to say that I didn't believe Trey, but I had a hard time believing it was true. Then once I was home, I saw it with my own eyes. He really did it - he stood up and just walked across the room like it was no big deal. Now he does it constantly if the walker is facing a direction that he has room to walk. The Cage (see below) is not very big, so he can't go very far.

The Morning After the First Steps - Still Charging!

Practice Makes Perfect

The Series... He's Really Walking

Go Holden, Go, Go!

He's Reached the End

The Cage

We had no safe place any more. Holden's room, our original "safe place", became a danger zone. He would open and shut his dresser drawers (resulting in screaming and hurt fingers), knock the cd player/alarm clock off the table immediately upon entering, and find hidden cords and pull them. We found that if we created a rectangle by connecting furniture in our living room, playtime was a bit safer. There was only one problem, our electronic equipment and the fireplace were the top attractions for our busy boy. We found a large play pen that could be opened to a large gate. It worked perfectly to block the places we wanted him to avoid. Although it's not danger free (see post below - First Trip to ER) , at least we're not constantly chasing him to remove him from places we don't want him to be.

First Trip to the E.R.

Today, I had plans to write about so many of Holden's new developments like: taking his first steps, babbling mom - a, dada & baba, his new found love of carpet chewing and tile licking, and our new game "So big!"; but instead I'm writing about Holden's first trip to the Emergency Room. Holden woke up from a two and a half hour nap around noon. I brought him out to the living room where we have created a large play pen by connecting our furniture into rectangle. He was standing and banging on the coffee table when he fell and hit his upper lip on the corner of the table. He started screaming and his mouth quickly filled with blood. I screamed for Trey to come look and we decided we needed to take him to the hospital. On the way, his mouth stopped bleeding and his behavior was back to normal. Once we were in the parking lot we debated taking him in, but checked his mouth and noticed that the piece that connected his upper lip to his gums was separated. We wanted to have it checked. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long to see a doctor. Dr. McDreamy (really...he was cute!) told us they don't fix that part of the mouth. That piece of skin is useless; it has no purpose. He said it probably won't grow back together but it's not a big deal. We have to keep his mouth clean for the next few days. Trey and I felt a little silly for being over-protective parents and rushing to the E.R., but we wanted to be sure our little baby was ok.

Complete Side Note: Most of you know how much I love reality tv. Recently, I've become equally obsessed with the tv show Grey's Anatomy. I was a little giddy when we walked through the doors to the hospital (after we checked in and I knew Holden was fine), and I said, "Look Trey, it's like Grey's Anatomy!" While we were waiting in the room after the ER nurse came to check Holden out, I asked Trey if I should ask her if there was a Dr. McDreamy here. He rolled his eyes at my nonsense. And then......in he walked - our very own Dr. McDreamy!

Fat Lip

Our Little Patient

Happy Halloween

Our Little Monkey came to school with me to attend our Halloween Parade on Halloween morning. He loved seeing all the ghosts and goblins (more like rock stars and princesses), and the Del Mar Heights staff and students got a kick out of seeing Holden. I took him back down to daycare right after, but they called me at about 11:30 to come pick him up because he wasn't feeling well. Holden had to go to the doctor on his first Halloween. Oh well, he was still a cute little monkey!