9 Month Pictures

I didn't get a professional appointment made for pictures this month, so I decided to take Robert to Mercer this morning to try to get a few good ones. It seems we've entered the "I'm not going to look at you no matter how much you beg me" stage. I only got a few decent shots. He also really, really, really wanted to touch the flowers, but that's a no-no.

As I was giving up and heading back to the car, I saw a child sized chair and table near the front. He liked pulling up on it, so I got a few good ones. And a few not so good ones. This next one is his new silly face. He likes to close his eyes and throw his head back for a good laugh. He looks like he's posing for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover.

Not great, but hey, they're something at least.

Number Six

Is it just me or are these things HUGE? Click on the picture to see how painful his newest one looks. Poor little guy.

Nine Months

-- Robert hasn't seen too many changes in the last month. He's mostly in 12 month clothes but I'm still squeezing him into a couple of my favorite 9 month outfits.

-- At 9 months he has 5 teeth and tooth number 6 should be here any day now.

-- It would seem Robert has a sensitivity to milk. He started getting a mid-morning bottle a couple of weeks ago and he started throwing up and having terrible diapers around the same time. I wasn't sure if it was a food at first since he's still being introduced to new things. I decided to try a soy based formula instead and he's doing much better. It took him a few days to get used to the taste but he's taking the soy formula pretty well now.

-- He still doesn't like to eat very much. Several days this week he has refused to eat at every meal. Most days he eats well at least once. And by well, I mean about 4 ounces. The rest of the time I get maybe three or four bites in him. I think part of the problem is that he hates to be confined in his highchair. He does enjoy self feeding though. The only problem is very little actually makes it in his mouth. I've noticed he also seems to eat better when Clara is at school and not around to distract him.

-- His favorite things are taking a bath, chasing the vacuum and the dishwasher. He hears the dishes clang and comes crawling over, fast as lightening. I hurry and get as much out as I can and then slam it shut seconds before he gets to it. He doesn't like that one bit.

-- I think he's saying several words and I'm just not catching them yet. I'm pretty sure I've heard "duh" (duck), "deda" (Clara), and "hi". Notice what's missing from that list? Yep, no mama yet. I better make it before Zoe and Max.

-- This boy is rough. He scratches, pulls hair and bites constantly. I have no idea how to curb this. I'm constantly trying to teach him to be gentle and he gets a little thump on the head when he bites, but that's not working. He's enjoying rough-housing with Clara now too.

-- I finally moved him up to the bigger carseat. He's hating being in the car right now. I don't blame him with this heat. We have to fight to get him buckled every time.

--Still no change in sleeping habits. Sometimes he gets a good 1 hour nap, sometimes 20 minutes. I'm usually up 2-3 times during the night but it typically doesn't take too long to get him back down.

-- This month's highlights included a visit from Bia and Myrt Myrt, a first taste of ice cream and cheesecake, first visits to storytime at the library and Clara starting preschool.

First Day Highlights

Clara's first day of school was a roaring success. We were out the door on time but it took me a little longer to get to the school than I thought with morning traffic, so the bell rang as we were walking down the hall to her classroom. So we were pretty much on time :)

She acted a little weird when I dropped her off. I wanted a picture of her and she was very uncooperative and kept ignoring me. She eventually complied but I wasn't expecting the silent treatment. She didn't seem excited at all. I guess the gravity of the situation was sinking in. There were no tears as I left and she didn't even say goodbye. I really felt the love that morning.

Robert and I stopped by the grocery store on the way home, he took a short nap and then we went to storytime at the library. I was able to keep the house clean all day since I didn't have someone coming along behind me dragging stuff out of place all day long. It was quite nice.

When I went to pick Clara up, her class had just gotten up from their naps and were taking a bathroom break. I was able to talk to her teacher for just a minute and she said she did great. When Clara came out of the bathroom she pretty much ignored me and went and sat with her class against the wall. I told her it was time to go and she started whining that she didn't want to leave.

I told her that the school day was over, but she was very upset so I said she could walk back to the room with her classmates. She liked that idea, but then one kid in her class took for-ever in the bathroom. So after about five minutes I went to the classroom, got her stuff and came back out to the class still waiting on him. It had been about ten minutes at this point so I told her that we needed to go.

It was at this point that she yelled "NO! I don't want to go!" and grabbed her teachers' legs. I told her to stop and then she threw herself on the floor and was crying. Yep, I felt like Mother of the Year for sure. I pulled out my biggest threat and asked her if we needed to call Daddy. She straightened herself up and came with me. On the drive home, we had a good long talk about what was expected of her when I came to pick her up on Thursday.

Soooo, suffice it to say, she loves preschool. And I love having some time just me and Robert.

Oh, when I asked her if she made any new friends she said there was one girl that she liked with "dark hair with the sides pulled back". She said the girl was being mean to some boys in class and so Clara told her "Be kind to one another. Love and forgive one another." (That's one of her memory verses from Sunday school.) Her classmates are going to love her :) The girl responded with "They started it."

Which brings me to one of the downfalls of Clara being in a school setting. The other day she told me that "Robert started it" when I got on to her for being mean to him. She's also started saying "gross" which she didn't say before. Can't wait to see what else she'll be bringing home. I guess as much as I'd like to, I can't keep her sheltered from the world forever.

Actually, this first school experience has been wonderful. She's upset that she can't go to school everyday and she knows she's missing out on a lot. I can tell that she's going to thrive and really blossom once she starts kindergarten.

It's Seems Like Only Yesterday

When did my baby grow up? Wasn't it just yesterday that Clara was bouncing and laughing in her Jumperoo and giggling while making laps around the kitchen in her walker? Sigh. Where does the time go?

Oh wait; that was yesterday.





And now look at her. My baby is all grown up and headed to her first day of preschool this morning. I hope she absolutely loved it!

A Snippet

Since I've not put up many pictures lately or talked about what we've been up to, I suppose a quick post is in order. Here's just a snippet of the last couple of weeks. Travis came to play one day and he and Clara thought it was hi-larious when the stacking robots fell. Robert had to come check out what all the hubbub was about.

I finally convinced Chris that he was ready to take his two children out into the world by himself. I felt it was time to push him out of the nest. He'd been hesitant for the longest time because Robert was so attached to me and wanted to nurse constantly. Now that he's taking a bottle and eating food well, I talked him into it and Robert joined his sister and dad for daddy/daughter breakfast. Chris wants to keep it just he and Clara on Saturday morning though, so we're going to find a good time for father/son time. (Oh, and they all survived the morning and I thoroughly enjoyed my time off for good behavior.)

Robert went on his first bike ride. He's been on several more since and he's pretty neutral about the bike. He can take it or leave it.

Thursday was orientation and meet the teacher night at Clara's school. She starts preschool on Tues/Thurs. this week. She is soooo excited! When we walked into her classroom, she threw her hands in the air, yelled her teacher's name and ran and gave her a hug. And no, she didn't know her teacher before this moment. I think she gave three more hugs before we left.

This is the reading spot in her classroom. I love her teacher already; she had the entire Sweet Pickles book collection. My mom still has our set and I've brought a few of them home so Clara's already familiar with some of the characters. I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm just as excited as she is I think.

Daddy and Clara made a movie on Saturday. It's called "The Farm" and is coming soon to a blog near you if I can get Chris to put it on my computer. I joined in on the making of the sequal "The Barn" and give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

I took the kids to the fountains last week. Robert was more interested in plopping himself on the towel and enjoying a drink. This was his second trip to the fountains and he's really not all that impressed with them just yet.

Saturday evening our neighborhood had a pool party. We hadn't planned on going, but were outside as our neighbors were making their way over and felt like we shouldn't be so anti-social, so we went over for a few minutes before bedtime. Clara got to jump in the bounce house and we talked with neighbors for a bit. Robert started getting hot and cranky so we didn't stay too long.

Improvement

I never did get back on here and post about Robert's sleep progress. We've had a couple of rough nights, but I feel like he's improving. I've really tried to be diligent about getting him back in his crib during the night. I do great when he only wakes once or twice. I give in when it's 3 a.m. and I'm back in there for the fourth time. Or when it's 5:30 a.m. and I know he won't sleep much longer after he goes down anyway. For some reason he's been waking only an hour or two after I put him down for the night. He was also consistently waking every 2.5 hours or so for a couple of weeks. The last few nights have been much better though. He slept from 8-7 last night and only woke once. Yay Robert!

Naps seem to have improved also. I decided to start weaning him this week. I'm going to take it really slow and plan on cutting him off completely at a year. The mid-morning nursing session has been the first to go. Yesterday for the first time, he fell asleep and went down for a nap with a bottle. Yay Robert! He slept for 1.5 hours too! I think that's some kind of morning nap personal record. He's taken a bottle just fine for a while now but just would not go down without at least a few minutes of comfort nursing so this was a big step. He did it again today and has been asleep for over an hour now.

Last week he fell asleep while bouncing in his jumperoo. I picked him up and took him to his room knowing that I would have to nurse him back to sleep. He did wake up while I was carrying him upstairs, but I decided to try to put him in his crib awake and see what would happen. He fussed a little, but just a minute or so of patting him on his back and he went to sleep. I could not believe it. He's also woken up crying just a little and has gone back to sleep on his own a couple of times and it's getting easier to get him back to sleep by patting him on the back if he wakes up too much when I lay him down. It doesn't work every time, but I'll take anything I can get.

I'm really hoping this isn't just a fluke. I've thought that he would improve as he got older just like Clara did, but he wasn't doing it as quickly as she did so my frustration just kept mounting. Hopefully now that he's eating more food and getting formula he'll just keep getting better and better.

Into Everything

Tasty trashcan (blech)

A leaf from Aunt Jacki's plant (sorry 'bout that Aunt Jacki)

This here is a dog bone.

Loves him some door stoppers. All rubber caps have since been removed.

Not pictured:

dog bowls

broom

bits of paper

Clara's nightlight

ivy plant

computer mouse

remote

vacuum cleaner cord

dog food

dirty clothes pile

essentially anything that is within his reach

Mommy's Little Vampire