9 months!

This was the month that London learned that jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells ROCK!! He can't get enough of the bells! If it jingles, he wants it. If he gets it, he shakes it vigorously and then he sticks it in his mouth. He has several jingle-toys that he likes to play with, but the real jingle bells are the best! We've had to put some limits on the bells as a result. If we're not watching closely, he'll crawl around with a bell in his mouth like a lollipop. Too dangerous. So... when he plays the bells, he gets a pacifier. He doesn't normally have a pacifier outside of his room, so it's enough of a novelty, that he'll keep it in. If he keeps it in, he can't chew on the hard, metal jingle bell. He looks a little goofy crawling around the house with a jingle bell in each hand and a pacifier in his mouth, but he's having a ball.

He's also figured out how to pull himself up using the couch, chairs, baby gates, our legs, the bookshelf, and anything else that will hold still long enough. He has taken a few hesitant steps while holding onto the couch, but isn't really cruising just yet. At the rate he's going, I don't think it will be too long before he's walking.

And the biggest news of the month... drumroll, please! He sleeps! All night long! I stopped going in to "rescue" him every time he cried and he figured out that it was actually pretty easy to go back to sleep. If he does wake up, he might cry for 10 - 20 seconds, but that's it. He goes right back to sleep and wakes up well-rested in the morning. Yay!!

We've got his 9 month check-up a week from Monday (8-9-10 - how could I forget it?) and are looking forward to seeing how much he's grown.

The jingle bell has been sighted.

He reaches...

... stabilizes...

... grabs on...

... and pulls!

Almost there!

Success!

And what do we do with jingle bells?

We put them in our mouths of course!

Wanna share?

The bunny jingles...

... the frog jingles...

... and the giraffe jingles, too!

Nine months old... it's hard to believe...

8 months!!

Two thirds of the first year - done! Check! Four more months and we'll have a one year old! It's amazing! London has been a busy boy this month! He's figured out the whole crawling thing (although he "army crawls" for the most part and has yet to figure out that his knees are good for something) and gets around with significant speed. The baby gates are up and the days of laying him down on a blanket with a few toys to keep him happy are gone! He's into everything he can reach and if he can't reach it he wants it anyway. A little separation anxiety has started to kick in and we can't leave the room for more than 15 seconds before a little voice starts checking on us to see where we went. The breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus have expanded and finger foods are present at every meal. It's been a busy month to say the least!

In the last two and a half months he's eaten sweet potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, green beans, peas, white potatoes, spinach, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, blueberries, bananas, avocado, carrots, cauliflower, watermelon, chicken, baby rice, baby oatmeal, and toast. I think that's it. I spent Monday afternoon in the kitchen cooking up some chicken meals and a lentil dish. We're moving into "meal" territory - not just a couple of cubes of fruits or veggies, but recipes that smell yummy and taste delicious (if you can get past the "pureed to a pulp" look and texture, which I did when I licked the spoon after filling my ice cube trays! Pretty darn tasty stuff!) The freezer is stocked. I'm hoping we have enough to get us through the puree phase.

So far there has been little that he doesn't like. Bananas were unpopular for a couple of weeks, but they're back on the "like" list, and spinach fell of the list and into the "dislike" column a couple of days ago. He tried chicken (cooked with onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, and chicken broth) for the first time yesterday. Judging by the way he inhaled his lunch both yesterday and again today, I think it's safe to say that chicken is a "like". Although, I told Pern today that if what emanated from London's diaper this afternoon was the result of chicken, there was a strong possibility that I will be raising him to be a vegetarian, at least until we're through the potty training phase. P. U.

Isn't he a doll?

First Trip to the Beach!

We spent a couple of days in Kitty Hawk, NC this week. One of my parents' best friends owns a townhouse down there and has always been very generous about letting us stay at her place when the need for a little beachy time strikes. This was London's first trip to the beach. Although he did not LOVE it, we did discover that he enjoys the pool, so we will be sure to make a few visits to our neighborhood pool this summer. I think the ocean was a little too large and noisy for his liking. He was very uncertain about the whole foot dunking thing and got really fussy and clingy whenever we tried to get his toes wet. So the two times that we actually went to the beach were short trips indeed! We spent more time at the house, the pool, and the car than anywhere else.

We took a day trip to the aquarium to see the sharks, worked on our napping skills, and Pern and I got caught up on the last season of "Dexter." All in all we dragged tons of baby stuff to the Outer Banks to do exactly what we could have done here at home. Except for the beach part. But it was worth it to get away for a couple of days, have a change of scenery, and make a few memories. The first year is so full of "firsts" after all!

These pictures are from our second attempt at "going to the beach!" We took some video footage of the first "going to the beach!" but who knows how long it will take to do something with that.

Is it me or does he look suspicious?

This was about as close as we got!

He wasn't a whole lot more confident with Daddy.

It's always nice when a random stranger offers to take your picture

and doesn't run off with your camera.

Recent happenings

Since he's been more mobile, London has discovered how much fun his play tunnel can be. He's not quite crawling through it yet, but he can drag himself around with the best of 'em!

He's such an incredibly happy baby!

Today was Father's Day... London gave Pern a book called "Me and My Daddy" that he made for him on Shutterfly. I don't know when he learned how to use the computer, but the book is very cute and well-written. Who knew?

Only 7 months old and already camping!

This weekend marked my school's 3rd annual family camping trip and our 1st annual family camping trip! This is my pet project at school... a few years ago I decided it would be fun to take 20+ families to a cabin campground about an hour from home for two days, stuff them full of yummy food, give them arts and crafts to create, games to play, and marshmallows to roast, and then send them home with some seriously dirty laundry and in desperate need of a nap! Everyone thought I was crazy (and maybe I was/am), but it has now been a success three times over and it was so much fun to bring London this time around!

Last year I was pregnant during the trip and everyone kept saying, "Oh... I guess there won't be a camping trip next year, huh? You're not going to want to do this with a baby!" Wrong. I would rather do it with a baby than a toddler! Next year we'll tackle the toddler phase, but taking London along was really pretty easy. We're pretty sure he'll be crawling in a week or two, so the timing couldn't have been better... he hung out in his stroller, in his carrier (on me!), or in someone's arms all weekend! He showed everyone his funny face, got to go to two campfires, ate packaged baby food for the first time (it's been home cookin' until now), and wore disposable diapers (gasp!). He had one mini meltdown after being passed around a bit too much and losing sight of Mom and Dad, but was a dream baby the rest of the time. We couldn't have asked for an easier weekend.

The only downside to planning the trip and having to be "on" all weekend: no down time to take pictures! We made a point to get our 7 month picture in, though! All in all it was a fun weekend! Busy, busy, busy... but the 6:00 snuggle in my sleeping bag this morning (following the 5:00 a.m. chirping bird wake-up call) more than made up for it! Nothing like being loved on by a smiling baby to get your day off to a good start! We're already looking forward to next year! Might have to enlist the grandparents to come camping with us... extra hands, extra eyes, extra everything for the toddler on the go! We've only got a year to get ready!

Highlights from this month: two teeth!

Pern and I are wearing our school camping trip t-shirts. It's hard to tell...

... but the outfit L received as a gift the day before we left...

... say's "Happy Camper!"

Which is exactly what he was!

"Funny face" comin' atcha!

And in sequence...