brady at 9 months

happy nine months, brady boy!

here's the best i've got for a 9 month run down...

sleep... it's improving!  i can't even remember the last time i swaddled brady.  at least three weeks ago.  probably just right after i wrote his 8 month post.  there was a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to sleep well without the swaddle, but since then, it's been so much better!  i'm not sure if it's dropping the swaddle or increasing solid foods during the day (or likely a combination of the two) but brady has been sleeping longer and longer stretches at night.  if he wakes during the night... it's just once (normally because he needs a diaper change) and three nights in the last week, he's slept a full 12 hours without waking at all!  keep up the good work brady boy!

brady is awesome at sitting and really great going from sitting to stomach.  he walks his arms forward and looks like he's about to take off crawling, but really he just slides onto his belly and then just rolls wherever he wants to go.

as of two days ago, brady can army crawl!  he only does it when he really really really wants something (normally my phone but occasionally for a toy) and it's hilarious to watch.  he looks like a wounded soldier in battle.  his right arm stays tucked under him while his left arm does more reaching which gives him the wounded look.  and he's so intense about it but he moves at the speed of... molasses.  i need to get a video before his crawling evolves.  kids grow so fast, hopefully i don't miss this.

like i said last month, clothes are all over the board.  everything from 3 months to 18 months.  diapers are still size 2 during the day and size 3 at night.  poop is awesome because he pretty much never has blowouts but the downside is that his diapers aren't smelling like roses (outkast anyone?).  i really don't know how but abigail's poop didn't smell at all at this stage... brady's definitely does.  some days he only has wet diapers, and then some days, i'm changing dirty diapers every few hours alllll day long.

brady still has the best laugh ever.  and getting him to laugh is the easiest thing ever.  sometimes just eye contact, sometimes making a suspenseful "i'm gonna get you!" kind of noise... you don't even have to touch him.  he also thinks fake laughing is hilarious.  like if you literally say "ha ha ha ha ha."  although real laughing works too.  especially when abigail is laughing... then brady will laugh too.  other things that make him laugh... tickling him (anywhere from head to toe.  behind his ears, in his neck, his chest, back, sides, under his arms, thighs, legs, feet... i'm not sure i've found anywhere that he's not ticklish), attacking him with stuff animals, tossing him in the air, faking like you're going to drop him, pushing him over and then catching him before he hits the ground.  really, if he knows you're playing with him and you have a playful energy, whatever you do will get a deep laugh and it'll go forever... or at least however long you continue to do what you do.  it's positively intoxicating.

brady still has no teeth and absolutely zero signs of teething.  no drool, no fussiness, no chomping on everything in sight (he'll mouth stuff but he's not going to town on it), nothing.  it is wonderful.  and he's got the cutest gummy smile. hopefully he gets teeth eventually so he can start eating more real food though.  nursing is still going great (he never tries to bite me... i totally anticipated that happening by now) and although he's super easily distracted, i just make it a point, when we're home, to always nurse him in the glider in his room and abigail is amazing now at not interrupting.  ever since i explained to her that brady has trouble eating when she's around, she wants to do whatever helps him so she'll go play by herself and if she does come in, she opens the door really slowly and quietly, sees brady is still eating, and then quietly closes the door and tiptoes away without saying a word.  the sibling love between these two makes me so anxious to see how they'll get along when they're a little older.

brady really likes to eat food.  he loves loves loves cheerios.  i think because they're so quick and easy for him to feed himself.  he prefers to feed himself but most of his "i-have-no-teeth" food options aren't really easy finger foods.  so, in the mean time, i try to occasionally give him things he can feed himself (like raspberries) and more often than not, try to get him to let me spoon feed him.  he likes the food, he just wants to put the spoon in his mouth himself... after inspecting it himself.  jarred peas and green beans are his favorite veggies, and he likes sweet fruits like applesauce, mashed pear, and jarred peaches.  real fruit is sometimes a little too flavorful i think.  or maybe he just doesn't like the tartness?  he'll eat fresh kiwi, peaches, raspberries, etc. but it normally takes him three or four bites to get into it.  my favorite food to feed him is boiled egg yolks.  i boil a bunch of eggs at a time, and then i go ahead and peel all of them and separate the whites in one container and little egg yolk balls in another container (whites for abigail, yolks for brady... works great!) so they're so simple to just crumble and stir in with jarred food or baby cereal or mashed up anything.  quick and cheap and easy way to bulk up his food with some fat and protein.  and from what i can tell, it adds good flavor.  my other favorite food to feed him is bananas.  because it is also quick and cheap and easy and it's one of brady's favorite foods so i know he's not going to be finicky about eating it.  my favorite is to cut slices into quarters and feed him with a spoon but of course his favorite is to feed himself.  but really, i love the convenience of being able to throw a banana in my purse along with one of those little take n toss (although i never toss) baby spoons and we're good to go.  one other thing to mention is that i can't get over how much this kid eats.  for having such small percentiles, he really puts the food down.  tonight for dinner he had half an avocado, a handful of mashed raspberries mixed in with baby oatmeal, more raspberries just thrown on his tray that he fed himself (abigail started him with those... she actually gave him grapes first but i took them away... how many times do i have to tell her, you can't eat grapes unless you have teeth!), and a jar of green beans with an egg yolk and oatmeal cereal mixed in.  i swear he was in his highchair all night long.  it was well over an hour.  and it ended with a hose down shower in our kitchen sink.

k, that's all for now...  brady, we love you so much and think you're awesome blah blah blah... basically, you are the best little bundle ever and i love you so much i get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about your smile.  there's a reason i creep into your room a million times a day to see you sleep.

i just can't help myself.