growing at the speed of light

Wow the little man is now over 9 months old!  He can crawl normally now, no longer looks like a mermaid on dry land.  But he still will glide across the floor like a seal at times because it's definitely much faster to get to the other side of the room. Only possible on the hardwood floors though. 

He can now pull himself up to standing position - holding on to a ledge or even using the wall for support - so his little legs are getting stronger.  He can push a chair across the room while standing/leaning against it so he's definitely learning the basics of walking.  He also likes to pull himself up by grabbing on to a person's legs...and today I helped him walk across the kitchen into the living room while he held on to my legs.  He was totally laughing and enjoying the trip.  It was so cute.  I guess it's cool for him to see how his legs can work. 

He's also eating up a storm.  Today he tried rice for lunch with edimame..It was his first experience eating with chopsticks...well, me holding them, him eating from them.  I'm not sure if he actually chewed the edimame or just swallowed the halves whole but I guess I'll see later.   He'll eat anything which is a good thing - he's not picky like I was as a kid...but it also means he'll eat anything...a dust ball on the floor, a napkin he pulled off the table, the cotton ball he grabbed from the bin, the soil from the plant, the phone charger, the plug, the coasters, a penny (he didn't like the taste of that one and spit it out...apparently that happened while my sis was babysitting).  You name it, he must have tasted it.  I know it's part of the learning experience for them, but it can be a bit crazy.

He already has 4 teeth (2 on the top center / 2 on the bottom center) and it looks like he has 2 more teeth coming out - one on each side of the top center 2. 

He does a sort of wave hello now to people which is cool, and he can clap his hands on demand. 

He's a great hugger and can (sort of) kiss, which I love!! 

He's now fascinated with closing and opening doors..trouble for cabinets.  Yes we need to install our safety locks still.   

He has this house with a bird hanging underneath it - his grandparents gave it to him as a present.  When you pull the bird, it plays a song ("Are you sleeping Brother John?").  We have it hanging on one of the corners of his playpen.  He now knows how to pull it himself!  That's pretty cool.  It's amazing to see the little man grow and learn new things each day! 

So we put him in our bed when he cries in the middle of the night and he always seems to assume the "H is for Hell" position.  It was something I saw on facebook - baby sleep positions.  And at the time, the little one was fine in his crib/bassinet so I thought some of those positions seemed far-fetched.  But it is an unfortunate actual position.  Mom and Dad are each at the edge of their side of the bed, while the baby lies vertically - his head at the dad's stomach and his feet at the mom's stomach, actually that would be baby kicking me in the ribs...ugh.  If he stayed in the middle, right side up, it probably wouldn't be as uncomfortable.  If only we had a king or queen bed...not just a full.  I remember my friends saying you should get the biggest bed possible!  Now I know why.  I know you're not really supposed to advocate babies sleeping in the bed, but if he's not quieting down and it's 2 or 3 or 4 AM and you just want him to go sleep and you want to sleep yourself...really what are you supposed to do?  I am sure our neighbors appreciate it.  It's not the same if you live in a house - I suppose you can let your child cry for 20 minutes which they say will work to wean the baby off of waking up each night...and then you're supposed to extend the crying time for longer each night until eventually they stop.  But the 20 minutes seems like an eternity when it's that late at night...I think we tried for about 5 minutes and then we just deal with the crying in the middle of the night and move him to the bed because it works to keep him quiet and he does tend to fall asleep soon after, although there are times when he does want to play or it feels like he's kicking me for hours before he sleeps.   There are also times when he does sleep through the night and doesn't wake up until 6:30..so you never know really.  It's a little different for us also because the crib is in our room..it's hard to ignore a crying a baby when he's pretty much at the foot of your bed, and when you look over - he's standing, holding on to the crib railing, staring and crying at you.