Carter: 9 Months

This kid just keeps getting more and more fun as he gets older!  I still don't want him to grow up, but it's so much fun right now to see all the new things he learns and does every day that I can't help but to be excited each morning to see what happens that day.

This month was my first month on Summer Vacation and home with Carter, and I'm loving it.  I can't even compare this to my maternity leave, when I felt overwhelmed and completely insecure and incapable of taking care of an infant.  It's night and day.  We have somewhat of a routine now, and Carter tends to be predictable.  His ability to interact makes a huge difference.  Not only can we tell what's wrong and soothe him, we can make him laugh hysterically and reach for us (which is obviously quite endearing), and he's able to entertain himself for periods of time while I grab coffee, use the bathroom, or get a snack.   He babbles constantly and his garbled syllables are quite cute to listen to.  A few days ago, we went in to get him after a nap, and we found this:  

Then, just today, I went in to get him and he was standing in the crib and had some how disassembled his mobile.  The kid has apparently inherited some sort of MacGyver gene!  Here's your snapshot of Carter at 9 months old:

Likes:

• Water, in just about any way.  He loves to sit in his pool or in the bathtub, and he gets so excited that we often have to pull him out so he doesn't jump all over and hurt himself.  When he's really crabby, I'll hold him while he sits on the kitchen counter with his legs in the sink and run water.  It entertains him for absurd lengths of time.  Looks like he's a water baby!

• Coco-Pops from Wegmans.  They were totally out of Mum-mums, which he loves, so we took a chance and got these.  They have wheat and corn in them, but no one from either side of the family has any food allergies, so we weren't too concerned.  They dissolve in his mouth even quicker than a mum-mum would and they're hysterical to watch him eat -- they're bigger than his head.
• Knocking things down... blocks, stacking cups, etc.
• Climbing on EVERYTHING.
• My hair, he likes to yank it.  I'm now sporting shoulder length hair just so that he has less to pull.  His little hands are sticky, my hair has lots of product in it to keep it tame, and the resulting combination HURTS!  Carter likes, Mommy dislikes!
• Looking at pictures of other babies.  So funny, the other night I was showing him pictures in a magazine I have, and he was reaching for the babies' mouths and noses, just like he would on a real person.  Very endearing.
• Finger food.  He gets very excited when you put real, identifiable food in front of him.  Problem is he's too impatient to chew it.  I know this because said food is still identifiable in his diaper a few hours later :)
• Being "dropped."  He cracks up when we pretend to drop him only to catch him at the last minute.
• All the things he can't have:  TV remotes, cell phones, power cords, the glass on the front of the fireplace...

What, am I not supposed to do this??

Dislikes:

• Naps, routines, and any type of consistency -- and I'm not even going to elaborate on this!  So frustrating!
• Being told "No."  I feel like this is starting too early!  We say "No" to the remote, to him grabbing our food or drinks, and to things that are just dangerous.  He usually just gives us a stare-down, but more and more lately he screams and cries.  
• Being left alone.  He's a lot better than he could be with the whole separation anxiety thing, so I won't complain.  But, if he's even the slightest bit tired, he wails as soon as I'm out of sight.  I will say though, that when he's happy to begin with, as long as I keep talking to him from a different room, he'll stay happy for a good amount of time.  

New Tricks:

• Sitting up on his own from a laying down position.  It's cute to watch him do this, because it still takes so much effort that he grunts so hard it results in coughing.  Sometimes even spitting up. 
• Pincer grip -- he's gotten so good that he picks up little teeny things from the floor... real fun.
• The letters B, D, and M.  He says "Ba-ba-ba" all the time, and it's so cute to watch him do it with his squishy little cheeks.  "Da" sounds happen very infrequently, and "Ma" is just now starting to be more common.  
• Clucking sounds, although I don't know if he necessarily knows how he does this yet, he does it a lot.  
• Crawling!  He's been SO close for quite some time now, but he's been too timid to actually give it a try.  Today at Grandma's though, he did it!  Not well, and not for more than two or so feet, but he went through the motions and made it a few feet before he gave in and use his old stand by method of getting closer to the object of his desire:  lunging forward with all his might, belly flop style.

Mommy Knowledge of the Month:

• What works for our family is what's right for this family.  I'm doing the best I can to stop comparing myself to my (super amazing) friends.

'm gonna get that camera strap!