9 Months: Where is the Time Going

How Big?: My big boy is just over 20 pounds on the official doctor scale (nice to know that our scale at home weighs a little heavy :) He is in the 95th percentile for height and head circumference. Woot! Woot!

Clothing Size?: 12 to 18 months! 

What/When is he eating?: Everything and anything .... WARNING: DO NOT EAT IN FRONT OF MY CHILD. He WILL steal your food! He must have a higher taste palette than I do because his favorite type of baby food is called "Peter Rabbit." It's organic and comes in this squeeze packs.  Sam says it doesn't taste like baby food and is really good. He has lately decided that he doesn't want to eat jarred food or anything momma makes... just Peter Rabbit and whatever you eat. 

Sleep?: And we are back to the middle of the night bottle... Every other night he wakes up around 2 or 3 for a bottle.  I think this happened when he came down with a stuffy nose. I had the flu and strep, and Sam had to keep Moose away from me for a week.  I was a sad and very sick momma. 
Movement?: He is a FAST FAST little man.  We have officially installed baby gates at the top and the bottom of the stairs. You can literally put him down in the kitchen, turn your head, and he is already through the kitchen, the living room, the front room, and on the stairs. zoom zoom baby. He can stand on his own, but he doesn't realize it. The moment he figures out that he is standing on his own, plop; he sits on his booty. 
Milestones?: He said MAMA! WAHHH! He said it the first time in the middle of a chat fest, but I wasn't certain that I hadn't made it up.  He says gibberish, so I thought it was wishful thinking that there was no way he actually knew what he said. Then, the next morning, Sam was feeding him in his high chair, when I came into the kitchen. Sam is hard of hearing (because he's an average American male), and he didn't even recognize that I was in the room. Moose's little face lit up and smiled, and he said, "Mama." Plain as day!
Hardest Moment(s) of the Month: Going back to school after enjoying Christmas Break was really hard.  He is growing and changing so much every day right now. 
Best Moment(s) of the Month: This was finally a month without holidays.  It was actually really nice to enjoy not having something in particular to celebrate and just being able to enjoy all the regular days.  My mom's neighbors have 4 kiddos, and one weekend we took them to the park with Moose. 5 kids and 3 adults... it's a crazy ratio. I have the second baby itch... BAD. I love having two bambinos on my hips.  I love watching Moose play in the dirt. He is such a boy, and I am a mom to a boy for sure. We celebrated my cousin's graduation from college this weekend, and one of my cousins has a three year old little girl. She and I were playing, and she said "put me on my head." I set her down on her noggin and helped her somersault out of my arms. Just like I do with Moose.... except apparently she doesn't rough house that way. Whoops. I had to apologize a million times, and everyone was just laughing at me. 

Looking Forward to: As a school teacher, I am always looking forward to the next break... but that isn't until Spring Break, and my mother always told me not to waste my life by wishing for the future. Also, Spring Break feels forever away. I am looking forward to Cheer Tryouts in the next couple of weeks, to teach this big project about Genocide to the kiddos in a brand new way this year, and to Moose continuing to learn new things. I hope he says MAMA all the time, and that he learns to say DADA. We are also making plans to visit my sister and FINALLY see her girls. Man, the flu bug and every darn winter bug got me this year, so we haven't been able to go see her. 

Lots of Love, 

The Rileys

I realize that most of these pictures involve my son outside playing in the grass... what can I say, he loves to be outside!