Nine months old

My little big man is now nine months old. NINE months! As is three-quarters of the way to the big ONE. How in the world did that happen? Hey, Luke – SLOW DOWN! Or just start sleeping through the night. Because I’m pretty sure the days, weeks, months would seem like less of a blur if I was well rested. DUDE! Or just keep smiling at me and reaching for my face. Because those sweet and tender me-and-my-baby moments are just as precious as slumber. Because I’m a sucker for a cute boy.

Yep. Still not doing much sleeping at the Amys house. But we have made a few tweaks and performed a few experiments and I am happy to say that things are getting better. Not great, but better. When Chris’s parents were visiting last month, we let Taylor sleep in the basement with them in order to let Luke cry-it-out for a few nights. And he did. And he started to realize that his heartbreaking screams, cries and squeals would result in nothing more than me or Chris readjusting his blanket or putting his binky back in his mouth. Was he happy? Absolutely not. But were we all well-rested and cheerful in the morning? Oh yes.

BUT. Then came some more teeth. And then came the sickness. And for about a week, no one was sleeping. And for as much work as we put into getting him to self-soothe, everything was tossed out the window in order to survive, meaning some nights he would sleep in our bed, and some nights I was feeding him around the clock to get him to calm down. Ugh. But after discussing everything with our pediatrician at Luke’s nine-month checkup, and after it was revealed that Luke’s ears were totally sore and full of gunk, it was suggested that maybe the reason he isn’t sleeping as of late is because he’s hurting. Which, hearing that as his mother, made me grab his fuzzy big head and smooch his cheeks until they were wet and slobbery. If he’s going to cry all night because he’s in pain, well, then it’s my job to hold him and love him until he’s calm. It’s called being a mother. This job is not for the weak, I tell ya. But it’s the best job in the whole world.

So other than the double ear-infection diagnosis, Luke checked out pretty well at his doctor’s visit. His updated stats have him weighing in at 23 pounds, 9 ½ ounces, and stretching 29 ½ inches long, which actually knocked him down into the 90th-percentile of all other nine-month old boys out there. What a shrimp, eh? His giant baby head is even starting to level off on the charts. But, in my opinion, his cuteness factor is totally off the graph.

And while Luke is communicating very well for a baby his age, and his fine motor skills are awesome, he is still not crawling or pulling himself up on furniture, which are both things that Taylor was doing when she was six months old. And after expressing my concern about him not reaching these milestones yet, our doctor reminded me that, One – Taylor was very early to stand, crawl and walk compared to other kids, and that, most importantly, Two – Luke was just fine. He’s a big kid, and big kids start crawling later than smaller ones. And the thing is, Luke is SO CLOSE to crawling. He will go from sitting, to kneeling, to crawling position, to realizing that he’s kinda over chasing whatever he was leaning towards and he’ll just take a break. So maybe I should be more concerned about him being lazy.

But there are things to do make him excited, and when he does get pumped up he kicks his legs and swings his arms so furiously that his whole body spazzes with his happiness. And even though it’s hard to catch on film, his energy is infectious.

So we haven’t checked crawling off the list, but we did reach some other milestones this month. Like eating his first season’s worth of Christmas wrapping:

And moving into the big boy carseat:

And starting to nibble finger foods:

And babbling lots of distinguishable noises, such as Dah-dah-dah, and Mah-mah-mah and BAW! BAW!:

And booking our first male-modeling gig. Take that, crawling babies! How many of you mobile little ones are published in a clothing catalog?

Oh look at that adorable boy! And he is all mine. I can’t tell you how many times a day I hug him into my body, let him bury his head into my shoulder and then kiss those fantastic cheeks. Lots and lots. You would too.

And someone else that believes she owns the rights to my little man is my big girl. Yep, Miss Big Sister Taylor is quite smitten with her Yukey. And while she is very sweet with him, she’s the first to inform me if he’s doing anything other than just sitting there looking at her. Wait, she tells me that too. As in – MOM! Yukey is LOOKIN at me! Oh yes, Luke. You won’t be getting away with ANYTHING with your big sister around. But I promise you, she does it all in love.

And Ruby is also pretty happy about Luke being around. Especially now that he’s dropping food on the floor, and not taking up much space on the carpet.

So month eight is in the books. And please forgive my earlier whining about not sleeping and the sickness. Just forget about it, alright. Because right now, at this exact moment, life is really good. And nothing can cloud that. Especially with this precious, perfect little person in my life.