Sharing Daddy's red juice!

Yummy veggie juice with Daddy! Beetroot makes good lipstick don't you think??

Well, Hello Blue Eyes!

Have I told you how much I love you lately?

Yes? Well, I'm telling you again.

I love you.

9 Months!!!

I had to put three exclamation points after that, because seriously? I'm the mother of a NINE month old?

First the business part of the evening:

Weight: 9.07kg

Length: 73cm

Teeth: Four on the top and 2 on the bottom.. and you now have the cutest cheesy grin in the world.

So what have you been up to?

Crawling and cruising, bumping and bruising.

You have now mastered the sounds "bababababa" and say them at varying decibels, including a whisper and a holler. We're trying hard to get you to say mama or dada... so far mama has slipped past your lips on queue... twice. And it was more like: "Hamish! Say Mama!" "Mamamabababababababa". Oh well. You're still the strong silent type. *********Stop the press... Mamamamamammamam is now your favourite thing to say! *************

Speaking of strong - I still watch you in amazement when I see you master more and more gross motor skills.

You are soooo close to giving walking a go. You'll happily cruise around furniture or take you pram for a walk, but you usually drop to your crawling position when you need to get from A to B. I'm happy for you to crawl as long as you like little boy - you're already to grown up! The teacher at Gymbaroo couldn't believe how big and strong you are at 9 months old. Today she thought you were closer to a year old. I'm always a little bit proud and smug when this happens. So sue me ;)

You love the water. Pools, the beach, the lake, your bath, a puddle of water on the ground, a fountain in the middle of Newcastle... you will lean in toward the liquid and grunt and point. You have mastered the fine art of splashing.

You've fallen asleep a number of time while eating your breakfast and lunch. It seems as though you think 5:30am is a great time to wake up for the day, but by the time we drag ourselves out of bed and bring you downstairs, you've conked out yourself!

You still love your music. Kids songs, top 40, mama's collection... any tune, and beat. You'll nod your head and bop up and down.. if you're standing, your little legs do an Elvis Priestly impersonation and thump to the beat. I still struggle to get you doing it on film! You catch me with my camera and give me your cheesiest smile and crawl over to me - ruining my shot!

Food - well, what we are eating at any given time is way better to you than what you've got. Sometimes you prefer finger food, sometimes purees with rice mixed in. You have started to hide things behind you so we think you've eaten loads.. and then we pick you up and find your stash. Your favourite food today, will be your most hated food tomorrow, but we seem to be on a winning streak with ravioli in tomato pasta sauce. You also love peas, corn and carrot in little pieces.. you love to pick each on up one by one and pop it in your little mouth. We spread out an old bed sheet underneath your high chair which catches all of your flotsam and jetsam, and we wash the sheet and your high chair cover every night. You are one messy eater! You often grab the spoon out of our hands when we are feeding you and try to feed yourself, even dipping the spoon into the bowl to get more. You don't get a whole lot down, but it's so great to see you try!

Sleep - we think we have you figured out, and then you go ahead and change your habits. So we'll mark this one as "In process".

And finally, your personality. I think the one word to describe you would be 'ham'. You love to make us laugh. If you do something and we laugh, you keep doing it, all the while flashing us your toothy grin. Things that come under this category: fart noises with your mouth (what monster have we created?), squarking loudly, poking your finger into our mouths, weird facial expressions. Even doing awkward or uncoordinated things - you take after your mother in this respect.

We love you little man. In fact, my love for you embodies all of the cliches: heart melting, life-changing, awe-inspiring LOVE.

You are 9 months old. You are amazing.

Our entry... and your new favourite thing.

Mummy took FOREVER to get this little project finished. FOREVER.

We love it. You love it.

Some mornings, as we carry you  down the stairs - you point at different faces and smile, squark or hmmmm. You especially love the pictures of yourself, but the one of cousin Josie laughing makes you giggle. It's super cute.