9 month photo dump

Happy 9 months Henry

 Happy 9 months Henry!!

 How fitting for Christmas, his outfit was red and his sticker was green :)

Weight: 19lbs 8oz at his 9 mo appt. That's 50th percentile

Length: 30" long. 95th percentile (and his head was 18.5" around which is 95th percentile as well).

Clothes:  He is almost grown out of 9 month stuff, he is working on 12 month stuff big time. 9 month onesie (even some 6 month ones) are the norm but sleepers with feet are getting a little short.

Likes:  He is loving being mobile now days. He doesn't crawl still, just kind of army crawls with his arms and "swims" along the floor on his tummy and uses his arms and legs to move himself forward. He is into EVERYTHING!! He wants to grab any cord of anything he can find and examine all sorts of stuff. Every crumb, every single solitary Christmas tree needle that has shed, every speck of dust it seems. He is also loving his little piano to pull up on and our coffee table of course. My every effort is to avoid injury these days. He's pretty tough when he falls down but our sharp coffee table corners are no fair match. eek.

Dislikes:He has had a hard time teething of course. He got another tooth that popped through and I had no idea it was even coming. It's his right bottom tooth, just next to his first one. The top ones however are in progress and he has NOT had fun with those. He cried in the car yesterday for 30 minutes. I had to pull over and try to calm him because he was just screaming. He stopped the second that I started rubbing his gums with my finger, I gave him a cool teether and a hyland's teething tablet and he was much better. Poor little guy. This grouchy face is so cute but it makes me so sad.

Sleeping:Update on the cry-it-out trial. I last left off where we had a sort of rough night and then he slept through the night the next 5 in a row. Well the night after that he woke up and fussed in his crib for about 2 hours and I went in occasionally and rubbed his back and such but never picked him up. He finally fell to sleep. The night after that it only took about 30 minutes to get him back to sleep and every night after that he has woken up, I hear him fuss once or twice, he rolls over, grabs his pacifier and goes back to sleep on his own! Success!! Even with these teeth he just needs to see me, let me give him his pacifier and rub his back for litterally 5 seconds and he's back out. Thank you Dr. Grossman. LIFE. SAVER. 

Eating:Still doing fantastic with food. He nurses exclusively or gets breastmilk bottles. He also gets his fruit and veggie puree and oatmeal twice daily (we are working toward lunch too). But now the big boy is working on table food! He has tried lots of new things including fresh fruit (bananas, pears, plums, apple), cooked or soft veggies (green beans, carrots, avacado), gerber puffs and yogurt melts and banana teething biscuits, and I've even given him bites of cheese tortellini, lasagna and bread, pumpkin pancake. He's done fantastic. He hasn't really refused anything except the avacados which he has hated from jump street. It's been so much fun to give him foods and see how he reacts. He has even started to say mmmmm when I give him a bite.

 Homemade mango applesauce and a black bean and cheese quesadilla. He loves both.

 

He also give claps of approval when he likes something I give him. 

 

These two have a ridiculous bond. He has figured out if he throws food off the edge Cora scrambles to get to it and he thinks it's hilarious. She circles the high chair like a shark in freshly chummed waters. He will just feed her now days. So Cora gets to go outside when baby eats and clean up the mess when he's finished. 

 

 Playing: He has a million and a half toys and he has a new favorite each day it seems. Santa, if you are reading, Henry needs clothes!

Other Milestones: He started pulling up on 11-13. He was sitting in his crib waiting for me to pick out some pajamas and I turn around and he has grabbed onto the side and started to pull himself. He did it and I sat him back down and he did it again! Time to lower the crib mattress. He can't go from laying down to sitting up just yet but if he is already sitting he will pull up and go into a crawl position on all 4's but won't move just yet. He also is saying Mama and Dada. We thought he didn't know why or when he said it and was just babbling but the other day when he was teething and crying in the car he just kept saying Maaamaaa with his arms up. I think he knows what it means.

What Dr. Grossman Said: He said Henry is a big strong boy, he's very happy with his percentages and is hitting milestones appropriately. He likes that he is a great eater and just gave me a few things he shouldn't have until he is closer to a year but other than that to just let him go wild with exploring food. He gave me the go ahead to start working with a sippy cup and some water to get him used to it for when he is done with bottles and nursing. All exciting things for us!

 

And here are the hilarious monthly picture outtakes. He would NOT sit still this time, he's a blur in all but the two at the start of this post. Hilarious. 

 

Pottery painting afternoon

Another item checked off the bucket list! Painting pottery with my mom and sister. I wanted to paint a cute cookie platter and matching mug that has our last name on it for Santa's cookies and milk each year. Just another fun tradition to start now as our first Christmas with a kiddo. I love to paint and couldn't really find a set I liked to purchase so I decided it would be fun to go paint my own. Here are some examples I found that I liked.

 And this little santa guy, I've had pinned in my pinterest board for over a year now. I wanted to paint him onto a canvas but just never have gotten around to it. I thought he would be perfect for our plate. He is unique and gnome like (I love gnomes) so he will fit in perfectly.

 We went to lunch with G.G. for her birthday and got a yummy dessert at the end. Candybar pie. FOR. THE. WIN.

 Then we went right next door to the Ceramic Cafe. While I painted the nice gal that worked there offered to stamp Henry's footprint onto a tile for us for free. Of course we let her! And it turned out so cute we made her make 2 more. Great Christmas gifts for the grandparents.

 Here are our finished products. My sister did the milk mug for me and my mom helped write on the footprint tiles and held Henry while I painted the platter.

 

I think they all turned out SO cute and I can't wait to pick them up after they are glazed and fired in the kiln this saturday! One more checked off the bucket list! 

Here is the finished product! I'm obsessed with how it turned out.