9 Months!

Aaden is 9 months old today!!  I can't believe it!  He also turned 39 weeks today which means he's been an outside baby as long as he was an inside baby because he was born at exactly 39 weeks.  I tell you, these last 39 weeks have gone by a lot faster than the 39 weeks of pregnancy did!  I can't believe how fast time is flying and how much Aaden has grown. 
We went to the park for the first time today and put Aaden in the swing.  He kind of seemed indifferent about it, he was more interested in the kids playing and didn't really seem to notice that he was swinging.  Until Aaron started grabbing his feet and holding him, making silly faces and noises and then letting him go.  Then he really started to enjoy it and was giggling.  We went to Emmy and Papa's after for a BBQ to celebrate Memorial Day.  We wished it was warm enough to go in the pool but with the weather lately, we probably won't be able to get in til August!

Some pics we took on his 9 month "birthday"

 Look at that cutie!

 I love the little belly hanging out!

At the park!

9 Month Appt

We took Aaden to the doctor for his 9 month check up and he's doing just great!  He weighs 21lbs 10oz (60th percentile) and is 27 1/2" long/tall (25th percentile) and his head circumference is 44cm (also 25th percentile)  We didn't have too many concerns to talk to Dr Yager about other than his spitting up that hasn't gone away (although it's decreased a lot) and his tongue tie.  Dr Yager was not concerned about the spitting up since it doesn't seem to bother Aaden and he's gaining weight just fine (obviously).  He said when he grows taller it will likely help the spit up - well with him only being in the 25th percentile for height, we might be dealing with spit up for a while!  And with the tongue tie he said that we won't worry about it unless it seems to be effecting his speech later down the road.  And that sometimes they stretch.  If by about 2 years it hasn't stretched then we'll clip it - ouch!

The Happenings of a 9 month Old

~Aaden is wearing 9-12 month clothes and Pampers size 4 diapers.

~He drinks Similac Sensitive formula - he usually takes about 30 ounces a day.

~He is sleeping from about 9pm-730am.  He will sometimes wake and want a bottle at 3am otherwise he'll usually get up at 6am and we'll bring him into bed with us and give him a bottle and he'll go back to sleep until 730 or 8.

~Aaden is starting to wave.  It's kind of sporadic and it's kind of a lazy wave right now but he'll get it sooner or later.  We practice every morning when I leave the house.  He and Aaron walk me out to my car and we try to get him to do it.  Sometimes he waves his entire arm, sometimes he opens and closes his hand, and sometimes (most of the time) he just looks at us like we're fools.
~He is learning to clap and it's so cute to see his arms flailing all over the place and him getting his hands together.  They haven't really made the clapping noise yet but he's getting the motions down.  He gets really excited when we notice what he's trying to do.  He also loves patty cake right now, even when he hears the songs he starts grinning and bouncing up and down.
~Aaden has discovered a new trick - blowing raspberries on other people.  I think it just accidentally happened one time and now he's perfected it.  He'll blow raspberries all over my arm and when he gets a good one he turns and looks up at me with a big ol' cheesy smile and starts laughing and then goes back to do another one - he is so funny!  I don't know how he learned it but it's pretty impressive to me.  His grandma said that she's never seen a baby do that before.
~Another thing that I've never really seen a baby do - Aaden sits with his feet crossed.  And he'll even clap with his feet (he got that down pat) and then promptly cross them after.  It's the goofiest thing - I have it on video so I can show him when he's older what a goofball he was.
~Speaking of videos - he loves watching videos of himself!  He gets soooo excited!  Although, I'm sure he just thinks it's another baby.  He also loves playing and laughing with the baby in the mirror.  He loves playing with other babies and kids too.  It's amazing how young they are when they start becoming social.
~He loves bathtime!  He splashes all around like a crazy boy!  And he loves playing with his little bath toys.
~He's crawling like a champ!  It didn't take him but two weeks to get really good and fast at it!  He doesn't crawl normally though, he moves his arms and then pushes with one foot to scoot the other leg forward.  But that's how he learned and it works for him - so whatever!  And I think it actually helps him on the laminate in our house - he gets a little more traction with the way he crawls.
~He pulls up on everything and is very good at it!  He can doesn't need much to help him get up.  He can just pull himself up on my legs, the sliding glass door - all kinds of stuff.  It's like he's been doing it forever.  Now when he's standing against something he can squat down and grab something off the floor and stand back up again.  He loves playing with these old suitcases that we have in our living room and he will actually stand and walk while pushing it over to the kitchen - I have a feeling it won't be long til he's walking!
~He is into absolutely everything - and everything that he's not supposed to be getting into - cords, shoes, ceramics, hangers, garbage cans, plants, plastic bags and he has figured out how to take the outlet covers out!  Seriously, we can't turn our back on him for too long! 
~Aaden has become very attached to me.  If I walk out of the room, he'll start whining and crawling as fast as he can to get to me.  It's funny though because he doesn't want me to hold him because whenever I pick him up he'll push away.  He just wants me to be around so he knows I'm there.  It's very sweet but the whining gets to be a little much sometimes.  -I know, I'm mean.
~He's babbling a lot more.  He says dadadada, babababab, mamamama and lots of other noises.  One in particular sounds like "hi" :)
~We have moved on from pureed food (except he still gets it at daycare) - I wanted him to learn to feed himself instead of me shoving it in his mouth.  Plus he was getting really frustrated during meal time and I think part of it was because he wanted to feed himself.  Now we mostly give him stuff that he can feed to himself with his hands.  He's getting really good at it and it's going well even though it's pretty messy!  We've become a lot more experimental with food.  I've made him sweet potatoes a few times and he really likes those.  He has also been eating turkey breast, scrambled eggs, potatoes, cous cous, steamed carrots, peas, green beans, zucchini, rice and beans, toast, banana, strawberries,  pasta - he loves pasta!, and bites of anything we are eating as long as it's not a choking hazard and it's not unhealthy.  I can't even eat anything without him crawling over to me to see what I'm eating and whining until he gets a bite or two or four...  He still gets yogurt melts and puffs - he loves puffs, he's a freak for them!  Oh and he also gets those teething biscuits - they are beyond messy but they keep him entertained for about 20 minutes!

All in all, everything is going well.  Aaden is seriously so goofy and makes us laugh all the time.  And he's just too cute, I want to eat him up!!  Here are a few more recent pics -

Crossing his feet

 Standing with one of his new favorite toys

 and flashing the same cheesy grin I used to when I was little

 Rockin' the fuzz hawk (and showing off his first bruise)

 Looking out the slider at Kona

 (although I'm surprised he can actually see through that dirty window!  Gross!)

 Eating rice and beans at Jardine's

 Told you - goofball!

Taking a bath at Emmy's 

 Sweet boy

My 29th Bday

I know that 29 is not really a big milestone year and it's not usually that big of a deal but my 29th birthday was.  Mostly because it was Aaden's first night away from Mommy and Daddy.  He had his first sleepover without us.  My birthday fell on Friday the 13th so we went out to dinner with a family and a few friends.  Aaden came to dinner with us but he went home with Grandma and Grandpa around 930pm and spent the night at their house.  I was a little worried in the days leading up to him spending the night there and not for any reason other than I didn't know how he would sleep and didn't know if he would wake up and miss us.  I was worried about him even though I knew he would be in the best care with my mother-in-law, Ann.  And of course he did just fine.  He did wake up in the middle of the night and Ann got up and played with him for about an hour - he's pretty lucky, Mom or Dad would not be willing to get up at 2am to play with him, we'd give him a bottle or bring him into bed with us or something but we would definitely be trying to get him back to sleep so that we could go back to sleep as well!  I'm glad that we all survived his first night away - now the next time will be even easier.  I think it's good for him to have some time away from us and with his grandparents.  It's good for him to know that he'll be ok with other people and that we will always come back for him.
Here are some pics from dinner that night

(We have a lot of cute pics from the night but I just posted ones here that included Aaden)

A family shot -

I don't like this picture of me but since it's of the 3 of us,

I'll take one for the team

Jenny and Aaden 

 

Alivia came to visit for a little while!

It looks like she's choking him in this picture but I'm pretty sure she wasn't

Aaden with Grandma and Grandpa 

Me, Christopher and Aaden

Doesn't Aaden look so tough with that pacifier??

Uncle Brother feeding Aaden right before he left for his sleepover

Mobility

Aaron called me today at work to tell me that Aaden has started crawling.  He's crawling! Holy cow, we knew it was coming but it all seems so real now.  I couldn't wait to get home to see this new development.  When I got home Aaden was a little tired from practicing most of the day - totally understandable - but Aaron did catch a few videos of him so I got to see them.  I did get a few cute videos myself the next day (view a very short video here)
He kind of has a Night of the Living Dead crawl right now - he moves his arms forward then uses one foot and leg to scoot the other leg forward.  Hey, whatever works, right?

Babies ♥ Babies

On Saturday, Alec and Nicole had a going away party since they are leaving soon for Korea.  The Lovejoys were there with their kids.  Claire is now about 2 months old.  Once Aaden saw her, he got sooo excited.  He was smiling and "talking" to her and getting his little scrunchy excited face.  He was also doing his little excited giggles and inhale shriek that he does when he's happy.  It was so funny!  And she was smiling back at him.  Awww, so cute!  He wanted to play with her so badly.  He was sitting on the floor in front of her and he kept stretching out to try to reach for her.  He did manage to touch her feet a few times and of course tried to put them in his mouth.
He also had fun playing with Claire's older brother, Eli.  Here are a couple of pictures of Aaden with Eli.  We still have yet to get a pic of Aaden and Claire. 

Mother's Day

Today I celebrated my first Mother's Day!  Aaron did really well in getting some meaningful gifts for me from him and Aaden.  I told him I didn't want anything expensive, I just wanted something special from Aaden.  We had spent the night at my mom's house the night before so in the morning Aaron went home to get ready for work but then came back for breakfast and brought my gifts.  I got tiger lilies and a card from him and then mums and a home made card from Aaden.  It was just perfect.

I also got a little gift from Aaden that he made at daycare.  And my brother got me a card and a gift certificate for a couple of pedicures!  My dad had come over the day before Mother's Day and made us breakfast and my sister in law, Allacyn, sent me a card. 

Since Aaron had to work, Aaden and I spent the whole day just relaxing at my mom's house.  The weather was kind of crappy so we just bummed around in our pj's most of the day.  All in all, it was a good Mother's Day.

Here's a pic of all my Mother's Day gifts

 My card that Aaden and Daddy made ♥

 The inside - complete with Aaden scribbles and a very nice
note that Daddy "translated" :)

 And the back (it said "US - priceless Canada - a little more"

 I thought it was pretty funny and clever)

 Aaden and I at my mom's

 And another - he was such a ham when my mom was taking pics.

He was smiling and talking to the camera the entire time, it was too cute!

Super Close to Needing to Fully Babyproof

On Saturday my Dad came over to make breakfast for us and hang out for the day.  In the afternoon I put Aaden down in his crib for a nap.  Well, my Dad went to check on him and he was in his crib with his arms stretched fully out through the slats, playing and sucking on a plastic bag!  Holy sh!t!  I'm glad my Dad went and checked on the little monkey.  The plastic bag was sitting on top of a bin that I have next to his crib, I didn't even realize that he could reach it.  It honestly didn't even cross my mind.  I know everyday I'll find more and more things that have to be baby proofed - or Aaden proofed, I have a feeling he'll be into everything.
Aaden has mastered getting to sitting from laying down just over the weekend.  It's a pretty nice milestone because now I don't have to go pick him up when he ends up on his tummy and starts fussing because he's stuck.  I'm thinking he's only a few days from crawling.  He has all the movements down he just hasn't put them all together yet.  He gets up on all fours and rocks.  Or he'll bury his head and get his butt in the air and start moving his legs in the crawling motion but doesn't go anywhere.  He gets on his belly and stretches as far as he can to try to reach something.  He is literally so close.  I think once he wants something bad enough it will entice him to move.  He has been a bit fussy lately, I think it's because he is so ready to finally start crawling that he gets frustrated that he can't.  This boy wants to move!
He did not sleep well last night - and now with the sitting thing, I walk into his room and I find him sitting up in his crib crying.  I admit it kind of freaked me out at first just because I wasn't expecting it.  He's also started being able to pull himself up in his crib better so I'm sure it won't be long til I find him standing in his crib crying for us.  I fear the days of being able to pop his pacifier back in, giving him his blankie and him falling right back to sleep are going to be long gone.
Also - he is starting to dance to music - it's way cute!  Every time some music plays from one of his toys, his starts shaking his little body :) (hopefully he'll have more rhythm than me!)  And he's also trying to learn to clap.  My mom plays patty cake with him all the time and he loves it.  As soon as you start singing it and clapping, he turns towards you with a big cheeser.  I've noticed him trying to clap on his own too but damn those hands are just so hard to get together!  (Usually his arms are just flailing around in front of him but he's trying :) )

I'm thinking Aaden will hate us one day...

My mom LOVES to dress Aaden up or make him do silly stuff and then take pictures of him.  It's all very innocent and funny but I'm sure Aaden will look at these pictures someday and think that we're all a bit off our rocker...here are just a few.  (And this post doesn't even include all the pictures I take of him dressed up for the holidays - those I know he'll hate me for! ;))

"My Mom is lucky I didn't poke her in the eyes with these chopsticks. 

How dare she do this to me in public!"

"I honestly don't see what the big deal is about this Rudolph guy"

 "Seriously, with the Uggs too?"

 Wish I could sleep like that!

 "Nothing like a dog licking my face to interupt my swinging"

 "I'm so silly!"

 All ready for church! 

(not really, my mom just dressed him in my brother's 25 year old baptism outfit)

Kisses ♥

Even though Aaden will shake his head sometimes when I ask him if he'll give me a kiss - sometimes he does!
He just started giving kisses in the last week.  They are open mouth and slobbery and sloppy but they are the sweetest things in the world!  I love that he's getting to the age where he is starting to show affection!!  ♥

Big Day in History for the US

Osama Bin Laden died today.  He was the mastermind behind Al Qaeda who were responsible for the attacks against America on September 11, 2001.  Almost 10 years later, the US military found him and now he is dead.  A lot of families will sleep a little better tonight.