Although Connor is getting bigger, he is still the same sweet, happy, strong, smart little guy that he's always been...and funny. He's got quite the sense of humor already, and loves to tease and play with us. His giggles and laughs are the sweetest sounds in the world, and we get to see his wide, beautiful smile all the time. We're always leaning in and touching our noses to his, and he's started doing it back. It's the best thing ever. He still loves to give us open mouthed kisses, and sneaks in raspberries on our cheeks, arms, legs, and even feet--any part that he is closest too--as often as he can. His favorite game is playing chase, so we crawl around the apartment a lot. It's so fun to crawl after him and grab at his feet and hear his squeals of laughter as he speeds up to get away.
He sits up so well now, and transitions from laying down, to sitting, to crawling, to standing (in any order) that it's hard to remember a time that he couldn't do any of these things. He rode in the front of a shopping cart for the first time, and spent the entire time looking around at everything that we passed by. Usually I keep him in his car seat that I put in the cart, so his view is a bit restricted. He loved sitting up higher because it gave him a good vantage point to see everything around him.
He's always been so alert, and that hasn't changed. He is very observant and loves to look around whether we are on a walk, at the store, or at church. He has quite the attention span for a nine-month old. He watched the young men in our ward pass the sacrament with rapt attention last Sunday, and wouldn't take his eyes of the boy passing the bread tray along our row of benches. I love watching him while he's watching something or someone else. I can just see his smart little brain working away behind his bright eyes, trying to figure things out. He pays attention to everything around him, and often zeros in on the smallest of details like a zipper pull, a tag, a bit of paper on the floor, a screw head, a loose string on a blanket or piece of clothing, or a single carpet thread. He'll sit and touch and grab at whatever tiny detail has caught his attention with his little fingers while he explores what it is and what it does.
One morning, I caught him watching his Daddy shave. It was the cutest scene, so I had to take a picture. Like I said, he loves to watch what is going on and be involved as much as possible. He's always playing in the drawers while I'm doing my makeup or hair.
I love having a little shadow, even if sometimes it makes things a bit more difficult/time consuming to get done. He loves to crawl around and chase the vacuum when I'm cleaning so I have to be creative in my vacuuming pattern so I don't run over his little fingers. He also loves to chase the broom when I'm sweeping the kitchen floor. It's so funny because he gets such a kick out of crawling around after it, and I love his giggles so I take my time with that chore.
His newest obsession is opening the kitchen cabinet doors. There are so many new and interesting things inside for him to discover. He likes to pull my pan lids out and play with them, and he likes to stand and turn the lazy susan in the corner cabinet. He's always underfoot when I'm in the kitchen, so I let him explore the cupboards and pull things out as he wants. He's also a big fan of the fridge and the dishwasher. Whenever I open one or the other, he crawls over with lightning speed to see what's inside. He likes to push and pull the dishwasher's bottom rack in and out, and would stand there all day doing so if I would let him.
He loves to play with cups, and has discovered that they amplify his little voice when he talks into them. We have these big cups that he likes to play with. He sticks his whole face in the opening and jabbers away, happy as can be at the way it sounds.
He's outgrown his baby bathtub, so he gets to take baths in the big bathtub now...and boy does he love that. I let him stay in the water for almost an hour the first time, and he had the grandest time crawling around, splashing, and playing. I refilled the water as needed to keep it warm enough for him. He was just so cute and having so much fun that I hated to take him out!
Since then, he's become even more obsessed with the bathroom. He crawls in there as often as he can and stands at the bathtub hoping that it's bath time. A couple weeks ago, after he woke up from his nap, I set him on the floor and he immediately crawled out of his room and into the bathroom. He went straight to the tub, crawled behind the shower curtain, and stood up against the tub. I was following him, and when I turned on the light, I just saw two little feet sticking out below the shower curtain. It was hilarious! He was ready for a bath.
Connor has also started making the silliest and most adorable face. I don't know where he got it from, but he wrinkles his nose and scrunches up his face. It's the funniest thing. He does it when he smiles, when he's attacking our faces and heads with hugs and kisses (he's still very aggressive with his affection!), when he's charging at us during our crawl chases, when he's angry, and when he decides he doesn't want to eat his food. He makes the face all the time, and I love it.
He can't walk on his own yet, but he still walks along the couch all the time, and more than once we've caught him letting go and balancing on his feet for a few seconds without support. He has decided that he loves walking behind his walker toy. He gets so excited every time we pull it out for him, and giggles the whole time he's using it. Our apartment isn't that big to begin with, so he's constantly bumping into walls or furniture with it, but he always has a slightly crooked hold on the handle so is constantly pushing it at an angle which causes him to run into things more often. He gets frustrated when his progress is blocked, and impatiently waits for us to back him up or turn him around. He doesn't know how to deliberately turn it around or back it up by himself yet. He gets going pretty fast despite his wide, straight-legged stance. His gait is a cross between John Wayne's and E.T.'s, and I love it.
Connor is still fascinated with electronics, specifically anything with buttons or a cord, and is always trying to get access to them. This last Sunday evening, Connor spit up all over our laptop's keyboard. He just happened to come in close proximity to the open computer that I'd left sitting on the couch cushion when he spit up. It wasn't just a little bit either, it was quite a lot. It got all over and in-between the keys on half the keyboard. It was a mess. We wiped up what we could from the surface, but realized it was going to be a much bigger job when we saw that the spit up had seeped down into the cracks around the keys. It was late, but we didn't want to wait and let the liquid settle further down into the computer and risk ruining it completely. So Brian went to work, figuring out how to remove the keys so we could clean underneath them. It was bed time for Connor, so I got him to sleep, then joined Brian in the clean-up process. Brian took off each key and the small plastic hinge below it. While he cleaned out the space in the keyboard, I wiped off the key and the hinge. It was a bit tricky at first, trying to pop the keys off without damaging them, and then learning how to reattach the hinges and snap the keys back on. We got the hang of it soon enough though, and with our "Teamwork Go!" approach we were able to successfully clean the keys and put everything back in place. It took a couple hours to get the job done, and it was 1am when we finished. Luckily, there was no permanent damage, and everything works just fine. Whew! We weren't mad at Connor at all, it was just a wrong-place-wrong-time scenario, but it wasn't how we pictured spending our evening. We couldn't help but laugh while we worked. It was the first time in a while that we'd had some one-on-one time together (it's been a busy month). I don't know if I'd call our late night date of tediously cleaning tiny computer parts fun, but it wasn't all bad.
He is still fascinated by our stand lamp, and lives to grab it and wiggle it back and forth. He's even managed to knock it over a couple of times, so we've put an end to that.
After we got back from our family reunion in Idaho, Connor came down with a cold. It started out as just a bad runny nose, but after a week he wasn't getting better and he had a low grade fever off and on. I took him into the doctor, where we learned that along with the constant runny nose and congestion, he had the start of an ear infection in his right ear. Poor little fellow. He was feeling pretty lousy, but the doctor gave us some antibiotics to help clear things up. After only a few days on the meds, he started feeling so much better and his nose started to clear up. He was on the antibiotic for 10 days, and it did affect his digestive system a bit, although it could have been much worse. I fed him yogurt each day, which seemed to help with that. For his first time being sick, it wasn't too horrible, which I'm grateful for.
We got to see the eclipse on August 21. We weren't in the zone of totality, but had 90 percent obscuration. Connor and I watched it at home, while Brian got to view it at work. Brian had glasses and got to see the actual thing. I didn't have glasses, so Connor and I went outside on our deck for awhile and watched the shadows turn to crescent shapes and the light get dim. That was the coolest part for me, is just how dark it got.
After awhile, we went inside and watched it on TV. It was pretty impressive just on the screen, so I'm sure seeing the actual thing was amazing. So that happened...baby's first eclipse.
We introduced Connor to his first cardboard box last week. He's a big fan. He wasn't sure about it at first, and when we laid it on it's side he was hesitant to crawl inside. Brian put it upright, put him inside, and started pushing him around in it. He warmed up to it rather quickly after that. It's now one of his favorite games.
We also had fun playing peek-a-boo through the openings on the sides.
To our delight, Connor has started saying "mama" and "dada." I think at this point he's still just exploring sounds and hasn't connected that they are words for Brian and I, but it is still very sweet to hear...every time he says them. When Brian first heard Connor say "dada," he said "I think I'm going to cry." I felt the same way when I heard him say mama.
Connor still wakes up to eat once per night, but goes down fairly quickly after having a bottle and getting a quick diaper change. He's not consistent on the time, so he'll wake up anywhere from one to five in the morning. It's not too bad, but I'm looking forward to the day I get to have an full, uninterrupted night's sleep again. He's been unusually fussy the last few nights, waking up a couple times besides eating. I think it's because he might be teething, so hopefully that doesn't last too much longer.
He eats a 5 to 7 ounce bottle of formula every 3 1/2 to 4 hours, and has solid food three times a day. We've been giving him little bits of table food, and he's done good with that so far. We've given him eggs, bread, macaroni, various fruits, and avocado. So far, he's liked all of it, and hasn't had any food allergies pop up. He is very interested in what we're eating when we sit down for a meal, so I'll give him tastes of things. One night, he got within arms reach of my plate and grabbed my hot dog. He got away with a handful of bun, mustard, dill relish, and sauerkraut, and put it in his mouth. He didn't get much in, but enough to get a taste of it all. I was surprised when he didn't react negatively to all of those strong flavors.
I've just started feeding him the baby food with the chunks of fruit and vegetable in it, but he's taking slow to that. I think the mix of pureed food with the chunks is throwing him off. I mashed up the pear chunks a bit more in one of the containers so it was still chunky, but the bits were smaller, and he ate that just fine. So I'm going to keep doing that to slowly get him used to eating the bigger pieces.
Other Connor Stats:
- His eyes are pretty much completely brown at this point, and very dark. Everyone comments saying that he has my eyes. I just know that I love his beautiful eyes that are so dark and yet so bright.
- He wears size 9 to 12 month clothes.
- He wears size 3 diapers.
He had his 9-month check up today and he is doing great. He didn't get any shots this time around, but had to get a finger prick for an iron deficiency test. The test is just standard proceedure at this age, it's not because he's showing signs of it. Connor is hitting or passing all of the milestones, and his growth stats are all good. He's gaining weight at a good pace, although he still is such a lean little guy.
- Weight: 18 lbs 14 oz; 36th percentile
- Height: 28 1/4 inches; 46th percentile
- Head Circumference: 17.9 inches;45.5 cm; 66th percentile
We sure love our sweet little boy. He's just the best thing to ever happen to us. We are so, so grateful that he is part of our family.
This is all so fun! I love "Teamwork Go!" Such a great little boy. And parents.
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