9 months today

Happy 9 months to our little guy!

He's reached many milestones since our last post... he's now a proficient crawler, a furniture cruiser, happily eating chicken, loves peekaboo, pulls toys in and out of his toy bin, can choose his favorite books out of the stack, babbling lots of random dadas and goygoys and squawks amidst his laughter, steadily sleeping 10 hours a night and two "regular" naps during the day, and his first tooth appeared two days ago! Here's some other "growing" stuff:

He was seriously obsessed with "the wheels on the bus" - his favorite book. i had to reattach the wheels and some other moving parts multiple times. Josh had to finally hide it away... but he always find another book to satisfy him (and then wants me to read it again and again). He loves his books - especially anything with animals.

He's been watching "baby's first signs" and always smiles real big at his favorite parts - loves the cats and dogs, toy bears, moving cars, and kids drinking out of straws and sippy cups. and the little girl at the water fountain. He hasn't started signing yet, although he randomly does the "milk" sign, and we're seeing him start to wave hello a little...

He has a girlfriend. A few, in fact. Ellie (the butterfly) is a couple months older and she's always a few steps ahead - which is good for him. He likes to follow her everywhere, and they're starting to grab things from each other. Then there's Alyssa (3 months old), who we get to spend time w/ every week at our house. He's obsessed with her graco carseat and has recently stolen one of her toys. And we can't forget Bella (the grumpy penguin) who he doesn't get to see very often, but I sure wish he would eat as well as her...

So onto feeding. Ugh. This has been a big pain in the you know what. Every day, three times a day, it can be pretty painful. I am SO happy when feeding takes 10-15 minutes, when he opens his mouth - but that's pretty darn rare. You'd think he'd be a good eater, weighing in at 21 lbs. Sometimes I'm so determined to sit there until he eats the food i lovingly made, and forget that I'm not supposed to force him. It's my will vs. his will. So we resort to all sorts of shannanigans - playing with plastic cups and straws, cheerios, music, making him laugh (to open his mouth), and I bend down to pick up all the stuff he drops like 20x per meal. It gets really annoying. Lately, we started chicken, and he opens right up for my hand to go in... so we're going with the flow. The really weird thing is... he almost never has a problem eating when we're out - restaurants, friend's houses - I think it's the distractions. I discovered that it's not really about the food - he doesn't seem to really discriminate tastes or textures that much (except for the chicken?) So as long as he's happy and entertained, he does well. Like when we go out to eat, it's wonderful. Weird, right? ok, enough about food. oh what fun it has been, though. a MAJOR test of patience for mom.

But every night, after a long tiring day, he falls asleep like a wet noodle, and my heart melts all over again. We sing Jesus Loves Me, and while he's in my arms, I pray for his salvation, safety, and sleep. And then I can't wait to peek in his crib when he wakes up the next morning. It's hard and long, and I can't see the end... but man, I love this job.

-gabriel's mommy.