Angel face! You are 9 months old today! Happy Day sweet boy!

Colt developments: Baby love, so much has changed in the past 3 months (since I moved to quarterly updates) but even more it feels like so much has changed in the past 3 weeks – much thanks to your Gigi’s influence in South Carolina! The biggest development is that you learned how to crawl (your first crawls were the evening of April 1)! I wouldn’t say I’m “chasing you all over the place” quite yet as you continue to be pretty chill and laid back about it all – normally only going a few feet before returning to a seated position to play – but we are thrilled by it nonetheless, and I think you are enjoying this newfound mobility. You have also recently learned how to get yourself into a seated position (both from lying on your back and from your stomach) and you can now pull yourself up! You love trying to climb up on people or chairs or tables but your favorite place to pull up is in your crib. In fact, you’re having a tougher time falling asleep for naps now because you immediately sit up, crawl around and pull yourself up! Sometimes you get exhausted but can’t quite figure out how to lay yourself down and either cry or, like you did the other day, fall asleep sitting up! You’re so funny little Colt! You also love standing up and you always try to let go of whatever you’re holding onto to stand on your own, although you can only last a couple seconds by yourself.

You also started talking over the past few weeks! Your first “word” was “Dada” and you say it all the time, along with “gaga,”  “yaya,” “lala” and other like combinations. Still working on “Mama” but needless to say, your dad is pretty happy with how things went here. You have such a sweet and gentle little voice that melts our heart. Your babbles and coos are the loveliest sounds in the world.

Baby Colt, your personality continues to be incredibly sweet and just gets more fun by the day. You smile constantly and are one of the happiest, most content little babies. You don’t laugh a ton but we have learned the tricks – you are super ticklish around your knees, neck and ribs, you laugh when we make funny faces or sounds, you giggle when we swing you in a certain way, and sometimes you laugh at us laughing at you! For some reason you love it when I play with your spoon in my mouth or dance around for you. Honestly, the things we do to make you laugh are pretty embarrassing, but of course it’s totally worth it. There is no sweeter sound in the world. You love peek-a-boo, jumping in your jump-jump, riding around on Daddy’s shoulders, playing with toys and blocks, doing ride-a-horsey with Gigi, trying to climb on everything, patty-cake, going for walks, playing at the park, bath-time, and many other fun little things.

Health: Colt, your dad and I continue to give thanks and praise to God for your continued health. You are a growing boy – weighing about 18.7 lbs and measuring around 29 in long. You’re right on track, just moving into 9 month sized clothes and you’re in size 3 diapers. You have a little umbilical hernia which is pretty normal, and right now it looks like it has a good chance of healing on it’s own which we are very thankful for. Right now you just have two teeth – your bottom middles – and they arrived one week apart from one another on Feb. 22 and March 1. When they first came in you would chew on your fingers and toes so much that you ended up giving yourself little sores for a few weeks! You have never gotten sick but the past week you have had a bit of a runny nose for the first time. I don’t know if it was due to the change of weather going from São Paulo to South Carolina (full-on pollen season!) and back again, or what, but if that’s all we’re dealing with then I’ll take it! Your eyes are tricky to figure out. They seem a little brown on the inside, then fade out to a little greenish but have dark blue rims around the outside. I go from being convinced they are blue to green to hazel all in the same day. You are taking your time growing your hair but the little bit you do have is pretty straight, fine, blonde and beautiful. You have such a light and creamy complexion and beautiful skin, head to toe.

Feeding: It seems like you’re constantly eating something these days! You nurse 4x per day and you also eat solids 4x as well – breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner!

Usually we do fruit for breakfast and your snack and for that I generally make some form of applesauce (either plain or with cinnamon, pear, berries, etc.) and often we’ll mash up a banana to add to it. Sometimes we add cereal as well.  For lunch and dinner you usually have the “soup” that we make you which is basically just boiling and pureeing some meat and a TON of veggies together which is easy to do and super dense with nutrients. That being said, as you continue to improve your chewing abilities we are giving you more and more regular foods. Right now your favorites are smoked salmon (you could seriously eat that stuff forever!), sautéed spinach, black beans, sweet potatoes, cheese, blueberries and lots of others. The only food you have really shown a dislike for is avocado which I cannot understand. You also don’t care for juice or water, although we continue to offer both in bottles and sippy cups to no avail. You’re getting better at feeding yourself finger foods but it’s still much faster (and cleaner!) for us to spoon you the majority of your meal, but we are giving you more and more to pick up and put in your mouth. (Note: We totally give you the pre-made stuff too, especially when we’re traveling / on-the-go, but it’s just not the norm.)

Nursing continues to be fine. You’re good and efficient (you only spend a couple minutes on each side) and I truly love the special bonding time with you, but you’re definitely not the easiest baby in the world when it comes to nursing. You are so easily distracted that I can’t talk to anyone, have the TV on, etc. while you’re nursing or else you will constantly turn your head to see what’s going on. Also, you gave me a little run for my money last month when you started biting. It only happened a handful of times but it was really not awesome. The third time you did it there was blood and I realized that if we couldn’t get this in check there was no way I would be able to continue nursing. I’ve always hoped and planned on nursing through 1 year, but I sure wasn’t going to torture myself for it. Anyway, I was really clear and firm with you when you did it, and I think you learned because we haven’t had any problems for a few weeks. Fingers crossed that it’s behind us!

Sleeping: You are a great sleeper! You usually sleep 10-11 hours at night (almost never do you go a full 12 hour stretch) but you nap great during the day. Normally you have a morning nap that lasts 2 hours (anywhere from 1.5-2.5) and an afternoon nap that is usually closer to an hour or hour and a half. You always sleep in a sleep sack surrounded by many pacis and soft toys that you comfort yourself and snuggle with throughout your sleep. You prefer to sleep in your crib but you’re still pretty good at snoozing in your car seat – either in the car, the stroller or on a plane! (You were an AMAZING sleeper/traveler on our recent trip to South Carolina together — so thankful!)

Schedule: I’m happy that you’ve moved to 2 naps per day (versus 3) but you’re eating so frequently that it feels like it’s always something!! Since we travel a lot and go out regularly, we are always changing things up a little so you are more in a routine than a strict, set-schedule, but generally a day will look something like this:

7:15 am Wake & Nurse
8:15 am Breakfast
10:00-12:00 Nap
12:00 pm Wake & eat Lunch
12:30 pm Nurse
2:30 pm Snack
3:30-4:00 Nap
4:00 pm Wake & Nurse
5:30 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Nurse
8:00 pm Down for the night

Mama: You are 9 months old sweet Colt, and I have never been away from you for more than a few hours. I think back to the difficult decision I made to leave my job and stay home with you and I can honestly say that I have never looked back on that decision. Although there are definitely aspects of working (outside the home) that I miss, I am incredibly happy and God has made it so clear that this is where I am supposed to be right now – right here with you.

Thoughts: Your dad and I are loving this stage where we get to watch you grow from an infant to a toddler, where we get to see you go from being a baby to becoming a little boy. We love it because we love getting to know you better, learning who you are. You are turning into a sweet little friend and playmate!