I am three quarters of a year old! Earlier this month, mom took me to see a friend who had a tiny newborn baby, so I was able to show her how much I have done in my life and how much I have grown. Even though I was pretty amazing and cute when I was born, I still just hung around a bunch, slept a lot, nursed often, and you even had to hold my head whenever you moved me around. Now I am a real little guy and can show the world my personality.
I love to stand - at my changing table shelf, holding onto my crib slats, in the living room holding onto the open drawer or the metal handles on the entertainment center, on the kitchen counter ringing the beautiful chimes or opening and closing the cabinets (but for some reason not being allowed to pull the plant apart), holding onto the new wooden cube toy I got for Easter, ... well you get the picture. Standing and moving around is fun, and I can even pull myself up to standing (I started this almost a month ago, and now it is pretty easy - I can even do it from my knees). I can move back and forth along something (or around the wooden cube). I can also 'walk' a bit if you hold my hands. Just don't put me on my stomach and leave me there - I really don't like to pike-push myself along the floor on my tummy, even if the wooden blocks or the empty Easter eggs are out there to entice me.
Books are pretty great things. There are all kinds of pretty pictures, good stories, and mom makes a bunch of fun sounds when reading them (whoooshhh goes the wind, baaaa goes the sheep). I especially love the part in Goodnight Gorilla where the lights go out and all the animals say goodnight, and then the woman opens her huge eyes in the black night and realizes that there is a gorilla in her bed! This makes me go 'aaarrhhh' and enjoy it. The book with the fuzzy farm babies and things to touch is also pretty cool - I guess pigs go 'oink', but the fuzzy hair is the best part. And if you give me one of those silly books that isn't cool, I'll let you know right away - I will just push it away.
I can communicate waaaaay more than I could back when I was born. I can push my bottle away when I am done. I can hold my hands up when I want to be picked up (mom especially likes this). I will smile at you when you come in the door. I am working on waving goodbye - mom waves goodbye when she leaves; I am starting to hold my hand up and move a few fingers and this gets a good reception - sometimes I even do a 'baa' sound, kind of like bye-bye, which gets an even better reception. I will hold one hand out when I want to walk over from one thing to the next, or just get closer for cuddling. I can raise my arms up when things are exciting. I can do my version of 'talking' (which may sound like babbling), but I can vary my intonation, repeat a varying tone back, and get loud when I think things are really fun. And I can also laugh.
Speaking of laughing, there are a few things that just make me crack up. The things that we have known for a while include blowing raspberry kisses on my tummy, those spots on my thighs, and the bottoms of my feet. What I let everyone know this month was that I think snow flying off of a shovel is basically hilarious - especially when grandpa does it and then tries to eat the snow. I get everyone going with a good strong laugh. The other thing that is crazy funny is when Appa throws things up in the air and lets them come down - balls of course, but even better is Easter eggs.
Easter was pretty special this year. Of course it was my first ever, but I also got all dressed up (in a white silk outfit complete with a bow tie), there were a bunch of friends and family there, and then at church I got to get up in front of everyone and get water poured over my head three times (mom says this is baptism). There was a nice running fountain of water (which you know I love) and I was anointed with nice smelling chrism. It was beautiful, and then we had a party afterwards to celebrate.
We also got outside this month, which I like quite a bit. Mom says I look cool in my sunglasses too - I just like that it is easier to check things out along the way. On one hike it was snowy, but the sky was clear (as an aside, I really enjoy watching snow fall, though normally this is from inside). Appa and mom and I stopped near a tree and I tried some of the snow (with their help), which was cold but somewhat interesting. The neat part was when you pulled on the branch it moved a bunch (I like to pull on anything that is hanging) - this was fun for a while, until the point when I let go and the branch sprayed me with a bunch of snow!
I hung out a lot with my new au pair Karin this month and she is really great. Sometimes she sings to me in Portuguese, sometimes we go outside to the park and SWING, and all of the time we have fun playing together. Today she even picked up some cool new books at the library, including one that looks like a truck.
I rounded out the month with visits to friends and family. Mom had a birthday party, Appa's friends had good authentic Chinese food, my friend B had his first birthday party, my baby friends had a party (we all lined up for a picture again, but now we all know how to sit so we didn't squish each other like the last time), and I met some other friends of mom and Appa.
Here is a photo collage of my ninth month on earth!
I love to stand - at my changing table shelf, holding onto my crib slats, in the living room holding onto the open drawer or the metal handles on the entertainment center, on the kitchen counter ringing the beautiful chimes or opening and closing the cabinets (but for some reason not being allowed to pull the plant apart), holding onto the new wooden cube toy I got for Easter, ... well you get the picture. Standing and moving around is fun, and I can even pull myself up to standing (I started this almost a month ago, and now it is pretty easy - I can even do it from my knees). I can move back and forth along something (or around the wooden cube). I can also 'walk' a bit if you hold my hands. Just don't put me on my stomach and leave me there - I really don't like to pike-push myself along the floor on my tummy, even if the wooden blocks or the empty Easter eggs are out there to entice me.
Books are pretty great things. There are all kinds of pretty pictures, good stories, and mom makes a bunch of fun sounds when reading them (whoooshhh goes the wind, baaaa goes the sheep). I especially love the part in Goodnight Gorilla where the lights go out and all the animals say goodnight, and then the woman opens her huge eyes in the black night and realizes that there is a gorilla in her bed! This makes me go 'aaarrhhh' and enjoy it. The book with the fuzzy farm babies and things to touch is also pretty cool - I guess pigs go 'oink', but the fuzzy hair is the best part. And if you give me one of those silly books that isn't cool, I'll let you know right away - I will just push it away.
I can communicate waaaaay more than I could back when I was born. I can push my bottle away when I am done. I can hold my hands up when I want to be picked up (mom especially likes this). I will smile at you when you come in the door. I am working on waving goodbye - mom waves goodbye when she leaves; I am starting to hold my hand up and move a few fingers and this gets a good reception - sometimes I even do a 'baa' sound, kind of like bye-bye, which gets an even better reception. I will hold one hand out when I want to walk over from one thing to the next, or just get closer for cuddling. I can raise my arms up when things are exciting. I can do my version of 'talking' (which may sound like babbling), but I can vary my intonation, repeat a varying tone back, and get loud when I think things are really fun. And I can also laugh.
Speaking of laughing, there are a few things that just make me crack up. The things that we have known for a while include blowing raspberry kisses on my tummy, those spots on my thighs, and the bottoms of my feet. What I let everyone know this month was that I think snow flying off of a shovel is basically hilarious - especially when grandpa does it and then tries to eat the snow. I get everyone going with a good strong laugh. The other thing that is crazy funny is when Appa throws things up in the air and lets them come down - balls of course, but even better is Easter eggs.
Easter was pretty special this year. Of course it was my first ever, but I also got all dressed up (in a white silk outfit complete with a bow tie), there were a bunch of friends and family there, and then at church I got to get up in front of everyone and get water poured over my head three times (mom says this is baptism). There was a nice running fountain of water (which you know I love) and I was anointed with nice smelling chrism. It was beautiful, and then we had a party afterwards to celebrate.
We also got outside this month, which I like quite a bit. Mom says I look cool in my sunglasses too - I just like that it is easier to check things out along the way. On one hike it was snowy, but the sky was clear (as an aside, I really enjoy watching snow fall, though normally this is from inside). Appa and mom and I stopped near a tree and I tried some of the snow (with their help), which was cold but somewhat interesting. The neat part was when you pulled on the branch it moved a bunch (I like to pull on anything that is hanging) - this was fun for a while, until the point when I let go and the branch sprayed me with a bunch of snow!
I hung out a lot with my new au pair Karin this month and she is really great. Sometimes she sings to me in Portuguese, sometimes we go outside to the park and SWING, and all of the time we have fun playing together. Today she even picked up some cool new books at the library, including one that looks like a truck.
I rounded out the month with visits to friends and family. Mom had a birthday party, Appa's friends had good authentic Chinese food, my friend B had his first birthday party, my baby friends had a party (we all lined up for a picture again, but now we all know how to sit so we didn't squish each other like the last time), and I met some other friends of mom and Appa.
Here is a photo collage of my ninth month on earth!
