9 months

Spencer Young, you are NINE months old!!  I love you more each day, and I cannot believe that is even possible. 

(I am a baby on a mission!)

You are still nursing, though your intake has dropped in the last few weeks.  You don't mind nursing, but you are really starting to hate your bottles at daycare.  You definitely prefer to drink out of cups instead.  You used to take 15 or so ounces while at daycare, and you are now only taking 11-12 oz on a good day.  You are nursing when you wake up and when you go to bed.  You love, love, love to eat (you are your mommy and daddy's child!).  You are eating pretty much anything we give you, and you don't seem to have favorites or dislike anything completely.  You will still eat your baby food, but you are starting to prefer to feed yourself, and you really like "real" food. 

You are saying mamamama and dadadadada all the time.  You are recently starting to do a hard "g" sound and just this weekend at two in the morning (joy oh joy) you were babbling and I heard a hard "t" sound multiple times.  I can't believe how fast you are progressing with your sounds over the last month. 

You are a pretty easy baby, and you always have been.  You cry with diaper changes, getting into the car seat (you really hate this!), and sometimes at the end of the day if we've kept you up past your bedtime.  You have a very easy smile, and you'll go to people pretty quickly.  That's so nice for us, and you're such a charmer that people love holding you and playing with you.  Currently your favorite people are your Uncle Nick (you LOVE his beard), your Grandma, and Miss Eve at daycare. 

(Cheesing it up for the camera) (And yes, I know this child desperately needs a haircut, but B is not ready for it yet)

You are sleeping through the night from 7p- 5 or 6 a.m.  It's hard for daddy and I b/c we don't get to spend much time with you after work, but, if we keep you up later, you get a little crabby with us!  On the weekends, we will pull you into our bed, let you nurse at 5 when you wake up, and then we'll all sleep in until 8 or so.  It's definitely heaven!!  (This doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's seriously the BEST!)

(Going, going, gone!)

You are definitely mobile.  You crawl everywhere, pull to stand on everything, and can even get up the step in between the family room and the kitchen.  You are starting to give full open mouth kisses (kind of gross but very sweet) and currently you are liking to chew on mommy and daddy's jaws (weird).  Our new favorite thing is that when we pick you up and pat you on the back, you will pat us on the back too.  It is SO sweet!! 

You are currently 21 lbs and 12 ozs and 28  in long.  That makes you in the 56th percentile for wt and the 48th  percentile for height.  You were in the 90th percentile at birth- you're shrinking on us!!  You definitely aren't as vigorous an eater as you were earlier on in life.  I think it's because you are too inquisitive now- nursing is boring!  Even when you are in the highchair, you get bored with eating and want to go play.  Since you are about equal in wt and ht, I'm not worried about you (but I am hoping you fit into your cute 18 month stuff this summer that I've picked up already!)  You've had your fair share of illnesses this winter with multiple ear infections and lingering colds, but we're all getting through it.  It's hard to know that being in daycare causes most of the illnesses and definitely shoots my mommy guilt through the roof.  I pray for your health a lot, and I also know how lucky we are that it is just ear infections and colds rather than something major like a heart defect, cancer, cystic fibrosis, or any of the other numerous scary things that I see regularly at work

Spencer, Your daddy and I love you with all our hearts and all our cells!!  We're so happy God blessed us with you, little buddy!