Happy Nine-Months, Clark!

 Dear Clark,

Yesterday you turned nine months old! I cannot believe how fast the months are going by.  You are growing so much and are so chubby and adorable.  You weigh 17 pounds!  Sloane didn't weigh 17 pounds until 18 months.  Even though you are much bigger than your sister, you are still in the 10th percentile.  This month started off great but was really rough the last week.   You got your first cold and it was a bad one.  You were so uncomfortable and wanted to be held all day.  The nights were really hard, you were waking up in the middle of the night, screaming your head off for hours and nothing would make you happy.  Thankfully you are feeling better now and back to your regular self.

You are getting very close to crawling.  You can roll and rotate to move around, and will rock back and forth but haven't actually moved on your knees.  Today you started to scoot around the floor while sitting up.  I think you will figure it out in the next few days.  You LOVE Sloane so much and always have your eye on her.  I have a feeling that you will be crawling after her as soon as your figure out how to move around.  She makes you so happy.  If she says, “boo”, you giggle nonstop.  She will sing the “b-i-n-g-o” song to make you happy when you are upset.  We go to the park every day and you love watching her play with her friends and ride her scooter.

There was not much progress on trying new foods.  Your love yogurt and pears, everything else is hit or miss.  Some days you love butternut squash and other days you refuse to open your mouth.  We give you all sorts of finger foods and you like feeding yourself, especially O cereal.  I have tried to get you to drink out of a sappy up and straw cup but it hasn't been successful.

The best part of the month is bedtime.   We have a routine that has been working great.  You and Sloane take a bath at the same time, books, a little milk, and then I put you in your crib awake with your favorite blanket.  You will fall asleep on your own within a few minutes.   Some nights you will sleep until 4am or 5am, but there are many more nights that you wake up around 2-3am.  Your naps are still short, 30-45 minutes, so you end up taking three or four naps a day, depending on when you wake up in the morning.  You love going on the swings at the park, especially if Sloane is on the big kid swing next to you.  You also love jumping in your bouncer.

I love you so much and you are growing so fast.  I miss how you use to pass out on my chest at nighttime.  I just want to cuddle with you all the time.

XOXO,

Mommy