Happy 9 months

Dashel is now 3/4 of the way through his first year! It has been so much fun getting to know his personality. I am constantly amazed how different, but alike he has been as a baby from Gavin. He is so Dashel and I love it. He gets this look on his face and with a little sigh or squeal like he is just figuring out the world and can't wait to explore the next thing. He has been very busy this month learning how it all works. He figured out how to sit up from laying down. He is really good at turning around in a circle while sitting. And spent the month slowly teaching himself to crawl [finally]. My favorite gross motor skill he is acquiring is his yoga practice of downward-facing-dog. He has pulled up a couple of times as well, but that is his next task to master, which means a lot of bruises to come.

Teething has made him slightly volatile -- lots of whining and crying. Sometimes he really just cannot be put down [glad I have a sling so I can cook dinner and have him bat the cornstarch out of my hand all over the floor, but at least he is happy]. I can't blame him, he got another bottom tooth and his first top tooth (right). So he has been in a lot of pain for a little guy. I heard a theory that if the top right tooth comes in before the other -- the child will be left handed. HMMMM

I can't believe his babbling, he is so good at making all kinds of different sounds including Mama all the time. It is probably not completely specific, but he says it when he is not content. So it makes me think it is a little specific. He is always smiling, squealing, and trying to communicate somehow. He waves, so if you say hi to him he will kind of mimic the sound of hi and start waving!! If you shake your head back and forth he will mimic. Brock has this sound of dia-dia-dia he makes and Dash will start shaking his head back and forth on cue

He will not eat baby food -- he locks his lips tight and shakes his head from side to side. He likes finger food and loves avocado, but only off of a chip. I think he has something against spoons, but loves almost every other object he can get into his mouth. Glad he is such a good nurser, so I don't have to worry about his nutrition yet.

Sometimes he sleeps good and long and other times he is up every two hours and those nights are ruff because I spend most of the night sleep-feeding and wake up in the morning not really knowing what took place, but I know it was a lot of nursing. At least I sleep through it and get to cuddle with my little guy a lot!

[Gavin at 9 months]