9 Months

Height: 28.5 in. (50%)
Weight: 19.6 lbs. (30%)

Shane turned 9 months old on May 22nd. It is pretty strange to me to think he is only 3 months away from being a year old. I was actually going through his old clothes today and was amazed at how small he used to be.

The thing about Motherhood I struggle with the most is not knowing what things they are capable of learning at what age. I discover that Shane can do something and I think, "Man, if I knew he was capable of learning that I would have tried to teach him that ages ago." Do you learn those kinds of things in a Child Development class or are some women just born with it and others aren't? If it is the later, then I must have drawn the short end of the stick. Hopefully, I have some hidden talent that will make up for it.

Ooooo, I bought a book by the "Super Nanny" Jo Frost called How To Get The Best From Your Children. I really liked it. Some moms might read and think, "Wow what a waste of time, I already knew all that." For me however, it all made prefect sense, but it was nice to have it all there for me to read and drill into my head so I can remember it when I need it. Reading this book honestly made me feel more confident that I really can be a great mom.

These pictures aren't particularly current. I took them back in April, but I still think they are pretty cute.





Things Shane has accomplished in the past three months (since his last doctor's appointment):

These first two he has been able to do for awhile now, but the others are more recent.

- Sitting up really well on his own for long periods of time. (He could only do it for short periods of time when he was 6 months)
- Army Crawling - Still doesn't do normal crawling and at this point we are not sure if he ever will
- Sitting himself up - I went into his room to get him up from a nap and lo and behold he was just sitting there in his crib playing with his blanket.
- Says "DaDa" - It is just another noise to him though. We have been trying to get him to say MaMa, but no such luck. (I knew he'd be a daddy's boy)
- Pulling himself up to stand on his knees - He is really close to being able to pull himself up all the way to standing, but he is still very wobbly so he is a long way from walking.
-Walking while holding our hands (slow and steady wins the race :-) ) Still no pointing, clapping or waving. He doesn't seem interested in copying what we do, just very amused/confused by our silly faces and hand gestures.

Things Shane loves:

- Peek-a-boo with his blanket - he gets so excited to pull the blanket off his face.
- Being thrown in the air - up, down and all around.
- Cars - he can sit outside and watch cars driving by forever. He can recognize their sound when he can't seem them too and he will look everywhere till he finds them.
- Being Outside
- Eating - yummy food at least (his favorite is probably still Cheerios)
- Playing with cords, remotes, mail or anything else he isn't supposed to play with
- Feet - he is just fascinated by feet. It used to be hands, now it is feet. I wonder what he will go after once he is done exploring feet?
- Daddy tickling him with kisses
- People - he loves watching what people are doing, but loves it when people smile at him too. Most of the time he will give them a big, cheesy grin.

We finally found some foods Shane doesn't like. Adam fed him pureed green beans and Shane got this horrible look of abandonment/betrayal on his face and then started crying. He hasn't had that reaction since, but we know he doesn't like watermelon, broccoli or chicken either.

Shane has another ear infection (or continued from the last, we're not sure). The doc gave us stronger antibiotics this time. Unfortunately, the antibiotics do more than get rid of the ear infection. They also give Shane diarrhea and rust colored bowels. (Just when we get the intense diaper rash healed from the formula-caused bout of diarrhea, he gets diarrhea again. Great.) So we were told to feed him some Activia yogurt each day to counteract the antibiotics. Shane LOVES the yogurt. We tried to look for a sugar free one, but it doesn't exist. He loves the yogurt so much that we have to give him his bottle before we feed him or he'll fill himself up almost entirely on yogurt.

I am so excited to see how Shane changes over the next few months. The hardest thing about him growing up is that he seems to get bored with the norm a lot more easily. He requires more and more "real" parenting as he gets older. Sometimes it is a struggle for me because I have been so lazy and had so little responsibility before Shane came . I am definitely going to need to shape up if I am going to keep up. Good thing he is so cute and lovable; he gives me great motivation!