Part Two: A Perfect 10 :)

Miss Anna's been so busy the past two months, it was too much goodness for one post!  So, to pick up where we left off...she's been crawling like crazy!  And all day long, she is constantly picking stuff up off the floor and eating it.  CONSTANTLY.  We've even taken to calling her the "Crumb Bum" and have all but given up fishing each thing out of her mouth, poor baby!

Anna usually crawls on her knees, but she likes to crab crawl like this when she's wearing a dress so it doesn't get tangled in her knees!

Anna's Surprised Face!

She absolutely adores Ben, and wants to be near him all the time.  He is really good at making her laugh by saying something silly like, "Shookie!!" or just jumping up and down or twirling around.  She belly laughs!

Adores big brother!

Anna has really been practicing pulling up and is getting stronger by the day.  She hasn't tried to do any furniture cruising, yet, but I bet it will be any day now!

We've had fun times at the pool in this 100° weather ~ whew!  All smiles with Mama, lounging in a piece of shade...

....an hour later - all tuckered out!

Mimi came to visit and Anna loved seeing her!

And finally, Anna has started babbling a bit.  Her favorite thing to say is ma ma ma ma.  We're not really sure if she's saying "more" or "mama", but either way, I love to hear it!

Our Pretty Girl! Love her!

Another First!

We were all hanging out in the den the other night and Miss Anna just pulled right up on the ottoman like it was a piece of cake!  She did it again about a minute later and Mark got it on video!!

Don't forget that videos won't work from email, if you get updates that way. You have to click the name of this post or the title of the blog, A Real Baby?! to view it from the actual website :)

Our First Mother's Day

I had such a great first Mother's Day with my special boy :) We went to church, had brunch with Grandmama, and then got a surprise visit by my grandfather (and Ben's GREAT grandfather!). Lots of snuggling and laughs made for a wonderful day with my baby! I'm so thankful to be a mommy...

9 Months In, 9 Months Out!

My little man has been in this world just as long as it took to "cook" him! At Ben's 9 month checkup, he weighed 19 lbs, 2.9 oz ~ whoa! No wonder my arms are aching lately! That seems big, but was 30% for weight, and his height remained in the 90% at 29.5 inches.

Ben's into all kinds of new things. He's learned how to climb the stairs, so we put up the baby gates, in addition to all the other childproofing items in the house. He's pulling up and cruising everywhere and can stand alone for a second or two when he wants to. Little Man is so, so curious about everything ~ trashcans, toilet paper rolls, electrical cords....nothing is safe from his quick little hands. He loves "rearranging" our breakfast and dining room chairs around, and unfortunately, playing with electrical cords. I've done my best to get rid of or hide all of them, but he still manages to make a bee-line for the few that I can't eliminate.

Let's see...he's got six teeth now, LOTS of hair (we had to cut a little over his ears because he kept pawing at them like they were itchy!). He's outgrowing Size 3 diapers, and is now taking a bath in the "BIG" bathtub.

Ben's still not crazy about being spoon fed, and most meal times are a struggle, even with foods he likes. He can feed himself small pieces of whole wheat bread, baby puffs, diced banana, and a few other things. My goal for the next month or two is to really explore foods that are appropriate for him to eat that he can feed himself. He seems to be much more content with those. Oh, and speaking of feeding...we finally dropped his last feeding of the day at 10 p.m. We were waking him up (barely) to eat in hopes that 1). he'd sleep through the night, and 2). get enough calories in the day. We hadn't planned to stop it since he had dropped from 50% to 30% in weight, but after a few days of only drinking 2 oz. and then a few more of refusing it completely, we just quit. He did fine. Maybe now he'll start eating more throughout the day.

Lastly, my favorite new thing is that Ben initiates Peek-A-Boo now! Just this week, I was checking him out in the rearview mirror, talking to him and he pulled the blanket up over his face....he was wanting me to say, "Where's Ben?!". So, I said it (as we always do when we're holding the blanket over his eyes) and he pulled the blanket down ~ so pleased with himself. (Then repeat 80 times, ha ha) How cute!!!