9 months

I can't believe Andy is already 9 months old! That just sounds so...old.  He is definitely looking less and less like a baby.   He's growing up so fast!  We love him to pieces.

• He has learned some "words": na-na-na and da-da-da.  (Cameron thinks he's actually calling him dada. Yeah, right.  His first word will definitely be mama.)  He is extremely talkative.
• Though we still haven't seen a tooth, he experienced his first teething episode, which included a nursing strike, lots of screaming, and sleepless nights.  (We thought he was sick; the doctor said it was teething.)  Our only sanity those few days was Baby Einstein.  He loves it soooo much.  (Especially the little puppet that comes on-he always talks to it.) I'm guessing we watched it 30+ times those few days?  It was literally the only way to get him to stop screaming.  He starts beaming as soon as he hears the theme song because he knows what's coming.  
• He is such a LOUD baby.  This makes church very exciting.  He loves to surprise everyone with ear piercing squeals of joy.  
• Still loves the bath.  He gets really excited as soon as we turn the water on. 
• Loves to stand.  We got him a little keyboard he can stand up and play.  He loves this!  

• Can stand holding on to things, but still falls over (and screams) occasionally.  
• Still wearing his helmet.  Bleh.  However, his head is looking a lot better! Hopefully he'll only have to wear it 3 months instead of 4.  
• Loves solids!  Turns out we don't really have a picky eater...I'm just a bad cook. :)  I'd been making all his food, which he didn't like much.  We bought a few of the packaged baby foods just to figure out what flavors he might like and he loves every single one of them.  So much for being a hip, frugal, baby food making mom!  At least he eats now, though.  We're doing two meals a day and working on getting to a third.  
• He has a new favorite game: dumping out his basket of toys.  I don't mind at all because it keeps him entertained for quite a while.  
• We're trying to help him learn to drink from a sippy cup.  He's not really catching on.  He mostly chews on the nipple.  He does like water though!  
• As always, wakes up 2-3 times a night.  However, he did have his first time ever sleeping through the night!  (From 10-6:30) A blessed, random occurrence.  He must not have liked it that much because he hasn't done it since. :)  
• He got really good at flipping from his back to his stomach this month, but as soon as he'd do it, he'd get really mad because he hates his stomach.  We'd flip him back over and then he'd do it again.  Many naps were disrupted while he practiced this new trick.  
• Doesn't love his Johnny Jump Up so much anymore.
• Loves to cross his ankles.  Too cute.  
• Continues to love walks.  He always kicks his feet against the stroller.    
• Loves the swings, as always.  
• Loves touch 'n feel books.  He's always touching the textured parts.  
• Is really getting a lot better at moving.  He's close to crawling.  He's flipping front to back, back to front all the time and is scooting backwards and turning.  He gets up on his knees sometimes too.  Just this week he's learning how to go from sitting to falling forward onto his hands.  

And some pictures!  (I need to be better at taking more.  It's hard because he moves so fast, it's hard to get a good one.  I promise he doesn't have a blank stare all the time...that's just the only time I manage to get a picture that's not super blurry.) 

Hypnotized by Baby Einstein.  What will the sheep puppet do next?

Black beans are way more fun to play with than to eat!