9 months

Since I never kept up on regular updates of our little guy, I figured now is as good as ever to tell you a little about him, so the grandparents and everyone won't miss out on this fun stage. Because of computer issues, I can't really post pictures, so you might have to wait until April for all the backlog of photos. But you can imagine, I'm sure.
 
He's now over 9 months old! Crazy. His favorite time of day is bath time. Usually when you change his clothes he puts up a fight. He hates it. But at bath time, he will "help" you, because he just can't get there fast enough. We have a good time with the splashing and the toys, and mommy and daddy usually end up about as wet as he does. It may have something to do with his splashing, and some more to do with the cool squirting toys that mommy and daddy tend to test out on each other. It's a good time. And it always ends up with a good round of that one song "Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath..."

He likes to chatter all day long, usually saying "aDuh" or some other fun babble. But he does say Dada and Mama, and we like to think the "aDuh" is him mimicking "All Done", but I kinda doubt it. He's starting to learn some sign language too.

He loves to eat. Mommy is glad he is pretty good about eating whatever we give him--though he might make some faces for things like beans or pureed meats. By the smell of them, I can't blame him. He has figured out the chewing motion, (which we taught him so that he would wait to swallow long enough for things to dissolve, like Puffs). He does it pretty dramatically when he wants us to tell him how good he's eating. And he is getting pretty good at grabbing with his fingers to feed himself. Progress!

We went through a week or two of some rough falls. Try as I might, I have a hard time being there for every time he tries something. Usually he cries more because he's so mad that it didn't work than because he's hurt. But now he is very good at pulling up to stand at things and is starting to walk along the furniture, so the falling has decreased.

In church, we have kept to sitting at the back with the rest of the pre-nursery club. I think it's a good thing though, because Tyson always has at least three girls that he is flirting with in the chairs behind us. A bit of a distraction to those we sit around--so we rotate where we sit to give them a Sunday of peace. I watch the other babies his age, and one is always just sitting passively, the other will quietly play with a book or toy. Meanwhile, Tyson has played with three toys, gone through several books, bounced up and down while looking at people over the back of the pew, chewed on mommy's necklace or daddy's watch, and "sang" along to the hymns. He's an active little guy.

He loves to play hide-and-seek and chase, and always has some toy in hand that he is figuring out. He's growing up fast!