As you can see from the recent videos and pictures, AJ is growing up sooo quickly and is just the cutest thing! (I'm the mom, I can say that!) I thought I was busy a few months ago, but now that he's on the go ALL the time, I am VERY busy! He no longer does the army crawl, he goes full force. He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING and will stand there for MANY minutes at a time, a lot of time with only one hand. He isn't quite "cruising" but it's only a matter of time. I would bet that he's walking before he's one. Who knows though?
AJ is talking up a storm too. He says Dadadada, babababba, gagagag, but so far, no mamamma. Part of me would love to hear mama, but the other part knows that I'll be hearing that for years, so I can wait :)
He is also giving High Five's and waving Bye Bye pretty consistently. Like most kids, he will do it more with people he knows and not always on command.
AJ has started learning to eat more "adult" food which has been really fun for me. I love experimenting to see what he likes or dislikes. He's very much about texture. If I give him something new, he will typically take it out of his mouth, look at it, and put it back in (a few times usually) and then finally eat it. I've tried the following new foods in recently: black beans, Mahi Mahi, white rice, tortilla, strawberries, craisins, chicken pieces, pineapple, and egg yolk. The only thing he wasn't too sure of was the egg. We'll keep trying. One thing he LOVES is avocado- a great source of nutrition for him.
We are also working VERY hard at getting AJ to sleep through the night. At 9 months, I have come to realize that it's really time for this. I feel ready. I wasn't emotionally ready this whole time, but now I no longer feel bad or guilty letting him cry it out. We've been working on this for 4 nights and most nights haven't been too bad. He typically goes down around 7pm and will wake up once or twice during the night and cry- usually for 15 minutes or less- and I let him cry it out. I don't even go in his room. Then he'll wake up again around 5am and at that point I figure he's pretty hungry so I do go in and nurse him and he'll go back down until about 7am. I'm pleased with the way it's going so far. We're all getting better sleep, thankfully :)
Lastly, AJ, Jason and I are really enjoying having my Mom & Dave as neighbors! They moved in officially about 3 weeks ago and it's been so nice to be able to stop by for an hour or so, have dinner or spend the day together. I love that my Mom & AJ will have this close bond :)
Easter Brunch 2009
