On March 5, my sweet baby boy turned 9 months old. I cannot get over how time flies. He has been here, with us, for as long as I carried him in my tummy.

I’m amazed every day by his new little activities and milestones. He masters something and moves on to the next thing. He is constantly into everything and pushes the boundaries as only a little boy can when his mommy is wrapped around his finger. He is crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, and successfully transferring from piece of furniture to another piece of furniture. Holding him back is no longer an option!

I am not wishing for him to walk at all. I know he’ll do it in his own time and we encourage him all the time. But I know that once he starts walking, it’s over. He’s off and I can’t stop him! He’s already so adventurous and constantly toppling over or bonking his head on something. He got his first shiner yesterday on the chair leg. We keep asking if there’s any way he can wear a helmet. But he rarely cries when he falls and when he does cry, we know that it must have hurt really bad.

He loves meeting new people and he especially loves seeing friends that he recognizes. He is so enthusiastic and gets his little legs moving when he sees something he’s excited about. He screams with excitement when I start a Baby Einstein video. He starts hollering if I fix him a bottle. Hudson is still a little sad when I drop him off at the nursery, but not because he doesn’t love the nursery. He just doesn’t want his mommy to leave.

He loves music. He absolutely loves to bounce and dance. He hears music and immediately bobs up and down. It’s all that jamming I did when I was pregnant with him.

The doctor wanted him to have 32 ounces of formula every day until he turned 9 months old. She told us to hold off on three meals per day until his 9 month birthday, too. So now that he’s 9 months, we’ll be starting the stage 3 foods and gradually introducing table food. We’ve been having breakfast and supper at the high chair and now we’ll add lunch to it. He is such a great eater and I’m so thankful for that.

He has completely mastered the challenging task of picking up little Gerber Puffs and Yogurt Melts and putting them in his mouth. It’s his new favorite thing to do. I know he’ll love adding table food to his diet.

I’m sure you’ve all seen that he has 4 teeth now, but his 5th has already popped through. He is working on one more bottom teeth, and the next two top teeth are right there. I’m so excited because this means he’ll be able to cut his meat with his teeth and I won’t be as worried about giving him chunky food.

He says “da-da-da-da” but we can’t tell that he’s saying “da-da” in response to seeing his Daddy. He does, however, say “ba-ba” when he sees his bottle. Pretty sure he knows exactly what he’s saying there. The boy clearly doesn’t miss a meal.

At 9 months old, Hudson weighs 25 lbs and measures 30 inches long. He’s no longer above the 98th percentile. Now he’s in the 95th and 96th percentiles. I guess that crawling is causing him to plateau a little bit. He’s just burning calories left and right!

He’s still such an amazing sleeper, and for that we are so blessed. He goes to bed at 7 p.m. and wakes up at 7 a.m. He takes two naps (sometimes three) every day for about an hour a piece.

He recognizes the word “no” and isn’t sure he likes it. Sometimes he’ll hear it and stop whatever he’s doing, but then goes back to it a couple of seconds later. I’ll say “no” again and he’ll stop. He’s just seeing how far he can go. Then we’ve had the tantrums. I’ll say no and he won’t touch anymore. And he never touches, but I keep saying no, and then he just falls apart. It’s so hard being a baby.

He’s such a happy, funny, little boy and we’re just so excited about each new day and each new milestone. I cannot believe how quickly time flies. I know I said that already, but during those early days when I just cried and cried because I was overwhelmed, tired, and just full of love? Those days will be over so quickly and the really fun days of playing with your crawling, jumping, wiggle worm are just around the corner.

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

Hudson actually turned 8 months old on February 5, but things got a little crazy. We went out of town for over a week, and while I always vow to blog while I’m away, it’s rare when I actually follow through with that vow. It’s much easier to just enjoy the vacation from everything– including blogging.

Dearest Hudson,

I have to say that as your mommy, this month has been the most fun. You started sitting up at 5 months and then right after you turned 7 months you started crawling. You never army crawled. You just got up on your hands and knees and took off.

Crawling means lots of bumps and scrapes

You’re a heavy little booger and you want to crawl around and toward things that are dangerous and not for little boys. So I’m always on the ground picking you up or redirecting you. It has been so much fun to chase you around and watch you explore the house on your own. You still haven’t quite figured out that you can follow me when I leave a room.

But now that you’re crawling, it’s not enough. You want to stand on your own. So the pulling up started immediately after the crawling.

You are the sweetest little person I know. You light up a room and anytime someone new comes into the room you start jabbering and kicking your legs.  You want everyone to know that they’re welcome! And you want everyone to come talk to you. You’re kind of a little attention hog. But that’s because we shower you with lots of attention all the time.

Your daddy and I think you’re very funny. You’ve always got something to say (though no official words yet. We’ve heard “dada” and “baba” but they’re not in reference to anything specific) and you make new little sounds every day.

Hudson, you are a still an amazing sleeper and a great eater. Look at you! You’re a growing boy and growing boys need their food and their sleep. You still sleep 12 full uninterrupted hours at night and still take 3 naps every day. Not all of your naps are long, but you need them. You let us know when it’s time for you nap. You start rubbing your eyes and you put your little thumb in your mouth. We’re not too worried about you being a thumb sucker. You only do it at bedtime or when you’re upset, but you’ve never taken a pacifier. I figure we can correct the thumb issue later when it’s actually an issue.

You had your first stomach bug before we went to visit KK and Poppie. Mommy caught it, too, but that’s okay. I was so worried about you. I think you were worried about yourself. We went to see the doctor when you were sick and they weighed you at that appointment. You were 24 lbs and 14 ounces. Quite the big guy! You’re wearing all 12 and 18 months clothes now. Most of the 12 months things are a little snug.

We’re so proud of you and we’re so excited about every new day with you. You’ll be walking and talking so soon, but I’ve learned my lesson with the crawling. I won’t be wishing for the walking and talking to start any time soon!

You’re nearly as big as your monkey now!

I love you so much!

Mommy

8 months

7 months

As I mentioned on Tuesday, there are a lot of things I want to do to help Hudson celebrate his very first Christmas. I’ve already mentioned that we’ll spend Christmas in the mountains in Tennessee and that we decided as a family to go easy on the presents. We agreed to stocking stuffers only and Todd and I will exchange a few gifts. We’re all very excited about spending such a long amount of time together– without being in someone’s home and invading their space for a week.

Just because we’ve chosen not to get gifts for everyone in the whole family doesn’t mean we’ve chosen to leave gifts out of Hudson’s first Christmas celebration. I went back and forth on this and wasn’t sure what we should do. I know he won’t remember a lot of what we do, but we will. (My friend, Whitney from Glamorous Life of a Housewife, wrote a great post about why she’s giving her baby boy gifts for his first Christmas.)

We’ll remember the look on his face when he opened that special thing that we’ll always remember that we gave to him. Someday we’ll show him the pictures from the sweet event. Giving him a gift on Christmas Day doesn’t prove our love for him, but it does show my appreciation for some of the Christmas traditions and wanting to experience that with the newest, most precious, member of our family.

My parents are planning on starting a collection for him (that I’ll share with you later) and I hardly see this gift as silly to give a baby. It’s thoughtful and special and he’ll get one every year from them.

We got him a couple of fun gifts that I’ll share with you all later (but really I want to tell you NOW!), but I’ll go ahead and tell you one of them. On Christmas Eve I plan to give Hudson a pair of Night Before Christmas pajamas and a copy of The Night Before Christmas book. My dad read it to me nearly every night because I loved it so much and I knew the entire poem by heart. I want to read this story to Hudson on Christmas Eve.

I also want to read the Christmas story to him. I could also recite all of Luke Chapter 2 when I was in the 2nd grade and I want that tradition to be with our baby boy, too. (Yes, I was a memorizing machine when I was little.)

As far as his future Christmases go, I want to continue to do these things every year. I don’t know where we’ll celebrate Christmas every year. We could be in Dallas. We could be here. We could be in a wonderful vacation spot. I would love for our boy to wake up at his own house every Christmas morning, but I also know that Santa Claus visits you where ever you are. We spent every Christmas Eve at my grandparents’ house until I was in high school and being with so much family and having so many cousins around to see what Santa brought us was always the highlight of my day. I also know how much fun it is to be in your own house and be able to play with all of your toys and all of your friends on Christmas day. But I don’t have a crystal ball and I only know what our plans are for this year.

I’m just excited to share all of these amazing things with Hudson and give him something to look forward to every year. I can’t remember a time when I was more excited for Christmas to come!