Hank's 9 month doctor visit

Two weeks ago (geez, I have quite a backlog, don't I?) Hank had his 9 month doctor appointment and it went very well.

Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz - 69th percentile
Height: 30.8 inches - 99th percentile (!!!)

He's a tall boy, that's for sure. Many strangers think he's already one year old and are shocked to find out that he's actually 3 months shy.

Other than his stats, the doctor asked if Hank likes his orange foods, to which I replied, "Um... yeah. He loves carrots, butternut squash, mango and sweet potatoes... How did you know?" Apparently, when you eat a lot of orange foods, the beta-carotene builds up in your body and turns you a little orange. I guess Hank's eyes looked a bit orange to the doctor and he was diagnosed with "carotenemia", which is harmless. Thank goodness. Because that kid loves his sweet potatoes.

Playing with my new lens.

I am currently taking an online photography course (called Photosanity, in case you're interested) from which I'm learning quite a bit. It's geared toward parents, so it's not overwhelmingly time-intensive and Alethea (the teacher/owner/do-it-all point person) is really good about teaching you things to help capture moments on camera in the best possible way. That means worrying more about catching the  moment and having fun instead of stressing about the technicality of your shot. PERFECT for an amateur like me.

Anyway. So I've been taking TONS and TONS of photos with a new lens I got (50mm f/1.4) and while I'm still learning about it, I'm catching some good shots here and there. These are my favorites from the last week:

Again, I'm still learning, which means I'll hopefully get better as time goes on!

Hank is 9 months old!

I'm 9 months old today!

I have now been out of the womb as long as I was in it. Yay!

This month has been a trying one for me as Mommy insists on me sleeping in my crib for naps. I was so happy sleeping on her in the sling, but I guess I was getting a little too heavy for her to cart around 3-4 hours a day. My naps are slowly getting better, but not great. Maybe I'll have it mastered by the end of the month. I also got FOUR teeth at once this month! It really wasn't that big of a deal for me, actually.

I'm eating like a horse these days! I eat all kinds of delicious (pureed) foods like carrots, brusselsprouts and broccoli. Mmmm-mmm good! While I still have a strong gag reflex, I managed to steal a raisin from Johnny's bowl the other day and actually ate it. It was delicious! So now Mommy is trying out finger foods here and there. It's a good thing, too, because I need to work on my pincher grasp. I have the palm grasp down, though, and have used it to shovel dirt into my mouth a couple of times...

I crawl like a madman now and follow Johnny around pretty much everywhere, much to his chagrin. I also pull up on anything and have mastered cruising. I'm even transferring from one piece of furniture to another already! What can I say? I'm a beast.

Family Date Night

This past weekend, I had a hankering from some sushi. Well, honestly, I just didn't want to cook, so I convinced John that we should all go out for sushi (convince = "Hey John, let's go for sushi." "Great idea, Kelly! Let's go!"). I packed some food for the boys (purees for Hank and some lunchmeat for Johnny) and we hit up the little PQ sushi place down the street.

John and I were stressing about this dinner situation a bit because last time we took the boys out to eat, it was a disaster. I met John at Islands for lunch and we proceeded to not eat any lunch. John chased Johnny around the restaurant over and over again while I tried to keep Hank from gagging on coaster bits that he managed to bite off. It ended with me asking our server to box everything up as wrangled a squirmy and rather upset Hank.

However, we needn't have worried. Yes, Johnny wanted to explore the little restaurant before he sat down, but it was 4:30pm and there were only two other people there, so it wasn't a big deal... except maybe for the two other people who kept giving Johnny the stink eye. So Johnny explored, we got our food and then he hung out at our table for the rest of the dinner! Hank even happily sat in his high chair and consumed purees, then played with my sunglasses so John and I could snarf our cut rolls. Delicious.

Johnny looking suspiciously at an eel roll

Not a fan of eel. Alas, he didn't inherit my tastes.

Johnny holding Daddy's hand VOLUNTARILY!

After sushi, we went out for ice cream. Johnny wanted a milkshake, so we got a small ice cream and a small milkshake, thinking that John and I would eat most of it... nope. Not the case. Johnny killed half of the shake by himself. And has asked for a "MIK-shake?" every day since.

27 months!

I'm 27 months old today!

I know my age is starting to sound ridiculous now that I'm up over the 24 month mark, but Mommy insists that I keep updating monthly to keep everyone informed. She runs a tight ship. Okay, not really, but sometimes I like to let her think she does.

Anyway! This month I remained obsessed with anything having to do with numbers. Numbers, numbers, numbers, that all I care about! I'm starting to count on my fingers, but not the way everyone else does. I can count all the way to 15 on my hands by holding up 1 finger on one hand and 5 fingers on the other.  1 and 5 together makes 15! Right? Mommy made me a felt board with numbers on it and I use it to count all the way to 99. I even use the right words now since I learned thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, etc, from all of these great number videos on YouTube.

I don't watch movies anymore because Mommy and Daddy got rid of the TV in the playroom and then turned the TV downstairs completely off, so no more movies for me... or for Mommy and Daddy, actually. However, I watch a little bit of YouTube here and there when I get the itch to zone out.

I'm still incredibly independent and have no issues running around Vons shouting out the aisle numbers while Mommy remains two aisles behind me. However, I have gotten a lot better about listening to my parents when they get that "danger" tone in their voices. Before if they said, "That's dangerous, Johnny, don't go there" would just move faster toward it. Now, I'm starting to believe that they know what they are talking about those crazy parents of mine.

Our current sleep situation

I know that all parents complain about sleep and, most likely, the lack thereof (I'd like to meet the parent that's complaining about too much sleep, though, and give them a good punch to the side of the head). I've been complaining about sleep for awhile now since Hank and Johnny both went haywire after our Christmas trip. However, things are FINALLY looking up!

I spent all of last week doing some sleep training with Hank for naps and nighttime and guess what? Today he took two naps IN HIS CRIB and fell asleep without me having to do anything!!!!!! ::cue inspirational music:: With Johnny, we did cry it out/Ferber and while that did get him sleeping more, it never really worked for his naps. So this time around, I followed the Baby Whisperer almost to a T. The only thing I did differently from the book is wear Hank in a sling for naps, but with another kid to take care of, it was necessary. This week, I worked on weaning Hank from the sling and while it was difficult, I liked this method better than cry it out because I was there with Hank so he never felt abandoned. It made me feel better about the whole process.

So yeah. This was the first week in the last (nearly) 9 months that I didn't wear Hank in a wrap for over three hours per day. Pretty awesome.

In other news, I put the kabosh on television watching for Johnny in an effort to get him to go to bed before 10pm each night. And guess what? It's working! Most nights he's in bed by 7:30 and asleep by 8pm at the latest. This has led to a much happier toddler, not mention happier parents as well! The only thing that is missing now is Johnny's nap, which he still needs, but refuses to take... unless, of course, he's in the car at the perfect time and restrained from any movement or he's being held by Daddy at the grocery store... then he passes clean out:

He fell asleep in the car and I managed to get him into his bed without completely waking up.

Hopefully this means more time for blogging and uploading pictures to my Shuttercal Photo-a-Day project!

I think I've seen this before.

I caught Hank doing this the other day:

I left him in the middle of the floor with some toys so that I could grab my water bottle from the upstairs bedroom. I come back and he has ignored all the toys I left him with and has instead focused on increasing entropy (NERD... even though I know it's not really used correctly. Whatever.)

Reminds me of someone else I know...

Johnny - 23 months