9 Months Old!

Happy nine month birthday to our sweet baby boy!

9 months old!
8 months, 7 months, 6 months, 5 months,
4 months, 3 months, 2 months, 1 month

Here are a couple more cute ones:

We seriously cannot believe his first birthday is so close!  Officially 3 months away so we better start planning.  We don't want anything big but we do want it to be special.

As with all of the months in the past, I always like to skim through my milestone App to see where we are and what we can be working towards:

He is doing everything on the 9 month list.  We aren't really sure exactly how many words he is understanding but we notice more and more everyday!

He has met all of the 10 month physical and social milestones, and is just beginning to explore inside/outside relationships.  He doesn't have any words besides mama/dada yet but he is beginning to use those with more purpose for sure!

A lot of the milestones repeat since there is such a wide range of "normal" for meeting them.  Again, he has met all of the physical milestones for even the 11th month list.  He's doing all of the above intellectual milestones except saying words other than "dada."  As for social, he definitely protests when you try to take something he has deemed as awesome, but I'm not sure he is entirely aware of his ability to make choices at this point.  He doesn't point to things he wants but he does kick his little feet and make certain sounds to indicate he wants something you have.  He loves loud noises like the vacuum but does become startled by loud noises coming from a source that he can't see (eg. our neighbor's dogs barking on the other side of the fence).  Stranger, separation, and unfamiliar surrounding anxiety has definitely started over the past week or so.

Overall, we are very pleased with where Ayden is.  He can still be fussy at times and just isn't himself in a new place or around people he doesn't see daily (so everyone but David and myself) until he's had a chance to warm up.  He's funny because he actually warms up around the folks at Whole Foods faster than he does his own extended family.  I suppose it is because we are in Whole Foods 2-3 times a week (once for our weekly grocery run, a second time because we walk over with my sister after story time just to hang out while she shops, and sometimes a random run for something we forgot or discover we need mid-week) and he only sees our extended family once a week.  All I know is that all of the people who work there tell us that he's their favorite baby and he is always all smiles when we are there.

We celebrated his 9 month birthday by doing his 9 month photo shoot today.  We got outside for this one and really got some great shots.  Here are a few un-edited sneak peeks:

Our current favorite outfit.

Eating a whole apple :).

Aren't we festive in our fluff? 

Ayden has almost been out with us for as long as he was in my belly.  These past 9 months have been a whirlwind of all kinds of experiences and emotions.  It's gone by so fast yet it seems like we've known him forever.  Now I shall leave you with a video of our big boy feeding himself some smoothie at breakfast this morning.  He sure has come such a long way!

~Sarah