9 Months Old!

Our little baby is now 9 months old today! Oh how time flies...He has his 9 month check up tomorrow, so I will let you know his stats on my next post.  He is still a tall little man, and it will be fun to see what percentage he is!  

So I completely forgot to post these pictures of Eben outside in the beautiful spring weather.  These are some of my favorite pictures so far too.

I may as well update on some new things Eben is doing: pulling himself up to standing (started today), eating puffs on his own (!!!), and clicking his tongue.  :)

Sandman

Late last week I took Eben to the Island Park playground (again) and decided to let him play in the sand for the first time.  He loved it.  He spent a lot of time grabbing the sand, feeling it in his hands, pouring it on his pants, and thankfully not eating it.  He also made a friend: a 4-year-old girl who was so very interested in him.  She was so interested that she thought she would see what would happen if she dumped a handful of sand on his head...luckily he was wearing his hat!  Side note: Sometimes I feel that people can read on my forehead that I am a social worker...within 3 minutes of talking to this little girl, she starts talking about feeling sad when she gets spanked at home...of course I processed this with her like a good social worker would :)  Eben got the dirtiest he has ever gotten that day, which reminded me that he is turning into a toddler fast...a little boy who gets dirty.

Eben the Explorer

Since Eben's mastery of crawling, he has been getting into everything...which is what he should do because now he can.  Of course he always goes to the areas he shouldn't and play with things that aren't toys...and lately actual baby toys are not too interesting.  Dane has started playing a new fun game in our little condo...Dane crawls around and Eben follows...from room to room, and sometimes Dane scares Eben when he comes around corners and Eben just laughs.  Oh, and Eben got a new hat, which I am in love with.  Who ever said it isn't fun dressing a boy?  I have a blast with it!

Eben wants to play Assassin's Creed 2 also.

Clapping...hmm weird.

Family Time

This past weekend we had a fun time with my family.  My brother has a 2-year-old son, James, who interacts with Eben in the most adorable ways.  Sometimes he pretends to be a baby and crawls with Eben, sharing toys with him, and talking to him.  James is expecting a little sister in about a month, so being with Eben has been great practice for the soon-to-be-big-brother.

 This is the best pic of the two of them I could get because James would sit for .2 seconds and then run away.

James giving Eben a hug.

 Eben chasing James!

 See the little white dot in his lower gums...that is a tooth!

Clap, clap, clap.

I Heart Spring

Today was a perfect spring day...minus the still-flooded Red River.  So, due to the flooded Red, we are forced to take strolls along the busy roads and run down buildings by our home, but it was still great.  We stopped at a nearby park and I pushed Eben in the baby swing.  Immediately when I put him in it, he had a huge open-mouthed smile on his face and he continuously made a "ha" noise out of excitement.  It was too cute.  I also placed Eben on the grass to let him explore some nature, which he did.  He pulled grass out of the ground, tried to eat leaves, and almost poked his eye out with a stick...luckily I was watching him closely.  I was also a little grossed out when I saw a giant ant crawling on his neck.  I look forward to many more days like this.

Mobile Baby!

So it is official...Eben can crawl!  I write that with great excitement as he just looks so cute truckin' around the floor, exploring his surroundings, and getting into trouble.  I also write that with exhaustion as I now am able to do everything in 20 second intervals because I have to redirect him to a safer zone that often.  Of course he always goes to the areas that are not as baby friendly, i.e. computer cords (we still have to work on some of the baby-proofing).

He seems more happy with his mobility, but his new skill happened at the same time that some little teeth decided to try to poke through his bottom gums (finally!)...so he is a little touchy lately (and sleeping quite poorly, which obviously means I am sleeping quite poorly as well).

Here are more pics of the little man...yes, more pics...and there will be many more to come because I still LOVE my DSLR camera!  I also LOVE taking pictures of my little buddy.  So, AWESOME CAMERA + AWESOME LITTLE BUDDY = MANY MANY PICS OF LITTLE BUDDY ON BLOG   ;)     (I am still using the point and shoot options on the camera though because I haven't had the patience to figure out the manual settings...some day...)