Nine Months

Congratulations, Avery!  You have now lived in the outside world longer than you were growing inside.  That is just crazy.  Mostly because it feels like you have been here with us for wayyy longer than I was pregnant.  And let's be real here, your birthday is in August... in Texas... it felt like I was pregnant for-ev-er.  This is also your last month in the single digits month-wise.  Insert single rolling tear.

So, what's up with you at nine months, nugget?  Let's break it down, shall we.

I think you've been secretly dieting, because you LOST a pound this month.  Although, this is apparently kind of normal when you are becoming an actual person and learning to be mobile and spend 99.9% of the time you are awake flailing about.  Maybe I should try this.  I'm sure no one would give me the side eye if I decided to try crawling at work.

Jeez, mom, focus.

Stats, yes, stats.

At nine months you are:

20lbs 14oz (88%)

30.5 inches  (99.67%)

I don't remember your head size, but it is like suddenly tiny at 67%

(although they didn't measure around your ears this time)

12-18months clothing size

Size 3 diapers

I'm sorry, but did we all see that height business??  In case you are wondering what that looks like in graphical terms, I have re-created the growth chart they give us when we go to the doctor.  Those things are really detailed these days.  I think you're so tall because you need the extra inches too keep all that cuteness contained.

You still have an ear infection, btdub.  Please stop with that.  We are slightly worried that it might be messing with your speech development, as you were super quick to pick up on the bababa dadada mamama, but haven't really moved past it since the infections started up.  Also, you have no inside voice.  Can you not hear yourself??  Just kidding, we love listening to you babble.  You have a follow-up in two weeks, so if you could just go ahead and un-infect yourself by then that would be just swell.

Socially you are slightly ahead of the game.  You completely mastered waving and clapping this month, and have started pointing, which is super adorable.  

You can also feed yourself small bits of real food, which just about makes me cry my eyes out because you look so big when you're feeding yourself.  So far you've at least tolerated everything you've tried, and we pretty much just feed you whatever we're having for dinner plus some cheerios, cheese, yogurt, etc.

You still scoot from place to place, but can take a few wobbly crawls forward on your knees.  You also learned to go from lying on your stomach to sitting upright, which has really upped your game in terms of total house destruction.  See, before you couldn't really reach for anything above you when you were crawling, but now you can crawl over to the bookshelf, sit up and go.to.town.

I'm trying to re-arrange everything so that you can pull off whatever you'd like, so our house is basically just getting undecorated from about three feet down.  And remember not leave anything out that we don't want tore up.  Like the day you ripped out and gnawed on the first page out of my Bible.  We'll have to re-discuss the whole Bread of Life concept, stat. 

You just never ever stop moving.  And we love to watch you discover new things and get distracted by your own fingers.  Or the cats.  Who have started taunting you relentlessly by staying still until you get close enough to reach out, and then sauntering a few more steps away.  (You fall for it every time.)

So sad.

Your daddy bought you this toy, which is labeled as a "Jewelry" Box, but contains lipstick, a comb, and perfume, so it's confusing, but fun.  He bought it for you because thus-far you have only collected gender neutral or on-the-masculine side of the scale toys.  Every time I think of him in the toy aisle all by himself picking out the most fun, girly toy he could find for you, my heart just melts into a big mush puddle.  (You have a really great dad.)

So, there you have it, Avery-cakes.  We love you more than baseball and sandwiches and can't wait to see what adventures the next months and years will take us on.

Mother's Day Re-Cap

I wish that I had some really profound but still slightly witty words to share in my Mother's Day re-cap.  Something deep to share regarding the joy of motherhood and how awesome my own mom is.  Or at least just a decent yo mama joke. 

But I just got barfed on and then had to deal with what I'm pretty sure was hazmat level poop.  So right now I'm feeling like motherhood is kind of a mixed bag.

Whatevs, Mother's Day was stellar.  Sam worked really hard to make this a fabulous day for me and our moms.  He did a truly fantastic job, and I felt treasured.

Especially when Avery presented me with the gift she worked really hard on in the car on the way to church:

I mean, is that not the most impressive snot bubble you've ever seen?  Thanks, nugget!



 

So happy belated Mother's Day to all of you.  I hope you all hugged a mother at some point, or said a little prayer for mothers in general, or gave props to Mother Earth, or something.  And thanks, sweet girl, for making this snot/barf/poop-filled ride so darn much fun.

Lately...

We've been pretty busy over here at the Hosack house.  Not exciting-busy, really, just busy-busy.  Really, this post might also demonstrate that we are the most boring people on the planet, so be jealous.

Turns out babies AND houses are spency...

 

So we've been getting our kicks by playing "pin the Cheerio on the baby"

Just kidding... learning to eat is tough work!

And then we baked some awesome cookies to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. 

As my mother would say, "Ole!"

Then, because we ate so many cookies, we had to dance off the calories.

 

We also scored some free food (and awesome company) with a visit to 

Great Grandma and Papa Wayne's.  We made ourselves comfortable, and had a few laughs.

I'm also reading this book, and it's kind of awesome and is making me more mindful of the abundant blessings smack dab in the middle of our (never) boring life.