Cody Bear - 9 Months Old

9 Months Old

 Yesterday was Cody's 9-month birthday!

This kid is one big hunk of baby-love!!!  He's got the rolls in all the right places, big brown eyes, and an easy smile.  The cherry-on-top is that he is very ticklish!!!  :)

Cody cut his first two teeth this past month (the bottom front), and they are about half-way in now. No other teeth in sight!  He took teething pretty hard, but thankfully Hylands' Teething Tablets usually (key word:  USUALLY) did the trick.  He was pretty fussy/clingy, though.  :(

Our little bear is still exclusively breastfeeding and weighing in around 23 1/2 pounds.  24 on a good day.  We're glad that summer is on its way because it was getting hard to get his jeans up over his big bottom.  ;)  He's mostly wearing 18-month clothes, which is the same size Bret was growing into last summer and is still working on growing out of.  So, we've got the bigger 18-month stuff in Bret's drawer (along with the smaller 24-month/2T stuff) and the smaller 18-month stuff in Cody's drawer.  We're looking for Bret to hit a growth spurt soon, as he's only 2-3 pounds heavier than Cody!!!

This past month brought us a huge regression in Cody's sleep patterns.  :(  I say "regression" although I know it's completely normal for his stage of development.  Still, it's been pretty tough on Mommy!!!  I'm completely exhausted and thankful that I have two wonderful sleepers in the other room, giving me reassurance that this too, indeed, shall pass!!!  I'm also thankful to have such an understanding and sympathetic husband!  <3 p="">
I guess it's no wonder that Cody is suddenly having trouble sleeping...the kid has come up with all kinds of new tricks this past month!  He went from scooting to crawling, and he is all over the place now!  In fact, he often crawls on one knee and one foot (does that make sense?) as if he's thinking about just standing up and walking.  He handles all of Serena and Bret's love very well and is very amiable about their picking him up and dragging him around.  Thankfully, he's a pretty sturdy little guy.  ;)  He also started pulling up on furniture this past month.  At first, he would get really fussy after pulling up because he couldn't figure out how to get back down.  Now, he not only knows how to get back down without help, but just in the last week he has started standing up using a sheer wall for balance.  He hasn't shown any particular interest in food, though we eat right in front of him.  He loves playing with sippy cups, though.  When he gets fussy in the car, Serena hands him her sippy cup and he is one happy guy!  He likes to say "da-da-da-da" and "buh-buh-buh" and try different intonations with those syllables.  If he's fussy, he'll say, "ma-ma-ma-ma" and crawl over to me and pull on my pant leg or skirt.  It's pretty pathetic!  ;)  He has discovered that the dog's water dish is now located behind the pet-gate, so multiple times a day he goes to the gate and tries to pull it open.  And if someone forgot to latch the gate...wellll...the results are pretty wet!  ;)  Usually the gate is closed, though, and Cody growls and complains at us for shutting out his fun!  Another source of frustration is the refrigerator magnets.  I've trained Serena and Bret to keep the magnets (which are not really baby-friendly) up out of Cody's reach.  Now that Cody can stand up at the refrigerator, he tries and tries to reach those magnets, but to no avail.  We do have a couple down lower that are okay for him to play with, but of course he does not want those magnets!!!  ;)  Most of the house is baby-proofed, but now and then, Cody finds something within reach that he may not play with.  When I say, "No sir, Cody" he sits up and turns to look at me with BIG round eyes full of question marks and just the faintest little smile as if he would start laughing if he got the slightest hint from me that I'm only teasing him!