9 Months and First Day of School

My sweet boy turned 9 months old yesterday. That is just unreal to me! I absolutely love this age and am loving seeing him grow and develop into a precious little person, but it is also bittersweet knowing that his first year is coming to an end soon.

Jack has changed so much in these past couple of weeks and has learned something big it seems like about every other day.

*He is crawling everywhere. It's so cute to see him see something from far away and go after it. Sometimes he makes eye contact with me and start trying to go so fast that he's lunging/hopping forward with his body.

*He just started pulling up, transferring from one thing to another, cruising, and standing for a couple of seconds on his own...all within the last two days! I just lowered the crib last week, so I'm glad I did it just in the knick of time!

*He is starting to clap and loves to be clapped at.

*He is waving now and has said a sweet, "Haah" (Hi) while he waved at the moon and fan. The first time he waved was to the Ninfa's waitress a couple of weeks ago. He was enamored with her, and every time she walked by, he'd whip his body around to look at her and smile. She waved and he waved back! She came over and said she had the baby bug, and I told her that that was his first time to wave, which made her want one even more!

*He is such a noisy, loud boy. He talks loudly (aka yells commands in baby talk), talks jibberish, loves to blow raspberries and click his tongue.

It was such a treat to spend the while day with Jack today, since he and I both have colds and stayed home from Mother's Day Out. Even though we both went in and out of not feeling good, I just ate up getting to spend a whole day of quality, alone time together. Usually he's on my hip, or we're all playing together on the floor, or he's playing with James while I'm doing stuff, but I don't get enough time with just him to play together. Even though I know he's not missing out, because he has James, I sort of miss out on him! He is so precious to me, and I just feel so blessed anytime I do get time like that with him. He is so interactive and acts like everything I do with him is the most interesting thing he's ever seen. His eyes light up and he slowly gets a big smile on his face.

*I took Jack to the doctor yesterday since he's sick, and he weighed in at 21 lbs, 10 oz. Next week, we'll go in for his well check and I'll update the stats. *Update* He is in the 62% for weight, 32% for height (28in), and 37% for head (17.75in). He said he is very pleased with his growth. He is very interactive, makes good eye contact and facial expressions, seems so sweet and observant, and is developing great!

In other news, Tuesday was our first day of Mother's Day Out! I am teaching the babies (Jack and 5 others) and so far I love it! I went back and forth, trying to decide if I needed my own mother's day out or if I'd rather teach for a year, and I feel I definitely made the right decision to teach. I love getting to hold, take care of, and get to know other sweet babies, getting to work up at my church with other teachers, and make a little extra spending money all at the same time! James has SUCH a wonderful teacher (as always up there). Mrs. Paula (Pauwa) has been around forever (taught Mary Beth) and just keeps doing it, because she loves it! She is so calm, patient, creative, and sweet. The class is a big class, so Mrs. Lacey is also going to be his teacher! She is young, sweet, and very interactive with the kids. He was a little shy at meet the teacher night, but went right in without looking back on Tuesday! He seems to be really happy in there and has a really sweet class of friends who have been together since they were babies! I feel so blessed to have him in such a good situation this year!

The boys on their first day

Last year
These pictures crack me up! I forgot that James went through a stage of smiling like this. He looks so little here, and it's so hard to believe that was a year ago!