Nine Months in the Womb and Nine Months Out

Our baby boy is officially nine months old today. I was reflecting on the fact that he's been here exactly the length of the time that we waited for him to get here. Tyson remarked that the pregnancy seemed alot longer than this past nine months. I agreed! I've been working on so many other things lately that the blog has gotten little to no attention, so I thought in honor of today being a special milestone I'd just start writing all the things I could think of that we are enjoying about Samuel right now.

Let's see...He's been officially crawling since June 22. It went from a side crawl type maneuver to a full on crawl pretty quickly. It seems like simultaneously he started pulling up on everything in sight, and now he's even cruising along the furniture. One thing that especially gets me is the way he gets himself down when he's been standing up at a piece of furniture or toy. He very slowly and methodically squats himself all the way to the ground and then plops at the very end. It's the cutest thing ever.

He's taken a few falls already and scared this momma. A couple of days after this all began he pulled up on the front of my dresser one morning using the drawer pulls to stabilize himself. I was just a couple of feet away getting dressed when he lost his balance and ended up with a big goose egg on his forehead. I think he cried for a total of 30 seconds before wanting down to keep exploring. I was more upset than he was and forget putting ice on it. His long wild hair came in handy that day because it covered the battle wound on his forehead right up.

Samuel still loves books. He has a couple of baskets full in his room that he can get to and he loves to dump them all out and go through them one by one. I've noticed that when I read to him he grows fond of a book over time. It's the ones we repeat over and over that he really loves. Brown Bear, Brown Bear is still a favorite. Here's another really sweet part of our day. We read three books everynight before I put him to bed and I always end with his book, Sleepy Baby. It's about four pages long. The baby takes a bath, puts on pajamas, reads a book, and goes night night. Keep in mind, by the time we get to this point in our routine Samuel is usually really sleepy and ready to nurse before he falls asleep. When the book says, "It's time to say goodnight sleepy baby" he turns and nuzzles his little head up next to me like he's ready to go to sleep and he knows we're finished reading.

It's priceless. I know I've mentioned me and Samuel alot, but Tyson very much has his own special moments with him too. In fact, he puts him to bed mostly on the weekends and sometimes for his naps and has a totally different style than me. However, Samuel knows the difference and is comfortable with it. He loves his Daddy so much. "Da, Da" is his favorite word these days, especially in the mornings when he wakes up. Daddy's usually the one to get him out of his crib and he's greets with lots of squeals and "Dada's." When he hears music he loves to bounce up and down to the beat. Loves it! I'm definitely thinking about taking him to a little music class in the Fall. Not only would he love the music but he would love the social interaction. I would consider myself an introvert. I love to be with people, but I have to recharge by having alone time. Not this kid.

At least so far he is proving to be quite the extrovert. It seems when we get out and around other people or have friends over he lights up. He smiles at everyone and at least right now he will let new people hold him. I don't think stranger anxiety has made an appearance yet.

He loves to be outside too. We have a red wagon we pull him around in when we're out there. He's content to sit in his wagon and hold onto a toy while we water the garden or work on something. His little pool is a favorite too. Most of the time it's Tyson who gets in with him. Needless to say we love this kid to infinity and beyond. We love his carefree spirit and tender heart and pray that the Lord would continue to give us all that we need to guide him and teach him and help him grow.

We love you Samuel!