9 months

it's been nine months since daxton was born.

it's been nine months since this sweet boy found his way into our lives.

it's been nine months since our hearts grew exponentially with a love we never knew.

dax has turned into a wiggle worm. he's into everything and there is no stopping him! it's become very difficult to change his diaper on the changing table, and as of this week we've moved to the floor to keep him from pulling all of the tissues out of the box, pulling the lamp down on his head, getting into all of the diaper creams and hair butter, and rolling over and attempting to completely dive off of the table. yesterday when i was cooking dinner i heard the clacking sound of one of the cabinet door locks and when i went around the island i saw dax in his walker with the lock in his hand getting ready to shove it in his mouth. we instantly had to lock all of the cabinet locks, instead of leaving them hanging like they've been for the past year.

we've got two bottom teeth! his little chompers are totally adorable. he uses his teeth to crunch his yogis, cereals, and rice crackers. its the cutest thing to hear a little crunch n' munch sound coming from his baby cheeks. so far he's working hard to pick up tiny snacks off of his high chair tray, but things mostly get stuck to his palm, and when he tries to put them into his mouth they fall into his bib. tonight he was able to get two pieces of cereal into his mouth on his own and we clapped and cheered for his success! the doctor wants us to just keep trying solid foods, so we're going back to trying some mashed banana, avocado, green beans, and mango. he loves them in the baby food - but so far we have not been able to get him to eat plain mashed up regular food without making an awful terrible face which results in spitting it out.

dax has some favorite new toys. daddy's old droid, an old wireless phone, and an old remote control are among the electronics he loves. he favors anything with buttons and a hard black case. it's funny to see a baby with a smart phone, but he'll play with it for an hour by pressing on the apps, scrolling the screen, and chewing on the otter box case. he also loves to see himself in videos and pictures. he adores my phone just to see his own sweet smiling face. he looks at me, looks at the phone, and just smiles and smiles when he watches his own iphone videos.

he's got new tricks up his sleeves. he loves to click his tongue. it's adorably funny to hear (except when he has a mouth full of food because then you have said food all over your shirt)! he loves to run his fingers across the measurement lines on his bottle. its just like he is strumming a guitar (or a wash board). everything goes in his mouth now! he loves to steal the wipes from his diaper area during a change and put them straight in his mouth. if you take that one away he'll grab the package and grab another one! he loves making funny faces and bouncing his head from shoulder to shoulder. he knows he's silly and he cracks himself up. when he's really being a goof ball he'll stick out his tongue. he also loves grabbing his feet. his latest trick is to lean forward (while standing (holding your hands)) and bend down to attempt to grab his feet. sometimes he ends up getting into a sitting position just so he can get a better grasp.

dax is doing an awesome job sitting up these days. he's worked very hard to work to pulling himself up from the floor using his little toy lion as a brace to get him into a sitting pose. he's so happy and smiles a giant toothy smile when he gets into the sitting position and looks around. we've been using the boppy (finally a good use for that thing!) to help prop him up and it's helped with the tumbling crashes too. now when he sits unsupported he's a lot better about using his arms to catch himself. he's still into kicking his feet - he loves to hear the kicking sound on the hardwood floor or my office chair mat. while he's not crawling, he has been pushing up a lot farther when he's on his tummy and when you put him on the floor on his tummy he automatically goes down in an all fours kind of position. of course, that is where it ends and he slowly slides down and gets around by rolling around, but it's still cute.

every other "word" out of his mouth is "dadadadadadadadadada". he loves to scream dada all the time! he calls the doggies "d" or "dg" and still loves to roar like a dinosaur. he is especially talkative when he's in his walker or his jumperoo. he's very content to scoot about or jump up and down and shout out to the dada's everywhere about how much fun he's having. he also loves to make a "yeargee", "hayeeee", and "oooog" sound.  he also loves to let out shrill squeeling sounds, especially when you're some place quiet!  put them all together and you can just imagine what it sounds like in here!

it's so fascinating to watch little fella grow and change. it's amazing how fast he's picking up on things and just what a little sponge he is! we cannot wait to see what this next month holds. we can already tell that month 9 is going to be an exciting one!

it's been nine months of 1719 diaper changes.

it's been nine months of 1623 bottles for a total of 59.5 gallons.

it's been nine months of cuddling, rocking, and loving on our boy.

it's been nine months of the purest joy you'd ever know.