9 months

Ian is 9 months old! He is our toothless wonder. Ian is still a very smiley, content baby. However, he is getting more of an opinion on certain things and he does throw little tantrums occasionally. He'll scream and bang his hands down on whatever is available. If I'm trying to feed him something that he has decided he doesn't like, he'll hit the spoon away from his mouth. Fun times! But the small protests are still outnumbered by the happy times. He still wakes up very happy, whether it's in the morning or during the day. He sleeps from 8 pm - 6:30 am most days. Every once in awhile he'll wake up earlier or sleep a little later... Ian's pretty consistent about his eating schedule and nap schedule. It's nice when babies become somewhat predictable!

Ian is 19 pounds 6 ounces and 29 inches tall. He had a good doctor's visit. The only comment she has was that he seemed a little lazy about standing up, so we're supposed to work with him on that. But since he just started army crawling, I'm not too worried... They drew Ian's blood today, just like an adult (which surprised me) and he didn't even flinch. He was quite curious about what was going on. He would have really liked to have been able to play with the tubing or the vial... I thought it was quite interesting how chill has was about getting his blood drawn. The girls both plugged their ears while he was getting his flu shot, but there was no need. He complained a little, but not enough to warrant plugging ones' ears. 

Our little guy is getting more adventurous when it comes to food. He's mastered Cheerios and baby puffs. We introduced him to rice the other day and he enjoyed shoving that in his mouth. He also really likes apple straws (probably the cinnamon and sugar help seal the deal). He still loves his baby cereal every morning and loves whenever water is given to him. He's mastered the sippy cup.

I posted a video last week of Ian army crawling. He's definitely getting faster and going further. He's very attracted to our fireplace (neither of our girls ever paid much attention to it). He also loves to try and pull the cabinets open on our TV armoire. Ian still adores his sisters. If he hears their voices but can't see them because they are in another room, he searches around for them like a madman! He still loves to chatter and growl. We certainly enjoy our Ian and are so grateful that he is doing so well.  

First Lost Tooth

Rachel lost her first tooth tonight! It's actually been extremely loose for about a week now, but she just hasn't been brave enough to get it done. :) Andy didn't get home from work until about 8:15 tonight. Everyone was in bed, although the girls weren't asleep yet. Well, Andy decided that the tooth was coming out tonight. So, he tied some floss around it and let Rachel give it a pull. She didn't give it much of a pull, got upset, and said she didn't want to pull her tooth out. So, Andy told her okay and went to untie the floss. Well, what do you know? While trying to untie the floss the tooth just popped out! It honestly didn't take much and Rachel didn't even flinch or notice. Andy had to tell her it was out. Fun times! Since Rachel was so brave her daddy gave her a dollar on the spot. Her tooth is now under her pillow patiently waiting for the tooth fairy to come visit. She has several other teeth that are loose. So, I think the tooth fairy is going to be at our house a few more times in the next couple of months...

He's on the move...

Just a bit shy of 9 months and Ian has figured out how to army crawl. I think it's fitting that neither of our girls army crawled, but our boy does. He's still quite slow and needs lots of practice to get faster, but he's doing it. And I don't mind at all that he's taking his time taking off... I've heard from many that once boys figure out how to move they never slow down. So, Ian can take his time!

Fun Run

Rachel participated in a Fun Run at school today. Basically just another way to raise money for the school... Last year Rachel didn't really care about the fundraisers, but this year she does. Fun times! So, she was supposed to get pledges. Individuals were supposed to pledge a dollar amount per lap she would run/walk. So, we pledged $1 per lap. Rachel ended up completing 33 laps in the time allowed, so we donated $33 to the school. Rachel was actually quite disappointed she didn't complete 35 laps - the "lap cap". But she came home this afternoon and did 2 more laps at home and I marked them off on her shirt.

Parents were encouraged to go cheer their children on. So, Ian, Audrey, and I headed to the school around 8:30 am. And boy were we glad they were done by 9:20. It was already getting hot and there isn't much shade to be had at her school! Anyhow, I grabbed a few pictures.

Ready to go:

Running with her friend(Rachel probably would have completed 35 laps if she hadn't been so concerned about staying and talking with her friend.):

Running on her own:

I

All done and red in the face:

33 laps:

Happy October!

The girls were just a little bit excited that last night it was going to get "cool" enough for them to be able to wear their Halloween PJs. Rachel has worn the same Halloween PJs for 3 years. They are getting a bit small. I'll have to watch out for when they are clearing them out this season... Audrey's wearing a set that Rachel wore when she was 3 and Ian's wearing a set that Audrey wore when she was 10 months old. It was fun to put Ian in something that Audrey once wore... :)

Sidewalk Art Show

After Andy finished the yard work last Saturday, the girls and him got busy with the sidewalk chalk. Rachel is into being an "artist" right now. She still wants to be a dentist when she grows up, but currently she's really into painting, coloring, and chalking... Rachel came in very excited and asked me to come out and see their drawings. So, I came out, took the tour, and took some pictures. Rachel had even made a sign to acknowledge the artists responsible for our driveway. She was trying to get cars to stop and look at their artwork. Rachel was even shouting, "Artwork, artwork, come see our artwork!" Unfortunately no one did stop, but they still had fun.

Here are a few of their masterpieces:

 

 Wazoswki from Monsters, Inc.:

 

 The proud artists and their sign:

Andy's allergies were really bothering him so he headed inside and the girls asked me to come outside with them. They had then set up the step stool to hold the sign. I didn't last long outside either due to the mosquitoes, so the girls resorted to propping the sign up in one of the spaces on the driveway and left the sign there all day...

Playing Ball

Last night while I was doing the dishes the girls were doing a fabulous job of keeping Ian entertained. At first he was laughing like crazy, but once I pulled out the camera he had calmed down and was just having fun. I took a few videos and decided to post them all...

 Take 1 (the girls' favorite):

 

Take 2 (I love how Ian is tapping the ball at the beginning. He does this quite often when Andy or I pick him up. He just gently taps the backside of your arm.):

Take 3 (He was a bit distracted by Audrey at this point, but at the beginning you can barely hear him growl and I love his random growls.):

He's Outnumbered...

Ian is outnumbered, but he doesn't seem to mind his sisters or all the attention they give him. Here are a few examples of him enjoying girly things over the past couple of months...

Princess wand becomes chew toy:

 

Sporting heart sunglasses:

 

He was pretty proud of wearing this pink headband:

Playing barbies:

His crib was taken over by dolls one afternoon:

I laugh at this picture because neither of my girls had enough hair to keep this type of bow in their hair at 7 months, but Ian does:

Enjoying playing dress-up:

 

Ariel is one of his favorite bath toys:

Let's go fly a kite!

I bought kites for the girls quite a few months ago - back in March I believe. But we hadn't had a chance to take them for a spin. On Labor Day weekend we went to Oyster Creek Park with some friends and took the girls kites along. It was a little breezy... Audrey soon lost interest, but Rachel was in love. And she had to work so hard to keep the kite flying. She ran and ran and ran so hard to keep the kite up. It wasn't quite windy enough... Next time we go to the beach, we definitely have to take our kites. It seems to always be windy there and I think it would be a bit easier for her. Here are some pictures of Rachel flying her kite:

You can see in the above picture how hard she was working. She was so hot and sweaty and red in the face, but she was LOVING it!

Summer Fun

Since summer has officially come to a close, I thought I'd share a few forgotten moments. I was worried about keeping Rachel entertained this summer. She got so used to school that I was worried she was going to be bored. But when you have 2 younger siblings, that just doesn't happen. We spent quite a bit of time at the pool. Not as much as we normally do, due to having a baby this year. I've never had to drag a baby to the pool. So many people would just suggest going when he was ready to nap, but I felt horrible having him sleep and sweat... So, we went in between naps. The girls LOVE the pool. Audrey perfected her underwater front and back flips this summer. Rachel loves swimming and was into diving for objects this year. I guess we were just too busy at the pool to take any pictures, because I seriously don't have any pictures. (Other than the ones I took the first time we went, which can be seen here.) I did get one photo of Ian that a friend took for me:

It was obviously time to head home for Ian's nap. He absolutely loves the lazy river and this particular time he fell asleep going around and around the lazy river. We enjoyed meeting friends and the Mackay's at the pool. Every once in awhile we would head out without planning on meeting anyone. Rachel would be complaining and then we would get to the pool and run into someone. We enjoyed the new pool that opened up this year and we also frequented an old favorite, the Magnolia Plantation pool.

When we weren't trying to stay cool at the pool, we had plenty of fun at home. Ian chewed on everything, including books:

 The girls got manicures/pedicures done by Mommy:

 

 We played dress-up A LOT:

During the month of July we finally got rid of all the wallpaper in the house... Then the walls were mudded, sanded, textured, and painted. Which led to a lot of dust, but I didn't bother dusting until it was all done. So, I chuckled one night as I climbed into bed and saw this on my nightstand:

We enjoyed snuggle time:

We had impromptu birthday parties... This particular one was for Elmo:

The girls discovered and fell in love with towel wraps:

Many concerts were put on:

We had fun playing at friends' houses:

We also enjoyed having friends over, playing at the indoor playscape, going on trips, and having family come visit us. Overall it was a great summer and went by too quickly!