Nine months

Neil is now nine months old. I'm a little late writing and taking pictures (pictures are 1 day late) because I was out of town on a business trip the day that Neil turned nine months.

Neil is about to crawl. (As this posts a few days late he is crawling now.) We keep watching and thinking he's about to do it but he doesn't lunge forward. It's going to happen any day now. In the meantime he has figured out if he wants something how to get to it. It's a weird combination of rolling and I don't know what to call it. I think we might be able to claim he has crawled for the first time but he's still figuring it out. He took one or two "steps" towards me when I picked him up at daycare after my trip.

Neil is now clapping a lot and he definitely recognizes some songs we sing. I think part of the reason he likes to clap is the song "Bingo" which I've been singing to him for months. As soon as I start to sing, "There was a..." (There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name O) he gets excited and starts clapping. He hasn't gotten to the point that he claps in time (yeah I know, too young haha). But every verse he gets excited while I sing the beginning and then watches us clap. He claps randomly on his own as well while I'm singing.

I don't know what to call it but he also will make a noise and move his hand in front of his mouth to hear the fluctuation of the sound. Dave worked hard on that- at first it was just that Dave would put his finger up to Neil's mouth and when Neil finally got it, he will start just going ahhh and then Dave moves his finger up and down so the noise vibrates. I hope I'm explaining this well. Neil figured out he can do it himself with his hand. That is really cute.

We're trying to up the finger foods and Neil definitely likes to eat. I think that we're getting to the point maybe that he will up solids and possibly have less milk. I don't seem to be getting extra anymore so we are no longer building our freezer stash. And a couple of times I've had to dip into the freezer stash but not for a whole lot yet (1-2 ounces each time). We can't eat things anymore without Neil opening his mouth and acting like he wants what we're having.

We took Neil to his first hockey game this season and what a difference a few months makes. He actually watched the hockey game for parts of it, and his head was following the movement on the ice. He also likes to look at everyone around us and smile at them. The one bad thing is because he is much more aware and paying attention, he won't go to sleep. Last season I could put him in the ring sling and let him sleep at the game but now he refuses to even if he's tired. So I guess we will be limiting him to day games where it doesn't matter as much.

Neil really likes to stick out his tongue. He does it all the time.

Still no teeth! He did get fussy at daycare and they thought he was definitely getting teeth but none yet. I'm thankful when it comes to the nursing aspect for that though. ;)

We do think that Neil is saying mom. I was out of town for business and Dave said he definitely missed me. I asked how Dave knew and he said that Neil was making the "m" sound a whole lot.

We're still working on sign language. Neil doesn't seem to want to use it. I can also tell he's getting frustrated that we don't understand what he wants though so I'm hoping he'll catch on. He seems to throw his hands outstretched to the side when he wants something. That must be his universal attention getter sign.

Speaking of frustrated, I think we're starting with temper tantrums. If Neil gets really frustrated, he now throws his head back and cries. There isn't anything I can do, especially if I don't know what he wants. I'm not sure how to handle it. Sometimes I try to talk to him in what is hopefully a low, soothing voice. So far it doesn't seem to have an effect. I have tried holding/hugging him but since he's throwing himself back he's pushing away. I've kind of resorted to just setting him down to let him cry hoping that he will realize if he calms down we can work on what he needs. I'm kind of watching though to try to decide the best way to handle this.

I'm still struggling with work. It's in my nature to be a stay at home mom. I have always loved kids. If I could have been a teacher I probably would have gravitated towards that but I don't have a lot of patience and I'm terrible at explaining/teaching things so I knew that wasn't the right profession. I really miss Neil during the day and things like business travel are hard (not to mention having to pump in the bathroom at an airport. Talk about interesting there.) But I also know it's necessary and I'm still working on sucking it up. Some people say it feels like a break, I guess because you get the adult interaction. But when I was on maternity leave I did things like going to mom groups. I know being a stay at home mom is hard and I'm not knocking it. Even though I'm sure I would also miss the adult interaction, work doesn't feel like a break to me. It just adds onto the list of things I need to do and takes time away from being with Neil.

Exercise wise I am so happy with the Hershey Half Marathon relay. It made me feel like if I put my mind to it, I can run another half marathon and if I don't injure myself training (cough, by changing shoes and not ramping down, silly me and completely avoidable) I can run a half marathon I would be happy with. That's a goal of mine although it's not an immediate goal. For now I'm going to do what I can and sign up for smaller races 5K-10K range just to keep motivated with the ultimate goal of running a half again at some point.

Now that Neil is nine months, we're past the point of how long I was pregnant! I'm back in my old clothes for the most part. My body still does seem to be shaped a bit differently but my weight is down. I have a feeling I won't truly regulate until I'm done nursing but I'm so close. My weight this past month actually did drop below pre-pregnancy weight. I will probably stop putting updates on here about me and just keep it about Neil.