Bennett is 9 Months Old!

At 9 months, Bennett has developed more and more personality.  He is such a curious boy!  He is also very silly and loves interacting with people.  He is not very shy and will go by pretty much anyone, especially anyone with food.  He still loves reading, singing, and tickles.  He is starting to get into things, and his favorite "no no" things to crawl to are Cooper's water and food dishes.  Bennett is crawling all over, standing up from sitting down, and taking one small teetering step before resorting to crawling.  He can "walk" if holding on to his push toy.

Bennett takes two great naps a day and is still on a pretty good routine/schedule.  He's doing great with eating, except that after about 10 minutes in the high chair he's had enough and wants to get down and play again.  I'd say some of his favorite foods are still bananas and puffs, though he also loves anything we're eating or drinking.  He's still nursing, too, which is nothing short of amazing being a full time working mom.  Let me tell you - I have a new profound respect for all working and nursing moms...it is NOT easy to pump at work or get up several times a night when you have to get up early to work the next day.  I have considered quitting several times, but it's so nice to bond with him that way when I get home, plus it's cost-effective and much easier!  We do use formula every night for a "dream feed" bottle before we go to bed.  And then I nurse him around 2am.  I'm sure I'm going to get yelled at by the doctor for that when we go on Wednesday....oh well.

Bennett talks/babbles a lot, but still no real meaningful words attached to specific objects or people that we've noticed (He says "dada" a lot, not just when he's looking at Brad).  He's also in a huge screaming phase.  Mostly it's to get his way or let us know he's upset about something, but sometimes it seems like he just screams for fun.

Bennett's favorite "person" lately is Cooper.  And I think Cooper is warming up to him, too!

The thing that's been tough lately is changing clothes or diapers.  He will try to flip over and stand up, crawl away, and generally completely fight against you.  It ends with lots of tears (me - haha, just kidding), screams, and halfway-on-correct diapers.  We try singing, distractions (like keys!), and saying "No!" sternly but nothing really works that well.  Ditto for getting him in the carseat.  This stinker knows how to twist his body to get out, so as soon as we start reaching for the straps he starts twisting and screaming.  As soon as he's buckled in, he's fine and relaxed.  9 month pictures were also torture.  Getting him to sit still was impossible.  And lay down on the owl blanket???  This is the best one we got, so you can see how well that went...

Bennett is growing up so fast, and I swear he is more boy than baby lately.  With all this crawling, moving, and exploring, I can tell I have an active, exhausting, but fun little boy!