Nine months with Javier Cash.

Javi’s 9 months old! In the past month we celebrated Father’s Day, and went to the aquarium. He joined me at work one day and he got sent home sick from school for the first time. He also got his very first “accident report” from school when he was standing holding onto a highchair, fell and bumped his head! He’s loving books, clapping, and banging things together to make noise. He thinks he’s so cool!

He drank water for the first time. Just a few sips and it made him laugh and laugh and laugh! He also had little wafers and puffs for the first time. He’s totally a fan of these things but they make me so nervous! I’m teaching myself the differences between choking and gagging and man, it’s tricky. He’s been having nightmares and wakes up so scared and sad. It breaks my heart! Sometimes he needs just a squeeze and falls back to sleep and other times he needs lots of TLC to move forward. 

He touched grass for the first time! It was a beautiful day on Father’s Day and we laid a blanket down in the yard. He didn’t venture too far away from the blanket but he felt the grass and giggled. He wasn’t so sure about it as you can tell from the photo! He’s learned to put out his arms when he wants to be picked up. And he’s starting to get a bit anxious when we put him down or walk away from him. He’s starting to prefer to play with us rather than alone despite my attempts in making him an independent player.

He’s getting better and better at petting the cats though he still grabs them and they cry out but haven’t swatted him yet (surprisingly). He thinks “no” is the funniest thing he’s heard and he hasn’t learned that it means we want him to stop doing whatever he’s doing. He pets our faces, too. Especially when we’re snuggling him and he’s trying to allow himself to sleep. He grazes our faces with his hands and “coos”. He’s such a cutie.

He also had a visit from his uncle and aunt in Seattle and got to go out to dinner with both his uncles! He loves all the attention! He also LOVES his reflection and seeing himself makes him smile. He also smiles whenever someone else smiles at him. He’s a crawling machine and even though he can crawl on all fours he tends to army crawl since it gets him to where he wants to be quicker. He’s learned that cabinets and drawers open, too!

His 2 teeth are still going strong and he has no others yet. He seems to be losing weight at each weigh in but he eats really well and I think it’s just because he’s active, never stops moving and maybe he’s stretching out a bit. He has 4 bottles a day, between 6 and 8 ounces and then usually twice a day he has baby food and occasionally we’ll give him some puffs or some other teeny, tiny snack. 

He seemed to have a reaction to his wipes and got what the doctor called a chemical burn. He’s still not totally healed but he’s a lot better than before. He would scream out during every diaper change and I never knew that I could literally, feel someone else’s pain the way I feel his when he screams. It’s awful. 

This time also marks the beginning of summer break and I’m so excited to spend the next few months hanging out with him and watching him grow even more!