Zachary Update - Month 9

This handsome little man is now 9 months old. This has definitely been a month full of changes.

Where to begin? Zach doesn’t have his next doctor’s appointment for a few weeks yet, so I don’t have his up-to-date stats, but I can say that this little guy is getting big. Very, very big. He’s been in size 12 month clothes for a few weeks now, and mommy’s muscles are getting incredibly strong carrying around my big little man.

Zach is doing a great job of sitting up on his own, which makes it so much fun for him to play with his toys and with Abby.

Look at me! Yup, just sitting here, all by myself. :-)

While he’s not crawling yet, Zach has mastered the “schootch” (backwards and forwards) and seems to enjoy mushing himself under furniture. He’ll lay on his belly, twirl around like a lazy Susan, and roll or shimmy in the direction he wants to go. He’s getting very good and very fast, so we need to keep a close eye on him. And just recently, he’s started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, so I think we might have a crawler soon!

Don't mind me. I just like mushing myself under the couch at Grandma's house...

We finally have some change on the teeth front! Little “Zachy Two-Teeth” is now “Zachy Six-Teeth”! That’s right: in the span of less than a week, Zach cut four teeth on his top gums. I could tell that something was up because he had periods of fussiness, but thankfully it was not too bad overall, especially considering that he more than doubled his teeth in less than a week!

I could watch him do this all day...

I would say, at the risk of jinxing it, that we are finally in some sort of schedule in terms of eating and sleeping. While I’m not too rigid about it, I do try to work in our errands and walks around Zach’s nap schedule. (Sometimes we do have activities during nap times, and on those days, we just do the best we can. I’d hate for Abby to miss out on something fun like playgroup because Zach needs to take a nap.) Most days, Zach wakes up between 7:00 and 7:15 am and gets his first bottle. He has his breakfast (solid food and bottle) around 9:45 am and then goes down for a nap around 10:30 am. Depending on how long it takes him to fall asleep, he’ll wake up between 11:30 am and 12 noon. He has lunch (solid food and bottle) and then we usually go for a walk or run our errands. Zach gets another bottle before his afternoon nap, around 3:30 or so, and then usually sleeps until between 5:00 or 5:30 pm. After Abby and I finish dinner, Zach gets his dinner (solid food and bottle) around 6:00 pm, and then he gets a few more bottles right before bedtime, which is usually around 8:30 pm. This is what most of our days look like, and the days that are like this are usually Zach’s better days. A well-rested Zach is a happy Zach!

Zachary still thinks that his big sister is the best thing since sliced bread. He loves to watch her and play with her. I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago that, one night after baths, Abby was running back and forth in the hallway shouting “ELEPHANT!” at the top of her lungs. Zach thought this was the FUNNIEST. THING. EVER. The poor kid almost had tears running down his face he was laughing so hard. I love watching moments like this and I truly hope that they will continue to laugh with and love each other as much as they do now.

I know I'm cute, even under my changing table.

So there we are: another month of growing, developing, laughing, smiling, and just being a blessing to us. Zachary Thomas, we love you so much, sweet boy!