Nine Months and Happy as Ever

Our little boy is growing up... sniff, sniff. He is quite the explorer around the house. He loves to play chase and peekaboo, and still squeals with delight at the smallest provocation. We still like to call him our dinosaur/pterodactyl baby because his "I'm happy or excited" squeal is still very high-pitched like a sound effect from Jurassic Park. He is still working on getting his teeth to pop through, but no toothy smiles yet. He's learning to have a stronger opinion about which foods he does and doesn't like. We laugh at the faces he makes when we try to give him something he doesn't want (i.e. turkey and rice dinner pureed baby food). He is cruising around on anything he can reach while standing, and likes to travel from room to room to find new things, like the dryer (see above). I put him inside because he was having a hard time crawling into it. :)

He had his nine month checkup after we got back from California for Thanksgiving. He is still very light for his age, but we're working on getting some more meat on his little bones. He weighed 16 lbs 10.5 ounces and was 28 1/4 inches long. We ordered him a new carseat that converts to front-facing when he's old/big enough since he'll be too long for his current carseat soon. We are so grateful to be the parents of this sweet, happy boy! Everywhere we take him, we always hear "He's such a good baby!", "We have harldy ever heard him cry!", and "I can't believe how happy he is all the time!". It's true. Mikey is a happy, sweet, content baby. He hasn't gotten to be afraid of strangers or cling to his mommy yet, so we think he might skip that stage. He is a constant source of joy and smiles around our house and everywhere else he goes. I can't believe how fast time is going. We're excited to continue to watch him grow and develop. We are looking forward to a relaxed Christmas at home in Colorado (no planes, cars, or trains for us for a while!) and taking lots of pictures and videos of Mikey's first Christmas.

Here are a few pics from our California trip. This is our group waiting to welcome Loren home from his mission in Minnesota. (Mya's hiding under the nursing cover and my dad is taking the picture.) I didn't get many pictures that trip, although I do have some videos. It was so fun to see Loren again and kind of weird to realize how much he has grown/matured since I saw him last.

Mikey also got to see the beautiful redwoods in northern CA while on a road trip with me, Kevin and my mom. It was sprinkling rain when I took this, so Kevin jumped out of the car with Mikey and we stayed in the car and took the photo through the open window. Little Mikey, big tree.