Walkin' and Talkin'

Jaden is walking pretty much non-stop now, only crawling to the closest thing that he can pull up on to resume walking.  He is also talking a LOT more now, trying to repeat our words and pointing at things and asking questions in his own way.  

We bought Jaden a big Mickey Mouse mylar balloon last week and we referred to the balloon a few times as "Mickey."  A few days later when Jaden was busy playing I asked him where Mickey was, and he stopped playing, looked up, spotted Mickey and pointed to it, saying "Tete."  He's also done that with trees!  It's fun to see how much he's absorbing.  He's certainly paying attention much more than we think and he lets on. :)

 

Walking Videos

Here are the long-awaited videos of Jaden walking and other funny antics!  Enjoy!

Three Steps Forward...

Jaden has finally taken three steps by himself!  We were playing in his play area and he was pushing his little cart when I told him to come to me.  He let one hand go, positioned himself towards me, and let the other hand go and took three steps to me, laughing the whole way.   He fell into my lap and gave me a big hug afterwards.  He then did it again a couple more times!

I also observed him playing with toys while standing, balancing on both feet.  I don't think he realized he was doing it, but it was pretty cute to watch.  

Today after work, I met up with Mimi and the kids at her community pool for a swim.  Jaden was a little timid at first but enjoyed it for the most part.  He did love slapping the water...

 

New Backpack from Meemaw!

Jaden, modeling his new backpack from Meemaw!  Thanks, Meemaw!  He loves it!   I'm sure he'll be putting it to good use, storing his toys and girl's phone numbers in it once he learns to walk. :)

Kisses on Command

Jaden can now kiss on command.  Anytime he hears the word "kiss," he leans in and plants a good one smack on the lips.  He was playing with his toys while I was lying nearby and I told him to "come here and give me a kiss," and he stopped playing, crawled over to me and gave me a big kiss.  It was so CUTE!

He can also wave and say "bu-bye" now.  I love it.  He's also been pretty adventurous and will let go of whatever he's holding and he'll stand there, unassisted, and clap for a few seconds.  If he attempts it but is wobbly, he'll stop clapping, secure his footing and try again.  If he knows he doesn't have the balance at the time, he'll lean on something so he can clap.  

Jaden's been sleeping through the night for over 10 days now, so we now know it's not a fluke.  It's amazing how well the Ferber method works and I recommend it to all of my friends who have babies.  The Ferber Method requires you to allow your child to "cry it out" for certain intervals until they learn to fall asleep on their own without being rocked or fed or with a parent present. It's really hard to do but persistence pays off and you'll be blessed with good sleeping habits for the whole family.   It took Jaden four days to learn and since then, he's watched me walk out of the room without a whine or cry and has fallen asleep shortly after that.  He wakes up at 6 or 7 in the morning and I can actually say this is the first time since being pregnant that I've had a solid night's sleep.  I'm actually not used to this much sleep so my body needs to adjust - I've been pretty groggy lately. 

Updates

We're currently in the process of re-training Jaden to sleep through the night unassisted.  He's gotten used to sleeping in our bed with us and it's about time that he learn to sleep - and stay - in the crib.  It's been challenging but it's getting better.  

Jaden had his 9 month wellness checkup last week - here are his current stats:

Height - 29.25 in. (78th percentile)

Weight - 21.13 lbs. (66th percentile)

Head Circumference - 47 cm. (88th percentile)

He was down a couple of lbs. I can assume due to teething.  He now has a total of 7 teeth!

He has both of his front top teeth, three on the bottom and I just discovered two more coming through right next to his front tops.  He was very cranky and clingy all weekend and I couldn't figure out why until I happened to stumble upon those two.  7 teeth at 9 months...quite exciting!

Jaden's speech has changed recently as far as the intonations and expanded consonants.  We also feel like he can understand us more.  This morning, he crawled on me in bed, looking for a bottle on my nightstand.  When I asked him if he wanted me to make him a bottle, he looked at me and said, "baba?"  And when I told him that Daddy was coming home, he peered over to the garage door to see if he was there.  He then cruised over to the door and sat there against it, looking up, waiting for his daddy to come through the door.  It was very sweet!  

As I'm sure you all have already seen, Jaden has been trying to "break out" of his playpen we setup in our formal living room only days ago.  This is quite disturbing to us.  He's only 9 months old for crying out loud!  We really don't think he has the leg strength yet to actually accomplish this but it is a strong reminder that we have to install the gates at the top of the stairs for when the day comes that he decides to bust out of his crib.  

Jaden is almost exclusively on sippy cups now.  Luckily, the sippy cup geniuses made "no-spill nozzles" so he can zip around the house in his walker with his sippy cup in hand, waving in the air and not one drop of milk ends up on the floor.  He's also content sitting in his little rocking chair in front of the TV watching Sesame Street, drinking from his cup.

So, I've finally busted out the Beaba Baby Food Processor and will be using it this week to make my own baby food.  I've already bought organic fruits and am just waiting for them to ripen.  My first batches will include peaches, bananas and sweet potatoes.  I'm very excited!  I've been waiting to use this wonderful gift from Meemaw and am finally unpacked and settled in the new house where I can make this a bi-weekly event.  I plan on hitting up the farmer's market this weekend for more organic produce and am hoping to score some mangos.