9 months

April 12-

9 months....that is how long I carried this little guy in my tummy (well, a few weeks shy of 9 months), and now that's how long we've held him in our arms and kissed his sweet cheeks.  He gets more fun each day!  I just love every minute I spend with him and he always makes you smile. He definitely is a little goof ball.
In just 4 weeks he has figured out so many new things.  Kingston now crawls on his hands and knees instead of his army crawl.  Although, when he gets tired he does drop his belly to the ground. And now we have to watch him all the time. He crawls under chairs and tables and he has some magical attraction to the outlets.  He finds outlets where I didn't even know we had them!  I also got the gate put up upstairs so I don't have to worry about him crawling/falling down the stairs. However, I was amazed that he could go up the stairs.  It started when he was in the play room and I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden he was in the kitchen.  Those two steps didn't even phase him.  So we tried him out on the main stairs and he made it up them.  He does need a little spotting from the back, but he is really good and has strong arms (he must get those from daddy!)

He is a great little eater, and loves his puffs.  Kingston ate 1/4 of a banana all by himself.  It was a messy adventure, but he is figuring it all out.  His pincher grasp is really good too and he can pick all sorts of little things up with his fingers.  Daddy was in charge of dinner and he forgot the bid....I'm not sure if any food actually made it into his mouth!

Kingston is getting to know the other "boys" in the family.  He crawls through the kitchen to see them, but the gate keeps them separated.  He is always looking for a chance to touch them.  Barney is very good with him!  They are especially loving Kingston in his highchair because he drops food to them!

With the nice weather we are getting to use our stroller a lot.  Kingston talks and looks around. Sometimes I catch him just looking over the side of the stroller watching the dogs.  He even got a new pair of sunglasses.  He pulls them off, but he is getting better at leaving them on if you distract him with puffs.  And he can pick up his sippy cup and drink it by himself.

Daddy loves playing with Kingston.  We have to fight over who gets him!  But right now Kingston is reaching out for mama all the time, so I try to let them have their time.  And he is soo much fun.  Giggles, smiles, and goofiness!  And the weekend naps in daddy's arms are pretty sweet.

Ma ma gets bath time!  And it is the highlight of my day.  He loves it, and recognizes the sound of the water and comes crawling for the bathtub when he hears it.  He likes to splash and now is intrigued with the cup and uses it to try and drink the bath water.  When he is done he reaches his arms up so that I can pick him up.

I'm so amazed watching him learn new things.  One of our new tricks is standing.  It started  with his hands down and his bottom in the air...

From here, he pulled himself up onto his knees and then one day, he pulled himself all the way up.  I don't know who was more excited, him or me!  Now, he can pull himself up with no problem.  And it gives him lots of fun new toys to play with.  His favorite right now is a little table that makes all sorts of noises.  He loves to press the buttons, turn the pages, and open and close the doors.  And when he is all done standing he just lets go.  He can balance for a second and then falls on his bottom.  He loves this and it always gets a smile and a giggle!

This is one of his favorite poses...he does it all the time.  And he is quite a ham for the camera!

Here, he is going from crawling to sitting. I catch him sitting up in his crib in the mornings playing with his blanket or binkie. (we had to lower his crib now that he can pull himself up)

Kingston is now a clapper!  One day he just figured it out.  He doesn't do it all the time, but for this video it looks like he does it on cue.

Another fun thing is "high fives".  Kingston puts his hand up and once you high five it, he smiles and laughs.

Some other highlights of the month:

*Kingston can successfully sleep through the night...most nights.  For a while he was still getting up for a 4:30 feeding, but after reading some books (I just read the highlights of the Ferber method), he decided to sleep through that feeding.  I didn't even have a chance to use what I learned in the book!  It didn't hurt that we put 5 additional binkines in his crib so that he could find them himself in the middle of the night.

*He looks for things that he drops.  Before he would just drop them, but now he realizes where they went.  He also knows if you tries to hide something from him (it's hard to get away with things now!)

*Kingston had his first sleep over at grandma and grandpas house.  He did good and Jonathan and I enjoyed our night. We had big plans for dinner and a movie, but in the end we just did chores around the house.  We missed him, but I think he had a lot of fun!

*Kingston added "ma-ma" to his vocabulary.  I love it!!

*After a snotty nose and a sleepless night, Kingston has another tooth!  He now has his upper right tooth coming in and the left one looks like it's ready to break through any day now.

*I always hate having to drop him off at daycare, but he hardly looks back at me now! 

*He is such a good boy and is content to just cruise around the kitchen while I am getting dinner ready.  He especially loves his car keys!