9 months

Graham Bear,

I never knew my heart could be so full. Everyday with you is a gift from God.  I hope you know how loved you are. You are the happiest little boy I have ever met. Your smiles melt my heart.  This month you have started to really show your personality and I love it. You are silly, loving, cautious and smart. 

This month you are on the go! You are hard to photograph because they are all blurry! You love to cruise all around the furniture, climb over any and everything. You will stand for a few seconds at a time and have even taken a few accidental steps. I am so proud you.

You had a hard month, you got your first ear infection. Then you got 4 new teeth in a 2 week period! You were a champ though. Followed by your 9 month appointment where you got a shot and had to do blood work. You recover quickly though and never let it stop you from playing hard all day long.

You loved being in Houston for your first 4th of July! Surprisingly you love the fireworks! I was afraid the loud noise would scare you, but no way, you sat with daddy and watched the whole thing!

You had a great time playing with your cousins. Levi was sure to keep everyone quiet during your naps! He was a great helper.

You learned lots of new playing skills this month. You now climb, cruise, crawl and throw yourself onto your stuffed animals. Your favorites are Courage the Lion and Giraffe the Giraffe. You favorite books are Peek a Who and Animals touch and feel.

We had lots of fun play dates with your friends. You love the pool. Mommadu's house is perfect for pool dates.

We celebrated your first Father's Day. Let me tell you something about your Dad. He could not love you more. Becoming your father has changed his whole life. He is a man you will look up to someday. He is faithful to God and to his family and we could not be more blessed to have him in our lives. I hope you grow up to be just like him.

This month Trader Joe's opened, we are all very excited and you will be too once you can eat the peppermint oreo's at Christmas time!

You had your first trip to the hospital (where mommy works). You had a swallow study done to make sure that your tummy was doing ok. Good news! It all looks great. Turns out you just like to throw up on us A LOT! But there is nothing wrong with your tummy. You did a great job and I got to practice my Child Life skills on you. You were a champ and loved your hospital jommy's.

You tried to take our Ryan more than one time. Something to do with fighting for attention. I don't believe it, but these pictures can't lie. Actually, your cousin Ryan is getting so big. You guys are going to be best friends once he can fight back!

This month you weighed in at 22lbs! You were 29 inches and were in the 76th percentile for both. Sounds just about perfect to me. You are loving to eat everything in sight. You eat almost all foods. Your favorites are Mac n' Cheese, waffles, blueberries, bananas, watermelon and peas!

You sleep 11 hours at night from 8:00-7:00. You take two naps a day, each for two hours.

You can now pick up foods with your finger and thumb, turn pages in a book, pull up on any and everything. We are working on clapping and waving bye bye. You have started to learn object peeka boo. You said "MAMA" for the first time tonight, melted my heart. You babble all the time. You are beginning to realize that you have more than one level of volume for your voice. I love to hear you lay in bed for naps and just talk to yourself.

You continue to light up my life everyday. You are changing me for the better. You are teaching me everyday about the little joys in life, to not take them for granted and to experience joy in the little details. You remind me why God's grace is enough and that he has such an amazing plan in store for our family. I love you more than you know.

-Mom