Month Nine

We are finally at the point where Hudson has been on the outside as long as he’d been in my belly. I am, once again, in denial about how quickly the time flies. While this month has been quite busy, I finally got a little break while we visited family and had grandma here for two weeks. So sad my break is over.

This month we traveled some more — back to Dallas from Pullman, WA. Hudson had a complete meltdown on the first of two flights. It wasn’t pretty, but we made it. Thank God for grandmothers and people on the plane who actually know how hard it is to appease a tiny human who cannot speak.

We also discovered that Hudson loves the swing. Oh. My. Goodness. Don’t even get me started on his love affair with that little blue bucket seat. It usually takes two people to pry him out of that thing.

In the past two-three days we’ve gone to the park to swing several times a day. It’s the same story every time — get there, get in the swing, relax and almost fall asleep, scream bloody murder when taken out of swing. Repeat. It’s kind of funny and kind of not at the same time. Here is my favorite Hudson+swing moment.

Hudson is also quite fond of the pool even when the water is freezing. He gasps for air, but still doesn’t want to get out. He’s funny like that. And please don’t think that we torture our baby and let him swim for hours in sub-zero temperatures. We don’t. It’s really not as bad as it sounds (we are in Texas, after all).

This month we got a break from teething. Hallelujah a thousands times over. We also were so blessed as to have a few nights of 12-hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep. In case you didn’t catch it, the emphasis here is on UNINTERRUPTED. I had to get up and check on him to make sure he was ok.

I’d say the biggest issue this month was/will continue to be food. Yes, we are currently fighting the food thing. Hudson LOVES yogurt and that’s an understatement. If he is going to do so much work as to sit in high chair, open mouth, and chew (heaven forbid!), there better be yogurt in there and lots of it.

Example — I give him a bite of apples. He tastes them, makes a face and turns away. We try this for a couple of minutes until I give in and smother those apples in yogurt. Once he realizes there is yogurt in there, he begs for food and I can’t shovel it in his mouth quick enough.

The thought of just how much yogurt is ok for a 9-month old to consume crosses my mind a hundred times every day. I am an enabler. Is there a support group for mothers who let their babies eat way too much yogurt for the sake of keeping meal-times semi-peaceful?

It also helps if his sheep toy is singing all about being a country boy and I am not even kidding. This sheep has been a life line at every meal (I usually make it play over and over until Hudson is done eating; this is the only tune stuck in brain these days).

This month Hudson has also perfected his crawling, pulling up, standing, and cruising abilities. We think he will be walking soon. Currently he loves to get away from us on all fours and giggles his face off when I call out his name and chase him around the house. He’s got an attitude.

There are so many more little things like chewing the heck out of his Desitin and Aveeno Baby cream tubes; getting cheerios stuck on his hiney; picking mama’s nose in public; re-formatting my Mac with every bang of his little palm; laughing uncontrollably at dogs; the love of tooth-brushing and lots more that make him into our most and bestest baby ever.

This month’s stats:

19.6 lb (25-50%)
30 inches (97%)

The doctor is sure he will be six feet tall.