DEAR JACK | 9 MONTHS

Jack turned 9 months on Christmas! As you can see I didn’t do a 8 month update :(. The last couple months have been a little rough on us. We have all been sick with the stomach flu and then we wound up in the emergency room one morning because Jack woke up with a terrible cough and trouble breathing. Turned out it was croup. And then just a couple days ago, he got the flu (um can someone tell me what the flu shot was for??). I didn’t realize how rough it would be to have a sick baby. It’s rough. And awful. And so so sad. It definitely tested me. I now know about new levels of exhaustion. One morning I seriously thought a parent somewhere at some point MUST have died from exhaustion. If not, then surely it would be me.

But back to Jack… he is moving like crazy and has gotten good at catching himself if he starts to fall from standing. Well he has gotten good at bumping his head also ;). He is walking around coffee tables and everything else he can use to stand up. He has gotten good at climbing stairs, only up though! He is still getting into everything and his favorites are the dog dishes, any drawer, bathroom cabinets, and our candy dish.

He is now in 12-18 month size clothes, size 4 diapers, and has 6 teeth. Seems like as soon as we gave him bite-size food he could pick up himself, there was no turning back. He is now eating everything and anything we put in front of him and refuses baby food. His favorite is still fruit though!

He for sure says Mama and Dada now and I’ve heard him say “buh-bye” and “ball” but only a couple times. I can tell he understands certain words like doggie, Talullah, ball, wave, hi, bye, Mama, Dada, bottle, water, and puffs :). When he hasn’t been sick, he still wakes up once or twice to have a bottle. We may have to end that though because we sure are tired!

I’m really loving this age since he is so expressive and exploratory. We love you Jack!