"Crazy Christmas, Pineapple, Granny Ziegler's Stuffing, Jarred Food Poops, Standing, the Bell"

Well, we had Christmas and you had a great time. You ripped a bit of paper. You played with boxes. You had some Christmas dinner. You got LOTS of toys.

Here's some things you received...
A ride on plane, the Fisher Price Learning Home, a Peek a Blocks farm and turtle, shape sorters, the Fisher Price Bouncing Zebra, stuffed toys and puppets, a top, a bead chaser, a vibrating elephant, and much more.

I made you a special stocking that has pockets on the outside and it was almost filled up to the top!

You had jarred food over the holiday and you went from pooping twice a day to about five times a day! Yuck! Back to homemade food for sure now!

You loved Grannie Ziegler's stuffing. You could've eaten it all day. You crazy kiddo!

You tried pineapple over the holiday in the form of fruit salad.

You've been pulling up to furniture non-stop. You aren't quite 'cruising' yet, but you are definitely taking some steps toward other directions.

You've been trying to copy words that we say like 'cookie', 'cat', and 'duck'.

Your favourite toy lately has been the little wedding bell from Daddy and I's wedding. You love to walk around with it or Monkey in your mouth, or should I say crawl around?

You are sure growing fast. The jarred food got you up to 19.5 lbs!

The next time I update this, it will be 2007!

"Crawling Crawling, Getting Chased, Pulling Up, Cat Food, Pineapple, Grandma, Cookie, Duck"

You are crawling everywhere and I have yet to remember to replace the tape in the video camera so I can record it. You've been crawling now for about 4.5 weeks, maybe 5. As suspected, you never commando crawled. You just went straight to proper crawl. You are crawling everywhere.

You like gettting chased when you're crawling.

You can pull up on furniture. I think I already wrote that you did it for the first time, geesh, almost 4 weeks ago! Now it's just natural instinct. The motivation is, of course, the laptop. You love the keyboard, the screen, and especially the mouse. You click it and do all sorts of crazy things to my screen.

Yesterday, in the kitchen, while exploring, you popped some cat food into your moouth before I could do anything about it. Grrrrrrrrrr. You, unfortunately, didn't seem to mind it.

Speaking of food introduction, you'll be trying pineapple on our trip to the Island because you'll be having jarred food, and Daddy bought you fruit salad.

I had my first three days of work and Grandma and Auntie Kim watched you. You had your horrible cold, so there was some 'cuddling to sleep'. Poor little guy. You had fun with Grandma and Kim.

You are copying what we say lots. You were trying to say, "Cookie" at the lunch table. You said, "Caca". When Grandpa stopped by so we could give him his birthday gift, you were copying him saying, "Duck". You said, "Duu".

"Baba for Real, Potty Crawl, Dada, Farzzle's World, Stand Up Legs, Almost Lost Monkey, Oranges, The Worst Cold Ever"

I walked into your bedroom yesterday morning, and clear as day you said, "Baba". This is the word we use for 'bottle'. You didn't say, "bababababab", you said, "Baba". Like you were saying to me, "Mommy, it's time for my bottle. I only had half as much as normal last night."

Three times now, you've crawled to the potty, and after taking off your diaper in the off chance that you may be trying to tell me that you have to pee, you peed! Coincidence?

You've really been saying Dada. I think you mean Daddy. It seems like you know what you're talking about.

Correction. This morning, while playing your leaning over peek-a-boo game with Daddy, you looked right at him about three times, and said, "Dada". Yup, I'm going to say that Baba and Dada are your first words.

You love Farzzle's World. It's this cartoon with an animated baby that only babbles, occasionally saying the odd word like 'ball'. You are mesmerised by him. He has a big imagination. Anyhow, the day before yesterday, Farzzle had some cups that he was knocking over with a ball. You saw this, and crawled over to your cups, and grabbed one to play with whilst watching Farzzle.

Many times now, while you are crawling, you all of a sudden take your knees off the ground so you are up on your hands and feet. It looks like you're getting ready to stand, but you don't.

While we were Christmas shopping this week, we lost Monkey in Army and Navy. Luckily, one of the clerks found him for us. Phew. I think I was definitely more worried than you.

You tried oranges the other day. Just in time for you to get your WORST COLD EVER! Your nose is running like a tap. You were so pouty and moany today. You poor little guy. You hardly napped. You were miserable. Luckily, you were good for Daddy when I went out with Auntie Jen. After this cold, I'm washing Monkey for sure. He is so stinky and covered in so much snot, it's just gross.

"Grannie Ziegler and Eggs"

Grannie Ziegler came to see you and stay with us this weekend. This was her first time getting to see you since you were 6 weeks old! She was very excited to see you and you were very excited to see her. You played together, she fed you, and she gave you lots of love and hugs. We can't wait to see her again at Christmas, and you'll get to see Papa Bud too!

You tried egg yolk for the first time yesterday. You loved it cooked up with cheese. Today, you weren't as hungry. It seems that your growth spurt has ended and you're back to normal. You'll be trying oranges today!

"Standing, Eating Cake, Talking, Being Chased, Sleeping, Pottying, Daycare"

On Saturday, December 2nd, you pulled yourself up to standing (or so says Uncle Paul). I'll have to believe him because you've done it more since then. You like to pull up to kneeling lots to play with your activity table.

You keep crawling under things and then bonking your head when you sit up, like under the end tables or your piano.

Jack's first birthday was this past weekend, and you got to go to the farm and see animals. You also at cake and enjoyed it!

Even though you say mamamamam dadadadada all the time, I really think you know that Daddy is dada and I am mumum. You seem to be saying it to us or in reference to us. It also sounded like you said "Hello" into your phone the other day.

I've realised that if I get down on my hands and knees and say, "I'm going to get you!", you'll crawl away as fast as possible. You seem to love getting chased.

PU/PD is going well. You are usually falling asleep with 5-20 minutes and usually with no crying at all. Congratulations on learning to fall asleep without your paci! It's hard to put you down for naps when you're overtired and overstimultated like when we return from Starbucks.

You're still peeing on the potty, when I remember to take you! That's the toughest part. You are comfortable on your potty and you like the books that we read when you're on your potty. You've pooped in the potty about three times! Our best day yet, is 6/12 pees in the potty. Really, it's Mommy being potty-trained, not you.

On Monday, we did a trial run for daycare. We got you ready on time and arrived on time even though we got stuck in traffic. You didn't cry for the first hour. I think that is when Separation Anxiety set in and you started to freak out a little. You held and sucked monkey like crazy. Tonight you'll go to daycare at dinnertime so you can 'bond' with Dia and her son.

You will be 9 months old tomorrow!