9 Months

Siblings!!!!

Austin is now 18 pounds 2 ounces and 27 inches tall. I think he weighs a little more than Jacob did but is shorter than Jacob was. He is wearing size 3 diapers and 6 month clothes. Seriously... This kid with his smile is the greatest! How can you not just love it! 

Austin has defiantly become more comfortable with the stairs and can now go up them without any problem! He has also started to become more adventurous and standing on his own! For a few seconds anyways... :) If he is standing next to the couch he will occasionally let go for a couple seconds or if he is holding something and I stand him in the middle of the floor he can stand for a few seconds. But he is starting to do it more often. He has also finally started to walk along the furniture. I don't know why but I feel like it took forever for him to start doing this. He likes to play with the cupboard doors and can now open and close them and finds it to be very entertaining. Surprisingly he doesn't play with the stuff inside the cupboards very often...

Austin loves to sit and look at books. All the time I walk in on him sitting on the floor with a couple books around him looking through the books. I think it's really cute! He also really likes being "chased" up the stairs and gets a kick out of it! He has also started getting really good at the walker and can pretty much maneuver it anywhere he likes. Although I'm trying not to put him in it as much because I feel like it is throwing off his walking because he always tries to lean way to far forward.

Austin got his second tooth this past month. His bottom left and now has both his front bottom teeth. He also started clapping his hands and clicking his tongue. He does not like it when you take anything away from him. And he has got a mean grip... I'm pretty sure this is because Ida tries to take things from him all the time and he has discovered his only way of keeping it is to not let go... ever... In a tug of war match between Austin and Ida, Austin wins 90% of the time. I have seen Ida drag him across the floor trying to get something from his and he will not let go. He also doesn't like swimming... We took him for the first time this past month and he clung to me the whole 2 hours we were there.  We at least got a small little smile out of him :)

Austin is pretty much eating all table foods now and is my best eater! Although he doesn't really like banana's and like the rest of my kids, veggies. He eats veggies better if they are whole and not mashed or pureed at all. Austin does not like wearing bibs though and it drives me crazy. He rips them off pretty quickly but I am very persistent. He has gotten better at keeping them on but still will eventually always rip them off. Nursing is going well. Our biggest struggle is distraction. And with two older siblings there are lots to be distracted with. I have started trying to nurse him right before he goes down for sleeping and right when he wakes up when we are alone to avoid distractions.

Since letting Austin cry it out sleeping has become so much better! He will sleep 6 to 7 hour stretches regularly and only gets up 1-2 times a night to nurse. So much better then what we were dealing with! I actually have more energy as well because I'm sleeping more! Crying it out was the best thing we could have done. It has helped his sleeping so much! And I don't typically like the method, but some kids it is the best option. He is going to bed between 8 and 9 and waking up between 7 and 8. He is taking two naps a day, although sometimes he struggles taking naps and takes really short ones so we'll have to do the occasional 3 naps a day.