Nolan is 9 months! (Two weeks ago)

Our sweet boy is 9 months old! He is full of energy and in constant motion. He keeps us on our toes! Here is what he is up to at 9 months:

• He weighs 19 lb 1 oz, (25 percentile) and is 29 1/2 in long (90 percentile). His weight has definitely dropped off a bit, but it isn't too surprising because he doesn't stay in the same place for more than 30 seconds.
• Still wearing size 3 diapers.
• He is wearing 6-12 months clothes, although his pants are starting to get a little short!
• He is eating three meals a day (most days), but now that he is 9 months I am trying to buckle down and makes sure he gets three meals a day, everyday.
• Still waking up 1-2 times a night, but it seems like we have more nights with only 1 waking, especially lately.
• New foods include: yogurt, cauliflower, chicken, and many others, it is hard keeping up with all of it!
• Nolan has completely given up army crawling and is crawling the "normal" way now. It was sad to see it go away, but he gets around pretty quick! He seems to have two speeds, normal and turbo. He loves to turbo crawl to Daddy every night when he gets home from work.

• He pulls himself to a standing position on everything! The couch, coffee table, kitchen chairs, and especially in his crib. He loves standing up! His balance is getting much better and he is able to stand for quite awhile.
• Took a weekly "swimming" class in January and he loved the water!
• Took our first trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Loved looking at all the fish! More in another post...
• Still loves to play with things that are not actually toys, like remote controls. He also loves to pull books off of the shelves and take the covers off!

I can't believe how fast his first year is going by! We already have his 12 month appointment scheduled which doesn't seem possible. We enjoy every minute with our little guy and look forward to celebrating many more milestones.

When Mommy is Gone

This is what happens when Daddy feeds Nolan!

The Evolution of Sleep

By far the most difficult part of being a parent for Nate and I has been the issue of sleep. From the very beginning Nolan would wake up the second you placed him in a crib, pack n play, our bed...or anywhere! We soon learned that if we wanted to get some sleep the easiest way to do that was let him sleep on us. Which we did for 4 months! At first we loved it, but then we started not sleeping as well and Nolan moved around so much, I don't think he was sleeping well either.

At four months we made the big move to the crib. It did not go over very well. He soon learned to sleep on his belly which helped but he wasn't a big fan of the crib. We stuck with it most of the time, at least at night. During the day he almost always slept in his swing, which he loved.

During the night when he woke up (which he did A LOT) I would feed him and then put him back in his crib. Sometimes he would go right back to sleep and other times he wouldn't. You never knew what you were going to get. After a couple months he settled in a bit more and started waking up only twice a night. However, we soon grew tired of this and were ready for our big boy to sleep through the night...

And finally last night it happened!!! Oh, it was glorious! It only took 8.5 months! The previous two nights he had woken up after 2.5 hours and we decided to let him cry himself back to sleep instead of getting him. The first night he cried for 1.5 hours and then fell back asleep for 5 hours. The next night he cried for an hour and then went back to sleep for 5 hours. Both nights after the 5 hour stretches I fed him and put him back in his crib. Last night, he woke up after 3 hours, fussed for 15 minutes and fell back asleep until 6:30! We will see if the little man can keep this up...

Will Rogers State Park

In an effort to enjoying the AMAZING weather we are having this January we decided to head out and explore Will Rogers State Park near Santa Monica. Our friends had given us a backpack so we could hike with Nolan and we were excited to try it out! We decided to do a short hike up to Inspiration Point, which would give us views of the ocean and downtown LA. We parked a ways from the entrance because it cost TWELVE dollars to park the car!! I still can't believe it. We did feel a little guilty not paying though, because this is one of the parks the Governator wants to close because the lovely state of California can't handle its finances, but twelve dollars?? Nolan loved being in the backpack and was talking and squealing the whole time. It really was a beautiful day, sometimes I think we are crazy for wanting to leave a place where 76 degrees in January is not abnormal...

Here are a few pictures from the hike:

The entrance to the park

We were headed the right way!

If you look really closely you can see snow-capped mountains in the background. Also, how happy does Nolan look?

The South Bay, our home

Downtown LA

One day he will be angry about this...

I couldn't help but post this picture. On our walk at the beach today I was wondering why everyone was laughing as they walked past us. After looking at Nolan I figured out why! Good blackmail for the future!

Climb, Climb, Climb

All Nolan does these days in climb. He climbs into his carseat, he climbs up the side of the couch until he is standing, he climbs up Nate and me, he climbs everything! He is really starting to use his feet and is standing up while holding onto things much easier; it's amazing how much can change in just a couple of days!

Here's the proof:

Climbing up a stack of presents

Climbing completely into his carseat and then got mad because he didn't know how to get out!

Climbing the Costco pack of toilet paper (this entertained him for a good 10 minutes- great fun!)

Climbing in the kitchen

Climbing up my leg

Climbing up his favorite chair in the kitchen

Happy New Year! (A little late)