Favorite 9 Month Pictures

10 Months Old

This month has been characterized by crashes and falls.  Jude has discovered that he can get around, pull up to stand, crawl under, over and through just about anything.  He has taken a lot of trauma to the head this month.  He has also tempted fate by attempting to ingest anything he finds lying around.
Jude has become much more interested in toys.  He loves balls and just about anything that he can chew on.  One of his favorite times of day is bath time.  He's chewed most of his bath toys to pieces.  He still has just three bottom teeth, all of which are completely in and have been for a while.  We did notice that his top right tooth is nearly pushing through, so that might explain the infatuation with chewing.
Jude is a very smiley kid. His smile lights up his face. All you have to do is look at him and he smiles.  He loves being sung to, read to, held and tickled.  He's not a big eater but some of his favorite foods are blueberries, cheese, graham crackers, grapes, pretzel rods and yogurt melts.  He dislikes all veggies.
His favorite pastime is getting into the garbage cans.  I have to empty them on a daily basis for fear that he will eat something dangerous like a diaper or paper with a staple in it.  He seems to love paper.  He tears up every magazine or kid's coloring page within his reach.  Although the kids love him more than anything, he's becoming a bit of a nuisance to them.  They ask me frequently, "can you put Jude to bed? He's wrecking our stuff."
Jude sleeps through the night inconsistently.  When he wakes up he is nearly impossible to get back to sleep without a bottle.  He goes to bed pretty easy around 7 and wakes up for the day around 7.  He is put down for two naps a day.  Somedays I am lucky and he will sleep for two hours at least once, other days he wakes up twenty minutes into his nap and won't go back down.  He's certainly not our best napper.  Its the inconsistency that drives me crazy.
Jude's a special little guy, with a personality all his own and it is fun to watch it take shape as he gets older.  We're pretty lucky.

First Valentine's Day

Standing Up

 I really wasn't expecting this guy to be on the move so soon.  This week he's taken two trips down the steps.  First, the basement staircase.  Despite my best attempts at asking (and then begging) the older kids to keep the door shut he found his way down one afternoon while exploring.  It was a sound that is forever implanted in my brain.  Jeremy installed a self-closing hinge on the door a few days later. The very day after the basement staircase had been reinforced, he took another tumble from the second floor stairs while the gate was open (clearly he is an opportunist).  Jeremy was here for that one.  I'm so glad.  I would have felt very negligent had it been on my watch.
This week he's been pulling up and standing everywhere, using anything he can pull up on (even if it is mobile and sends him crashing to his face).  He is getting much more stable and sure of himself.  I don't think it will be long before he is letting go to take his first steps.  Yikes!  I thought I had more time.  My baby is growing up!