Gavin - Nine Months

Well, my sweet little love, you might start tipping the scale over from sweetest baby ever to craziest baby ever! This ninth month with you has been quite an entertaining little adventure, let me tell you. You sir, have no fear, no hesitation, and if you see it, you go for it. Where your brother has always been super thoughtful and cautious before trying anything out, you have an idea and are moving on it before I even realize what's happening. You're keeping me on my toes 24/7, that's for sure.

You are still incredibly sweet, but you are so super silly that it's becoming your dominating trait I think! You are a fake laugher, and it is hilarious. If you want someone's attention, you stare at them and fake laugh until they notice you. You get so excited about things, and if I'm holding you you always grab onto my shoulder and squeeze and then slide your hands around all frantically while laughing and squealing anytime anything exciting happens. You've starting "teasing" people, looking at them and then when they look at you, you look away and laugh, then look back real quick. So cute.

You love to chase and be chased, and "I'm gonna get Gavin!" always gets you crawling your crazy crawl as fast as you can while laughing your little head off. You LOVE wrestling with your brother, and if he's laying on the ground you will crawl all over him, bite him, scratch him, all while laughing hysterically. Poor guy can't fight back too much because you're still so small (and man, are you small!), so you just get to attack him and he has to take it for the most part - although he holds his own, don't get me wrong. I see so, so much wrestling, and so many injuries in our future. You both love it.

You love to dance to music, and you shake your little hips right in rhythm whenever you hear any kind of beat. You also are a big bouncer, meaning you bounce up and down whenever you are excited, which is A LOT of the time. You've injured your poor lips and chin this way I don't know how many times, because you're always holding on to a table when the bouncing begins. You are a climber, and nothing is too high or too challenging for you. I think it's time to nail every single thing in our home to the walls. You can't be stopped.

Even though you're wild and crazy, you're still a deep thinker when you allow yourself to be still. You get a super serious look on your face and take things in, and I just wish I knew what you were thinking. I know you're understanding a lot of what we say these days - especially no, because you hear it all the time and always hesitate, and sometimes stop what you're doing.

We have a lot of "nicknames" for you I guess you could say. Most of the time I call you Gav or Gav-Gav, but you get a lot of Monkey and Munchkin from your dad, and I call you my little spider monkey a lot because of that crazy bear crawl that you do. That is by far your most notable trait, and everyone that sees you crawl comments on how hilarious it is. I also call you my little puppy somewhat frequently, because you crawl around carrying things in your mouth like a dog a lot. Water bottles, socks, toys - basically anything that you find on the floor.

You are the world's fastest crawler I'm quite sure, and you've started standing up enough that I would assume walking is not too far away. You started standing up directly from a sitting position just a few days after you turned nine months, and you can stand for several seconds at this point before you slowly lower yourself down. You haven't attempted any steps at all, and to be honest I'm totally fine if we hold off on the walking thing for a bit...I feel like once you're walking you will be GONE. I already lose you several times around the house on a daily basis, pretty sure walking will only make that worse.

You are happy almost all the time. The only time you aren't is if I'm gone (I hear you aren't a perfect angel baby for everyone else, you had me fooled), if you're getting your diaper changed, or if you're being put to sleep. You don't even get angry if you're hungry, you just get clingy to me and won't let me put you down until I figure out what you're wanting. Speaking of that, you're still nursing every three or four hours throughout the day, and usually twice at night, although I think you're about to get MORE teeth (you have six already!), so you have been waking up nonstop to comfort nurse I guess. Exhausting for mommy, but that's what I'm here for. You're eating mainly jarred baby food, but you do like bites of our food whenever we're eating something you can have.

You are napping in your crib for all naps (unless we're out and about) and you go down in your crib at bedtime every night. Some nights you'll sleep in there all night, with me coming in two or three times to nurse you and rock you back to sleep which I do not exactly love, and some nights I end up bringing you in to our room somewhere between one and three if you just won't settle back to sleep. I can't do cry it out, I just don't have it in me, but we are LIGHTYEARS ahead of where we were with your brother at this age. He had literally never slept in his crib even once at night at this point, so I'll take this for sure.

Overall, the main thing I want to remember about you at this age is your happiness. You are full of joy, full of giggles, full of fun, and I ADORE you. You make me laugh all day long, and even your brother always talks about how cute you are (when he isn't mad at you for taking his toys and being "the worst!"). Watching your personality develop is so fun and hysterical, because I did not expect you to be quite so goofy. I feel like you are going to be a bit of a prankster, because you are ornery and love to make us laugh already. I just can't wait to see who you become and to watch you and your brother develop more of a bond. I feel like you may be the one always encouraging him to get into trouble - so far, he is all too happy to jump in and do whatever crazy thing he sees you doing.

Sweet Gavin, I couldn't love you more if I tried. You bring me so much joy every single day, and your sweet little voice and precious little laugh just melt me. I always sing you "You are my sunshine", and you truly are. I was so nervous about having two boys and having a special relationship with both of you, but it's amazing how natural it has been. You boys are night and day, and I love the unique love that I share with each of you. I'm so blessed to be your mama!