9 Months

The day after Ocean turned 8 months, he was pulling himself up on furniture other than his crib- the high chair, the coffee table, whatever he could find. Once he mastered pulling himself up, he started moving along those pieces of furniture.

He totally does not understand the laws of gravity and the necessity of strong, well-developed muscles. I've watched him turn away from the bench he's standing next to, then let go completely. It's as if he expects to be able to stay standing or even walk away, but instead he crashes to the floor, face first. The poor kiddo has bruises all over his forehead from all the falls.

A few days after he hit 8 months, Mr M heard Ocean fussing. He asked Sunshine where he was and she said he was in the living room. Mr M went into the living room, but couldn't find him there, though he could still hear Ocean fussing. Mr M looked around and found him frozen, half way up the stairs, wide-eyed with the realization that he was stuck and couldn't go up or down. Mr M freaked out a bit and raced to catch him before he fell. Ocean had never tried stairs before, so this was totally unexpected. I set him in front of the stairs the next day so see what he'd do, but apparently he was done climbing them as he made no effort to go up them. We're still making sure the gates around the stairs are closed if he's crawling around on the floor.

he wasn't happy that I'd set him in front of the stairs

he didn't go any further than right where I put him

As I expected, however, that fear only lasted for a few days. A week later, I left the gates open to see what he'd do and he was back to trying to climb the stairs. We're now pretty paranoid about keeping the gates shut....

We joke that he's turning into a round blonde beach ball, ala Dudley Dursley, but thankfully he's a cute, good natured round blonde beach ball. Such chubbiness!

Costco's double wide shopping carts make for great  brother pics. Ocean tends to put up with River's manhandling, but only for a couple minutes, then he's done.

Ocean loves to eat and thinks feeding himself is the best thing ever.  Everything he finds on the floor or ground is fair game for his mouth (including ants, dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves......eww!) so I'm frequently putting my finger in his mouth to clean out whatever's in there. He doesn't appreciate the finger sweep, but it's a necessary part of life right now.

He's started babbling and dada was his first "word" (much to Mr M's delight!), followed by mama. He's getting quite talkative, though of course it doesn't make sense.

love this one!

He still has no teeth, which I am still completely fine with. Late teether + breastfeeding = a less painful nursing experience for me.

enjoying time out of their car seats during a restroom break

On our road trip to Colorado for my brother's wedding Ocean slept most of the days away in his car seat, which meant he didn't sleep much at night. When he did sleep, he wanted to be propped up against me and he woke up frequently. I think he was making up for lost mommy snuggles :) He likes a certain amount of mommy snuggles each day and doesn't like it if he doesn't get them. And after six days in his car seat, he hates that thing.

It's funny to see River and Ocean with their blankies. They both snuggle their blankie while sucking their thumb. River elaborately twirls Bob around his fingers and hands, which Ocean hasn't quite mastered, though I've noticed that he tends to pull Larry through his hands repetitiously. Both seem to find the movements soothing. It's interesting to also note that both seem to connect sucking their thumbs with snuggling with their blankies.  I don't know that I've ever seen them suck their thumbs without their blankie present. I'm hoping this will come in handy when it's time to stop sucking their thumbs.

taking a thumb-and-blankie break during wedding preparations- they missed their naps that day

Ocean has this thing with cords. If he finds one, it immediately goes in his mouth. The house is baby proofed, so cords aren't usually where he can reach them, but our computer and phone chargers tend to travel around the house and he's always able to find them.

He's getting so big- he's starting to transition into a toddler already. I'm really not sure how I feel about that. It's fun to see him learning how to do new things, but it feels like he's doing them earlier than Sunshine and River did. Like he's rushing through life, trying to grow up as fast as he can.