Hanky Doodle

Hank is nine months old today!  Awesome!  He is such a joy.  He rocks the daytime like nobody's business.  He is so easy going.  He just crawls around exploring all day.  He has yet to show the "baby rage" I am so familiar with from the other two.  If something doesn't work out for him he usually just moves on to something else.

Let's break this down:

Hank-7 months old:

At seven months Hank started to crawl backwards.  Not just scooting backwards but he would move backwards on his hands and knees.  After about a week of that he started crawling forward.  It's a pretty cute crawl.  It appears to  more like a shuffle with quite a butt wag to it.

If Hank isn't too hungry he'll listen to a book before nap time. He's even started turning book pages.

We discovered that the grass is a wonderful babysitter.  Hank will just sit, not daring to crawl on it.

In fact, he'd prefer his skin not to touch it at all.

He will get quite the snack, though, if you aren't careful.

He got tooths 3 and 4, both on the bottom, making that all 4 on the bottom, none on top.

He's starting to slim down.  He doesn't look nearly as wide in the face and is losing his belly chub.

This month he turned into our family's little puppy dog.  He crawls from person to person spreading joy.

Hank-8 months old:

Eight months was crazy but mostly cute.  He quickly started pulling to a stand.  He cruises a little bit every now and then but not too much.  He crawls, head down until he bumps into something, then immediately stands up on whatever he bumped into.

After a couple months of not babbling at all he finally busted out some mamama's.

He started sleeping really well--usually not waking up to eat until 5 or so.

Then we had a couple intense weeks of teething.  His top gums got so swollen.  He slept horribly and even nursing bothered him.  It was pretty crazy for awhile day and night, but then all 4 top teeth came in and he's doing much better.  He's back to his happy self during the day but unfortunately hasn't resumed his better sleeping habits yet.

Towards the end of the month he started standing up on everything, like walls, and my personal favorite, the back of my legs when I'm working in the kitchen.  And he likes to go around "nursing" on the cabinet knobs.

He loves to stand by the bath tub while Jane and Jack are taking their baths.  They usually hand him toys that he can chew on.  And only once did Jack completely douse him with water.

He has even started letting go of what he is holding on to and standing by himself for several seconds at a time.  He can walk around a little bit while pushing something.  But most of the real push toys move too fast for him, so he does best pushing something slow like the little kid chair in the kitchen.

Hank usually falls asleep when he's nursing.  But when he doesn't I try to rock him for a bit to get him more tired.  But that mostly consists of him staring at me just waiting for me to look at him.  When I finally do he usually just giggles.  And then I give up and just lay him down.

Hank really brightens up our home.  He likes to observe everyone and everything around him.  He's usually quiet.  He doesn't complain very much and just takes life as it comes.  As you can see from all the pictures, he is usually quite serious.  But he is quick to laugh and just a little eye contact from across the room will bring a smile to his face.