Brenson is 9 Months Old!

Today, our rapidly growing Brenson-man is 9 months old! And he is excited about it, ha!

Here is his monthly photo with Gerald, the giraffe:

This month has brought a lot of changes for our little one. It's funny because I was reading through Brianna's 9 month update, and she changed a ton during this period of time as well. Brenson is currently wearing mostly size 18 month clothing, with a few 12 month pieces thrown in here and there. We have a cute pair of glow-in-the-dark Halloween pjs that Brianna wore last year (when she was 20 months old). Brenson wore them this year! He's still in size 4 diaper, and wears size 4 shoe. Although, he does have a pair of size 3 shoes that we are still squeezing his {not so} little feet into.

Just after Brenson turned 8 months old, he started crawling in a traditional sense. At first, it was pretty rough, but he's a pro now! And he is fast! He is also pulling up on anything he can get his hands on AND cruising around our coffee table and couches. The boy is all over the place and into everything! In fact, we are dropping his crib mattress to the lowest setting today, as I caught him trying to crawl out of his crib a few days ago. Ack!

For the first several months that Brianna crawled, she wouldn't leave the room that I put her in. However, Brenson is truly all over the house. He follows Brianna everywhere, gets into her things, and pretty much torments her already. Sigh. We've had lots of lessons (for both of them) this month about sharing, getting along, giving each other space, etc. This is just a taste of what is to come, I'm sure :-).

Brenson's top front teeth came through this month. His smile looks so different now. Once again, sleep hasn't been the best lately, but he does okay most nights. The daylight savings time change really threw him off for several days, but he's back to sleeping until 7:00-7:30 (thankfully!). He is doing really well with going to sleep on his own instead of being rocked all the time, which is good in many ways but also a bit sad. One thing of note: We LOST Brenson's soothie - ya know, the one and ONLY pacifier he would take - when we were in Louisiana. He only used it when he was settling down to go to sleep (spit it out once he was actually sleeping), but we missed it for sure! We tried giving him several other pacis, but he won't have any of them. So, he's now broken of the pacifier.

At church, Brenson goes to our cradle roll (nursery) class on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. He does so well! I teach him on Wednesdays, but he has a different teacher on Sundays. I've never had to go get him or gotten a bad report on his behavior. He's learning to be such a good boy!

Brenson still takes 4 (8 ounce) bottles a day of formula. We also feed him whatever we're eating (with some baby food here and there) during meal times, and he's still a great eater. Actually, the boy loves to eat. A whole lot. According to our scales at home, he weighs 23 pounds (down a bit from a month ago). His 9 month check-up is next week, so we'll get his official weight then.

Brenson is obsessed with bath time . . . whether it's his bath time or Brianna's bath time. He will just sit in the bathroom and watch her and laugh and laugh and laugh while she's in the bath. He loves all of her toys, especially ones that I don't particularly want him to have. He also loves books, the singing bus, blocks, and play food right now. The exersaucer is still out, although he rarely uses it anymore. We'll probably pack it up when we get out Christmas decor.

We are learning to follow directions and obey right now. Brenson does so well with following along in music class. However, sometimes he'll follow sister (who isn't always following the teacher) instead of following me or the teacher :-). I have several breakables that sit low enough for Bren to reach, and we are learning what is acceptable to play with and what is not. He responds very well to a stern tone, although once in a while he will get a pop on the hand. This is mainly when he is pulling on cords or trying to put them in his mouth. One day, I had to tell him "no" about a particular breakable around 4 times and it was hurting his feelings. Brianna said, "It's otay brudder, we're just teaching you." Haha!

Brenson is mimicking all the time these days. Sometimes, he'll even mimick our words and it sounds like he's actually saying whatever we just said (make sense?). One night in Louisiana, Brianna hugged him goodnight and said, "I love you". And the boy said something back that sounded exactly like, "I love you". Of course his first "I love you" was to Brianna. . . so fitting :-). 

Our sweet little man is growing so fast, and we are enjoying the blessing of this journey so much.