9 months

To see some additional recent pics of Bennett, see my sister's blog

My baby has been alive out of me longer than he was alive in me. And its amazing!

Bennett updates:
His new absolute favorite toy is his walker. I, on a whim, bought him the cheapest walker at Babies R Us, and two days ago he finally figured it out. And now he is one big blur around the house. Literally RUNNING from room to room, making loud noises, opening drawers, opening blinds on our windows, spinning my desk chair, and he has mastered turning, twisting, reverse, and full speed ahead. It is a lifesaver, as this boy has always loved mobility and now that he can move himself, he doesnt know what to do about it. He is so very excited.

Speaking of mobility, still no crawling. He gets on his knees now to pull himself up, but no army crawl or really any horizontal movement of any kind except scooting and rolling. He is, however, standing on his own. He did it for the first time awhile back, but now when he is standing he will let go and when he realizes he is standing by himself he gets this HUGE grin on his face like "look what I just did!!" and can hold it for quite awhile. Im not sure if walking will come before crawling, seems backwards to me, but he is definitely more a fan up being upright. (and always has been)

He has moved to level 3 baby foods, which is much better bc I was always adding rice cereal to the level 2 ones anyway, bc they were super runny. He eats table food every once in awhile, but I have to keep a closer eye on him when he does: I am so scared he is going to choke on something.

Still 4 bottles a day, two naps a day, still sleeping from 7:30pm to 8am.

He is growing up so fast, and I am welcoming each new age. He reaches for us and is so excited to see me even just after 4 hours as MDO. (and he doesn't show the slightest worry or anxiety when we leave him either, maybe he will once he is older, but for now he doesn't even look back). He is very giving with his open mouth kisses now (as many friends have experienced) and does it quite forcefully. He is wearing 12m size clothes for the most part, and many of those 12m sizes are getting snug (length wise). His cheeks are still getting larger by the day.

He isn't really babbling as much as I would like (that sounds like a crazy mama). He repeats "ah" sounds and some facial gestures after us, and a couple times recently has all of a sudden spouted out about 12 different consonants sounds in one "sentence," but for the most part it is just "ahhhs" and "eees" and those wonderful tooting noises. No "mamama" or "dadada" or any other combination. I still sing the ABC's (which he absolutely LOVES) and Stephen and I are always in a mama vs dada sound war, but Bennett is happy with his squeals and shrieks and screams at this point.

He LOVES Baby Einstein. I still only have that one My First Signs video, but have thought about getting more since he is so in to them now. He glances at cartoons, but really is more interested in looking outside, or watching Steele, or playing with his Fisher Price table (which somehow got stuck on Spanish mode yesterday and just repeats "Yellow - Rojo - Yellow - Rojo" over and over again. You better believe I am going to exchange it bc that table is a hit)

Bennett is such a bundle of personality and is so much fun. We are loving where we are in this journey!

Watching Auburn Football this weekend in my new shirt from La and Pop (which you can't see bc he was NOT in the modeling mood that day) Sitting with Aunt Erin, with my one finger in my mouth which is my new "thing"
Trying to give momma a kiss
There we go
Speed racer
Look at that body angle, that speed and agility
Hey Momma!
modeling his beautiful new shadow embroidered john john by Mimi (and those are helicopters on the front in honor of Stephen - who has an obsession)