Thursday, April 28, 2005

The latest Leif antics at 9 months

Leif is such a happy baby, we are so blessed. He is now 9 months old as of tomorrow. Some of the things he does lately just kill me. I can't believe how fast the 9 months has flown by. Just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and he was a fragile little 7 lb 9 oz'er. Now he is 21 lbs about and as rough and tumble as a 9 month old can be.

He has knees made of steel from all his crawling. We have to be careful not to leave the door open when going in and out because he will crawl right out onto the sidewalk - ouch! And he is fast! He books it, wherever he is going, but especially when he is striding towards the dog bowls and hears mom yelling from behind "LEIF NO!!" Then he puts it into high gear and moves extra fast... to the dog bowls.

I am "mama", said usually when he is tired, hungry or whiney. Hans is "he-da". ?!?! Said usually when he is smiling and having fun. Winny so far seems to be "ooooh" said with awe and wide eyes as she saunters by, attempting to stay well out of his reach. We frequently see Winny scrambling away with fear in her eyes and Leif left sitting with a big handful of black hair and a grin on his face.Success!!

Leif is getting a little more into food, but it is still hit or miss. He has two favorites that he will eat pretty much no matter what, flour tortilla strips and applesauce. Everything else he could leave. And he is very opinionated when you give him something he doesn't like. Rapid shaking of his head in a "no" manner results with his lips pursed together. He thinks it is really funny when we shake our heads "no" imitating him. We can sometimes get one or two more bites of icky stuff into his mouth by using this trick and invoking a smile.

Spaghetti is the funniest thing to eat, it evokes giggles every time. American cheese and string cheese is kind of fun too. Leif seems to like carrots and peas also, but *hates* sweet potatoes (smart boy) and green beans. I send those to daycare for them to feed to him. ;-)

He likes daycare for the most part. When we get there in the mornings he goes and immediatly starts playing. Lunches when I go visit are hit or miss. He might sit and nurse the entire time I am there, he might want to play with me the entire time, or he might just give me the complete cold shoulder because he is playing with the other kids. Then when I leave he is sometimes alright with it, and somedays there is a meltdown.

His favorite toys appear to be anything that isn't really a toy. The empty Tang jug, the empty grapefruit juice bottle, tupperware, a wooden spoon and ANYTHING that makes noise when hit with the wooden spoon. He prefers all these things to his toys. But given nothing else, he will resort to playing with his toys. Favorites are his stacker from grandma Carbaugh that he has mastered and shows off this mastery at daycare regularly. He also loves his little push car from cousin Celeste, his Elmo cell phone from grandma Charlene - appropriate ;-) and his PB Kids finger dinosaur puppets.

Leif loves balls at daycare. Balls of all sizes. At home we don't have many balls because Winny ALSO really likes balls. Dog slobber and baby slobber on the balls doesn't mix according to mama. The other day Leif was taking a long stick thing and trying to hit the ball with it. I am sure he is striving to take after grandpa Rick and play golf... it will still be a little while before we let him play with his golf club from grandpa... mommy would like to keep her head attached.

Leif likes to pull up, but isn't real eager about it. Maybe we just don't have many things that are the right height for him to pull up with. He loves the laundry baskets and stands up in those given 15 seconds to try. He seems more interested with trying to stand by himself. Crawling position to straightening out his legs and trying to bring his hands closer to his feet - then tumbling over on his side. But that never hurts and he will try again almost immediatly.

Who knew I could fall head over heels so much for a little boy. He is abolutely perfect and I can't imagine life without him. I love you Leif!

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