Mark at 9 months

This is my handsome son Mark Ciro...whom we all call Boy! I don't really know how the nickname happened but it started around September, mom and I took Mark on the women's retreat and when we came back it just stuck. Even Julia calls him Boy sometimes, but mostly she says Marky! Julia is always saying "Silly boy!" "No, Marky" (when he touches her toys) "Marky, your hands are dirty!" She sings this to him as we eat a meal together and since Mark uses his hands they sure do get dirty! Julia also says, "Marky what are you doin?" and then she cracks up laughing!

Mark has really grown leaps and bounds over his 8th month...I can hardly believe he is now 9 months!!! Soon I will have a 1 year old! Oh. My. Word. Time sure is flying by.

* Mark crawls everywhere now
* He can move into a sitting position from laying down
* He likes to try to stand up or lean up on his knees
* Everything is worthy to try in his mouth (hence the need for me to vacuum at least 10 billion times a day)
* No teeth yet!!!
* Mark can eat, in addition to baby food and baby cereal (brace yourselves)
1. bagels
2. waffles
3. pasta/brown rice
4. corn/peas/soft carrots cut up
5. blueberries cut in half
6. blueberry/banana pancakes
7. strawberries cut up
8. cookies (arrowroot)
9. cheerios and puffs (a staple in our home)
10. gold fish
11. bananas cut up
12. egg (yoke part only)
This is actually right around the time Julia started to get away from jar food and only preferred table food, and I definitely see Mark going in that direction. This week he started the whole tongue thing. Meaning, as I put a spoonful of baby cereal in he stuck his tongue out b/c he wanted food he could hold himself. Where do I get these kids? LOL I love it!

This week was the first time I bathed both Julia and Mark together in the big tub. I closed the bathroom door and sat mark down with all his bath toys on the floor to keep him busy while I washed JuJu's hair and bathed her first. Then when she was all clean I let her play in the tub with her toys and then added Mark. I took care of him and as Julia was playing I rinsed him off, got him lotioned and dressed and diapered and let him play again, and then took Julia out. It was kind of a fun challenge, and Julia loved having Mark in there to play. She kept giving him bath toys so he could eat them! It was a time saver and Julia got extra playtime in the bath which usually I can't give her because Mark is fussing, but this really worked well.

Mark has a lot to say these days too, when the binky is out of course, although he even talks with the binky in!!! He loves to make all sorts of sounds and he also likes to blow bubbles and zerberts!!!

Mark is sleeping better at night, up to 10 hours, sometimes less...Thank you Lord! I still nurse him around 4 or 5 a.m., but then he goes right back to sleep til 7 a.m.
It's very easy at this age to get the baby into a great routine during the day...so I'm loving that for both my kids. I'm looking forward to the summer when we can play at the park, go swimming in our kiddie pool, go to the zoo, and all the play dates with friends outdoors!

My, my, Mark, you are growing so fast, but where, oh, where, are those teeth of yours?