Happy 9 months baby Pierce!

Sweet baby Pierce, with all the sickness we have had in the last month in this house it's no wonder your mamma is FINALLY getting your post up! Happy Happy 9 months sweet boy! You are changing developmentally at such a rapid pace that I simply don't know where the time has gone!

We had your 9 month appointment last week and finally an update on your stats! ( I have currently misplaced your charts so I'll have to go back and write in the exact numbers, but I remembered the percentiles.)

Weight: 76% (No shocker there my little chunk!)
Height: 34% (You majorly dipped in your height this month and the doctor even rechecked but thinks you are on the verge of a growth spurt and said your 1 year apt. would be a better indicator...but it would shock NO ONE in this family if you are short!)
Head: 70%

 

Eating: Well little man, you are completely over baby food! You only want the real stuff now and seem to be enjoying it all. You have tried eggs, avocados, black beans, chicken, french fries, sweet potatoes, bananas (are your favorite), fresh mozarella cheese, cooked carrots, apples, peas and many more things! It is an absolutely MESS! You truly need to go straight to the bathtub after every meal but because you are the second child it only happens every other day! You take in about 25 oz of formula a day which is surprisingly on the low end... You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and the occasional snack of your favorite "lil crunchies".

Sleeping: You still sleep 12 hours at night and take an 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon because right now that what works best for everyone. You would prefer a longer morning nap but you roll with it. On Sundays, it has become no morning nap and you do quite well. I think we all will be ready though to drop this morning nap so we have all morning to get out of the house and do some fun things so I imagine by one I will start to transition you to one nap!

Milestones: This is probably where there is the most to report. You are my active little tank! You bulldoze any where you want to go. You are finally more efficiently crawling on all fours instead of your super fast army crawl and you are scaling the furniture. Your favorite thing to do is climb from thing to thing in the living room and we often find you standing in your crib when you are suppose to be sleeping. It honestly makes me laugh. Zak and I think you will be walking before 11 months just like your big brother. I for one am looking forward to that because you are getting far too heavy for me to lug around anymore.

You are babbling more and more each day, but no words yet. You belly laugh all the time! You also have started waving to everyone which I love!  I can't wait til you can say "hey!" as we walk by people at the store.

Likes: You love being down on the floor and honestly get upset if we try to contain you. You also love to crawl up our leg and hold one arm up as if to say "will you hold me?", but just as soon as we pick you up you want back down. You love music and particularly love when I sing to you. It makes you stop crying immediately! You continue to adore your big brother and try to keep up with him. You also love climbing through the coffee table and out the other side. You constantly have this look of pride in your current accomplishment on your face. I think you are going to be my social boy because you love all people and seem to study their faces as they pick you up. You rarely ever cry out of discontent and every comments on how handsome you are, but also how happy you are. I am so so thankful for your easy disposition. It makes having two seem like a dream.

Dislikes: Mamma or Daddy leaving the room. When your brother intentionally knocks your down and any sort of containment. Other than that you are easy breezy.

 

 

 

...And you now have FOUR teeth! I miss that toothless smile but your current grin makes us all laugh so keep those chompers coming! We love you to the moon and back baby boy and it brings a tear to my eye to think that the next time I document your stats you will be one... you have been a slice of heaven in every single way!

Happy 8 Months Pierce!

My sweet baby Pierce! You are 3/4 of a year old. The time with you my handsome little monkey is flying by. You are changing so much each and every day. You are crawling fast as lightning. You are babbling up a storm (finally!) with lots of "baabaabaa" and "dadada" and I just love it! You are on the cusp of pulling up all by yourself and your big brother tries to "wrestle" you every chance he gets and you squeal with delight.

While you definitely have your own look I can still see the baby resemblence between you and Will. Your hair and eye color is constantly changing. Sometimes it looks like its leaning blonde and other times it has a red tint, but I am guessing it will be a light brown like your big brother. As for eyes, I think they will been greenish brown.

 

You are coming into your own for sure and the one thing I would say right now is that you won't be stopped. You are a bulldozer. You climb straight through the coffee table and over anything in your path. You hate when I leave the room and get so upset when left alone. That lip goes down and you just lose it!

You have finally gotten two teeth (your bottom middle) so you seem less fussy. But I know there will be more coming soon. Your naps and eating are still great. We have started table food and you are doing great, You love whole bananas, avocados, peaches and pizza crust :).

I am guessing you are about 21 pounds which means it's time to ditch your car seat for a bigger one very soon! You have also started wanting to be held any chance you get, but once we pick you up you immediately want to get back down. It makes me laugh. You continue to love everyone you meet. You definitely aren't scared of men like your brother has always been and you have started majorly reaching for everyone. When anyone holds you, you look up in amazement and grab a hold of their faces as if to study it. I predict you will be quite the extrovert which of course delights me!  

Capturing pictures of each stage is getting more and more challenging as you can see below... Each month I wind up sweating by the end of the whole shindig.

Here's to another month of loving on my sweet baby Pierce. We love you to pieces and you, big boy have been the greatest addition to our family!

Will's 3rd Birthday Party

My sweet sweet Will. I have to start with a smile on my face and say this will NOT go down in the books as my favorite birthday party memory with you. But you are only 3 and I am still learning you each and every day. The back story is that you have for as long as I can remember been very interested in fire trucks/stations etc. so when I called and found out that our local fire station would let us come for your birthday and tour the station and climb all over the trucks and run around I knew that would be a hit. You told EVERYONE that you were having your birthday party at the fire station and could. not. wait! We invited a good number of your little buddies and your mamma and daddy worked like dogs getting ready for this party. Primarily because no food or cake could be served at the station so everyone was coming back to our house for the party. Minor dilemma was that your daddy FINALLY began building our new deck one month from your birthday and it came as no suprise that every night two weeks leading up to the actual day he was out there finishing that deck. Two days out and it was finally finished (I'll post pictures of that soon!) 

The morning of we scrambled around to pick up and prepare last minute food while attempting to finalize decorations. But wouldn't you know it after all that, in mid October it was still 900degrees outside....

Here you are at the fire station clinging to daddy as you were feeling a bit shy...

Apparently our bud Jack was feeling the same way :)

Sweet Zeke was ready to roll with his super cute fire truck t-shirt!

...and best friend Gerry was hamming it up with his cute face!

The fire man gave a rather serious tour probably for the adults benefit (though he never turned any of the lights on) but the kids were more interested in the cool fish tank in the living room/kitchen area of the station.

My sweet nieces Ellie and Lucy! 

...and FINALLY what he was waiting for... a chance to drive the massive fire truck.

...and I love it, the seats were Pierce brand! How fitting!

All was fun and games until we broke it to Will that there were about 10 other kids who would also like a chance behind the steering wheel. That is when the party took a turn. At least for Will.

Look at this handsome handsome Jack! or Jackaroo as I call him! 

Cee Cee with Fire Chief Pierce! 

It really and truly is not worth capturing any of this "printable party" that I had the grand idea of doing the week of because all the decorations were outside and it was so dang hot we moved the whole thing inside in a rush when everyone arrived. Not to mention I didn't even have time to finish putting everything out. Next year, we are ordering pizza :).

...right before his nap that afternoon I asked Will if he had fun at his fire station birthday party and he said, "No mamma, I did not!" "I did not want my friends to come I wanted it to be just me"... and there ya have it- Mr. Congeniality. The reality is he didn't want to share. Not time on the fire truck, not his new toys or old toys for that matter and he was VERY stressed over the whole thing. Lord help me, this is new territory for me as a mom. I was the kid who wanted everyone at my birthday party and LOVED people but Will apparently is just like his daddy was at this age, a little bashful! 3 is welcoming in some very new challenges so hopefully it will pass quickly...  But even if you are always a little bit shy I will still love every single thing about you, because the truth is you are more than that! You are funny, kind, smart, thoughtful, a GREAT big brother and a very blessed child of God and I love you as I tell you every night "to the moon and back!" Happy 3rd Birthday!