OALAHWI and 9 months

Today Ethan has officially been out as long as he was in my belly. Yup, it's been exactly 37 weeks and 6 days. Wow, it's crazy how much things can change in that amount of time. Changing from a few cells to a full grown infant. Then in that same about of time, changing from this tiny little baby to the 'I-can't-sit-still, must-explore-and-touch-everything' little monkey he is now.


Play
Ethan is fully into playing with toys now. He favourite right now are ones that flash and make noise. Ethan is also becoming interested in some of Maddy's toys instead of just the rattles and teethers. More often than not, I have to wait until Maddy has gone to daycare to let Ethan play with one of her favourites, but you should see the smile that spreads across his face when he finally gets to play with it. Priceless!


Teeth
Well he still has just the two bottom teeth, but we can tell that his teeth are bothering him. He has days where he shows all the signs of teething (Fussiness, eating less, fever, runny poops and tons of drool) but we're still waiting for a tooth to appear. I think teething will be much harder for him than it was for his sister. Poor little guy!

Food
Perhaps it's because he is the second child, or maybe it's his personality, but Ethan will definitely be eating regular table food much sooner than Maddy did. I don't know if it's because we've relaxed more the 2nd time around or if it's because he really screams for the food off our plates (even though he's just eaten his entire bowl). He just loves to eat. We're also steering away from purees and moving onto chunkier things. It's amazing the things he can get down with just two teeth.


Pottying
I'm a happy mama now that Maddy only uses a diaper for night time and Ethan is pooping in the potty. Way less diapers to wash, probably just once a week. I'm not sure, but I think at times he's telling us that he needs to poop by whining. There have been quite a few times where during a meal, he'll be whining and very upset. It's not like him to be unhappy when eating, so I'll take him to the potty. Sure enough he'll do his business and go back to eating in much better spirits. I guess you gotta make more room for the food to go in :)

Sleep
I think we're are in that funny stage where he's trying to transition to 2 naps but he still needs 3. It's hard to know if it'll be a 2 nap day or a 3 nap day. His morning nap seems to be lengthening and I'm hoping that the same will happen with the afternoon one so that the 3rd one can be dropped. More often though he'll have a long morning nap and the afternoon nap is not long enough. We'll just have to go with the flow for now.


Other Milestones
Today I went in to pick him up from a nap and he was sitting up. Wow, that was a bit of a shock for mama! He's also getting better at picking up Cheerios and putting them in his mouth. The look of accomplishment on his face is awesome. I think he's about to master crawling on his hands and knees any day now. Then we'll be in real trouble and there will be no stopping him! He gets up on his hands and knees and just rocks back and forth. Finally, I think he's experiencing a bit of separation anxiety because he gets upset when I pop out of the room to grab something. Ahhhh, it's so nice to feel needed. I really try to stop whatever I'm doing and enjoy these cuddling moments because I don't think he'll be a "sit and cuddle up with a book" kind of boy. Enjoy it while you can!!