9 Months and a haircut

It's been a while since I've updated the baby blog but life and travel intervened.  Here's the latest.  He's 9 months, about 23 pounds and 27".  Lots has changed since my last update and I now know what everyone meant when they said it would go by so fast.  While the first 6 months seemed like about 2 years, the last 3 flew by in what felt like a week.  He's growing and developing so fast I wish we could slow it down and enjoy it more.  Birth to 3 months was all about surviving without sleep.  3-6 months was thinking that it should be getting easier by now but it wasn't and wondering if we could really do this and keep both of our very demanding jobs - we could not have done it without Amber (his awesome nanny) and tons of help from family and friends, but 6-9 months has been all about trying to keep up with him.  We still need lots of help, but he's settled into something resembling a routine, we are both getting sleep and things get more and more fun every day.  Evenings are the best.  We feed him about 6, he plays until about 8, gets a bath is sound asleep by 9 and he'll usually sleep until 7 or 7:30.  Amber comes at 8, takes him for a walk with the dog, breakfast, nap around 10, lunch around noon, play until 2 or 3, another nap, 4PM snack and then more play time until dinner.

He crawls and plays like a maniac now and that was the key.  He wears himself out and needs more sleep.  He's also standing up and walking as long as he has something to hold on to (I recently found out this is called "cruising").  He'll be walking soon.

He's not talking yet, but its coming.  The other morning Andrea brought him into our bed as we were waking up, he looked right at me and said "dada"  I was delighted and about to give him his first-word badge, then he looked right at the dog and said "dada", so no badge yet, but he babbles non-stop and he'll be talking soon.  I know that once he starts he'll never stop so I'm not in a big hurry.

He also knows his name, we can call to him and he'll turn and look, unfortunately the dog now thinks his name is Collin too and while calling "Collin" won't get him to stop throwing books off the shelf, it'll get the dog to come right over.

It was also time for a haircut.  He was starting to look a bit like Nick Nolte's mugshot, so we took out first stab at cutting hair.  We didn't hurt him, but the hair will grow back.  Here are some before pictures.

(sorry - no after pictures yet)

He also gets the giggles a lot.  I'm not sure what's funnier - the kid or the dog licking the floor in the background.  This time he was cracking up every time I would say "oops".