9 Month -- Crawl, Crawl, Crawl!

Samuel's 9th Month: All about crawling! And standing! And biting Mommy's shoulder! He actually lost weight (only a few ounces) this month due to all the moving -- down to 19 lbs.

Samuel loves, loves, loves being a part of the action. Crawling means he never gets left behind. For the first part of the month, I kept finding him crying and slowly crawling down the hallway in a desperate attempt to keep up when I abandoned him to do crazy things like switch a load of laundry with two hands.

It was a good month of two naps a day in his own bed; mama's bed ceased to be a napping option due to mobility.

Food: two teeth on top and two on the bottom. He likes sitting up at the table and feeding himself soft finger foods.

Claire has found a buddy to help her get out all the things. He likes to crawl around and pull everything off of the low shelves.

We went on a weekend trip to San Diego; poor 4th born only got one picture at Sea World, but lots of beach pictures!

Dustin took the big boys at the San Diego Science Center and I took the littles. Samuel loves the balls!

Samuel adores his siblings and wishes they would be less conscientious about shutting doors both inside and out. He lights up whether they play with him. When the three older ones spent the night at Grandpa and Grandma's, they ran up to greet me (I thought) the next morning, but was really Samuel they wanted.

Samuel -- 4 months

Found this in the drafts folder -- Samuel at 4 months: all smiles, snuggles, and staying close to mama. And so much sibling sweetness -- I think they like each other!

Samuel -- 8 months

Now that's he's 9 months old, I'm finally finishing he's 8 months post....

This month was all about movement! Samuel worked hard on his slow crawl and pulling himself up on his knees; he also pulled himself to a stand a handful of times.

Trying to keep up with brothers and cousins!

I love the stage of old enough to like playing in the
center but can't mess up anyone's set-ups

He got his third tooth, which is all you need in order to grind your teeth. He loves to bite and pull on my shirt. He's a happy eater.; he loves joining us for meal times

Big sister is very generous with the rice puffs.

He loves being with people and going out and about. The worst thing in the world for him is to be left all alone. He continues to love his sling. He got in lots of beach trips this month -- he's now old enough to enjoy playing at the beach. So fun to watch all four kids loving the beach together!

Beach Trip #1

The beach is fun!

Getty Villa!

Beach Trip  #2

Beach Trip #4

He's just under 20 pounds, so only three more pounds to go to catch up to his sister -- it makes buying diapers simple.

He learned to tolerate the jogging stroller. Apparently, 4 cheerios is the price of his (relative) silence.

Major accomplishment: he learned to take two naps a day on his/my bed! We won't talk about night sleep although he did sleep through the night once for unknown reasons.