9 months old

Rowen turned 9 months old yesterday! He is just so much fun, doing lots of funny, adorable things and making our lives fuller and more joyful by the second.

Rowen has been doing his "army crawl" now for awhile and has been working on the hands and knee crawl for a few weeks; yesterday he really crawled for more than just a few "steps". He still prefers his army crawl because he can move faster that way so we will see how long it takes for him to figure out that the hands and knee way will be much more efficient. The video below showcases Rowen's newest accomplishment.

In addition to crawling, Rowen is saying "mama" and "dada" but doesn't know who is who- he just likes those sounds! He is also waving bye bye and makes a little "b" sound sometimes when he does it. Today, we were on a walk and a woman stopped me to ask how old Rowen is. While we were talking he started to wave at her. She was thrilled and waved back of course. Rowen continued to flirt with her until we walked away. He is also getting into lots of cupboards and opening drawers around the house. Once he gets them open he pulls just about everything out and then sits and admires his work. He just cracks me up :). He is eating up a storm, picking up small pieces of food and shoving them into his mouth. He have to be careful to not put too many pieces on his plate or he will end up with a mouthful! He is giggling and "talking" our ears off. He is giving wet, slimy, sweet baby boy kisses and hugs with his arms around our necks. And, by far my favorite part of Rowen's personality right now is his sweetness. He loves to snuggle into me when he is tired or has just woken up, look up at me intently while he nurses and smile, and touch my face lightly. Now, sometimes he is quite rough but I just try to cherish the sweet, tender moments.

On Tuesday we have Rowen's 9 month well baby check. We are very curious to see how much he weighs and how long he is. It is probably hard for others to understand this but we see Rowen thinning out quite a bit. When I tell people this they laugh and say he still looks pretty chubby. He is getting skinnier by the day and it makes me a little sad... he is losing that baby look and becoming a more of a little boy.

So, that is Rowen's 9 month update. Enjoy the video below :).