We started moving into our new place on April 29th and began living here for good on May 1st! It has been a time of change and transition, but it all seems to have gone pretty smoothly. We were wondering how Hayden would handle the uprooting, but he seems to be fairly unphased by the whole thing. He had no interrupted night time sleep and after a small battle with going down for naps, we are back on track with everything.

Some milestones that Hayden has reached as of his 9-month birthday are:

• adding "Dadadadada" to his talking repertoire
• pulling himself up on furniture, with a little encouragement
• waving...to anyone and everyone...especially strangers and other little kids
• cutting out his 3rd nap as of about 2 weeks ago....yeah, right about the time we moved! Evenings have been an adjustment, but they are getting better as he adjusts and lengthens his 2 other daily naps.

Some things that Hayden likes to do now that he is the big 9 months are:

• attaching himself to mom...it is hard to get anything done at the new place when he is awake because he just wants me to hold him constantly. I am trying to relish the time when he wants to be with me, before he tries everything to get away.
• spitting (a.k.a. raspberries), especially at inopportune times in front of other people (teaching manners to a 9 month old is a lost cause...just don't take it personally, it's all in good fun and exploration)
• trying different foods like cut up veggies and smushed bananas (no meat introduced yet and he is still breastfeeding for liquids - no bottle in his future)
• dropping toys off of his food tray and waiting for someone to pick it up...only to drop it again...and again... a very famous baby game at its best.
• playing hide and seek and pretending to be shy by burying his face in mom or dad's shoulder when other people say "Hi"
• laughing while either mom or dad holds him and chases the other one around the kitchen and living room
• giggling at animal noises
• pulling hair!
• bitting mom's collar bone (I have no explanation for this one...maybe it is like a teething biscuit or something)
• sitting in the grass (and eating it) in our new, big backyard! (We learned that very quickly...on the first day we were here we were setting up our patio set and he was sitting in the grass next to us. We looked over and he had a few long sprigs hanging out of his mouth and he was chewing on a few more with tons of evidence on his hands)

Some things that Hayden doesn't like now that he is 9 months old are:

• getting his clothes changed
• having his hair pulled (by his other little friends....it is not a two way street I guess - he can dish it out, but can't take it!)
• coming too close to his personal space (only applies to others, mom and dad are excluded - luckily)

Hayden hasn't gotten the hang of the whole crawling thing yet. When he is on his stomach, he tends to just spin in place. Getting into the quadruped position just hasn't crossed his mind yet. He seems to like standing and is more interested in that these days. When he is sitting, he leans forward and sometimes ends up on his stomach. Also, when he is sitting with one of us, he likes to lean over and scoot over onto our thigh and reach for the floor on the other side. He may just skip crawling altogether. Who knows. We aren't rushing anything. It will happen in due time.

We go in for Hayden's 9 month doctor's appointment this coming Thursday. I will post his most recent weight/height stats at that time. He is a strong kid and his little cheeks are filling out nicely. He is going to have his dad's build I think. You can already see that his shoulders and thighs have good definition and shape and they look very strong and sturdy.

We have been fairly lazy with uploading photos lately. Once we get a little more settled (and I can find the camera USB cable in a box somewhere) we will post some more recent shots. We have some video of him pulling himself up and some photos of him standing while holding onto the ottoman.

We are having a great time in our new place and we look forward to having a BIG housewarming BBQ in a month or so. -- mam