John Hayden is 9 months old today. (He looks SO much older in the picture above, but this was the best picture I could get of him since he doesn't like to sit still and pose for pictures! I don't think he actually looks quite like that normally.) Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs 22.5 lbs. and is almost 29 in. long. That's in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th for height.
--John Hayden finally eats baby food now! Woohoo! In an effort to avoid another trip to therapy, earlier this month, I decided to decrease the amount of formula he was getting in a day to see if his adversion to baby food was actually an "I'm full on formula and don't want anything else" problem. And it was! (Or my experiment just happened to coincide with him deciding he liked food.) Now he gets 6 oz. of formula in the morning, and 6 oz. at bed time, but only 4 oz. other times during the day (typically 3 times) for a total of 24 oz., which is the minimum babies need at this age. Mid-morning he eats oatmeal mixed with fruit, at lunch he eats a fruit, and at dinner he eats a vegetable. Although a lot of babies will eat more than one container of baby food at a sitting, that is all he wants and the doctor said that was completely fine. (Oh, and those are Stage 2 containers.) He will also eat baby puffs now as well as Cheerios (he loves those and he can feed them to himself now), so now we have a way to keep him happy when we go out to eat (although, he's been a great baby to take out to eat so far!). We've all been praying for him to eat like he's supposed to...so glad for answered prayers.
--He is still in size 4 diapers, as well as 9-12 month pajamas (although I put him in 12-18 month ones as well even though they are a little big) and 12 and 18 month clothes. Size wise, he hasn't really grown much at all in the last month.
--And, another answered prayer: Baby is sleeping good now!! (And just my luck he'll start waking up again since I'm bragging on him.) Anyway, though, this entire month has been bliss between him finally eating baby food and sleeping through the night without waking! And, right now, he still takes two naps a day (usually 1 1/2-2 hrs each time) but we've started him back in daycare, so that might change. He went for a half day last Friday and didn't want to go down for a morning nap, and yesterday he sleep for less than an hour in the morning. Hopefully, the newness of being back in daycare will wear off quickly and he'll get back to a good nap schedule as he was quite fussy yesterday evening when I got home.
--John Hayden can crawl traditionally now, although he still army crawls as well, but he's definitely getting faster on his knees. It's funny because he slaps the floor with his hands (not graceful at all) when he's crawling, so you can hear him coming if you are in another room. He also has gotten really good at pulling up to standing, even pulling up on some of his bigger toys, and he's cruising on the furniture a little bit as well. I'm positive he'll be walking before his first birthday! Aside from "da-da," he definitely says "ba-ba" and he knows what it means. He'll start crying if you say something about a "ba-ba" and don't produce said ba-ba for him, so I have to say "bottle" or spell it. Sometimes we kinda hear "ma-ma" thrown in there, but he pretty much just calls everyone "da-da." He knows that "sister" means Juliette and has been pointing her out in pictures this week since she has been gone to North Louisiana visiting our parents. And, he's pretty good at mimicing the sounds of certain words we say, almost to the point that it sounds like he is repeating the exact word, but we know that is probably not true. We like to think he is, though! He's still practicing waving. I thought for sure he would have that down by now, but I guess he's been too busy working on those gross motor skills instead of his fine ones. Oh, and he gives kisses now...wet, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses on the cheek! And on command as well. It's the best, but he's very selective as to who he gives them to (mostly gives them to Juliette and me). He's also cutting his top middle four teeth (all at once!), and although I still have to wrestle him to keep him on his bottom in the bathtub, he's gotten better about not hanging off the side of the changing table (only doing that every few days now instead of every.single.time!). He's starting to climb (into and onto things) and he's into EVERYTHING. We put up the pack-n-play in the living room (although we have absolutely no room for it) just so we could corral him some and catch our breath every so often. He went to the beach for the first time this past month (and sampled some sand) and he got his first haircut (we hated to get it cut, but it was just too long; I still comb it over to the side because he looks too much like a little boy and not a baby when you comb it down). He's definitely keeping us on our toes, but it's such fun...and he's such a happy, smiley baby (except when it's a stranger--then he gives the "stranger danger" stare).

Getting into the DVDs.

Getting his hair cut.

He loves water!

With Juliette at the beach in Galveston.

Eating sand.

Checking out the water with my dad (PawPaw) at the beach in Galveston.

He climbed into our super classy, makeshift toy box.

In the ocean with Daddy.

Feeding himself Cheerios in my office.