Happy 9-Monthiversary, Dear Brady!

The fact that the number 1 is visible on the age graphic at the top of this post makes me want to cry! I can't believe that my baby has now been in our world for the same amount of time I was pregnant with him. What's really unfair is that I felt like my pregnancy lasted F.O.R.E.V.E.R., but the time with Brady is just flying by! Why does time speed up when we want it to slow down?!

The past month hasn't brought about too many physical changes (still NO TEETH!!, no forward crawling, etc.), but I can tell Brady is more aware of what's going on around him. He's recognizing certain words like his own name, doggie, daddy, and bottle. He's also talking non-stop--he has a lot to say! His favorite word is still Mama, but we're working on Dada; it's just a matter of getting his tongue out of the way to pronounce the "D." Brady is also pretty alert in terms of what's going on around him. For example, when he's at Grandma and Pap Scalzott's, he watches the train go by from the window. When we're at our house and he can hear it from a distance, he recognizes the train whistle and lunges for the window if it's nearby. He's also pretty music savvy; he stops what he's doing if he hears the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song :-)

Even though he's not yet conquered crawling, he refuses to be still! He'll sit long enough to devour a bottle, but the nanosecond he's done, he's reaching, moving, battling to be off of my lap. In fact, sometimes he's so adamant about it that he projectile vomits...all over me. That's actually how we began our morning today! Anyway, Brady is adept at moving backward; he crept the entire length of the living room, but he still gets frustrated when trying to move forward. He's on his hands and knees (sometimes he puts himself into a V position like below), but just can't figure out how to move.



It's usually at this point that he rolls himself onto his back and throws a major fit. Thankfully, he's easily distracted and amused, so the fit ends fairly quickly and he moves on to more entertaining things, like his own hand...



Brady's menu has expanded a bit, too. He had his first bites of dry pasta, Cheerios, and real mashed banana. He's starting feeding the Cheerios to himself, which is a feat to say the least! It takes him four or five tries to pick it up in between his pointer finger and thumb and then successfully put it in his mouth. Normally, his chubby hand swipes up a few cereal bits at a time and then they get stuck in his palm. He doesn't understand how to get the Cheerios from his grasp to his mouth so they fall onto the floor at the delight of the waiting dogs.

Oh, and he's over his cold. We were so fortunate in that his first lasted-longer-than-a-day illness was as mild as it was. He was more inconvenienced than anything else with the sneezing and coughing. He hates to have his mouth wiped, let alone his nose wiped 30 times a day! But he was a trooper, and we got through it without having to see the pediatrician. I really surprise myself because I'm a spaz about many things in life, but somehow, I maintain calm with this little guy. Must be God's way of allowing us to be parents!

Aside from all that fun stuff, not much else is new. I'm finishing up my last grad class of the year, and Zach is busy with baseball. We've booked our first family vacation; we're going to South Carolina with Grammy and Pappy Barone in June. I'm very excited, but also nervous about the trillions of things that could go wrong: Brady doesn't do well with the driving, Brady gets sunburn, Brady hates the beach, etc. It's also going to be weird having such great responsibility on vacation, but so far any change that Brady has brought has been wonderful, and I'm sure South Carolina will be no different.