9 Month Must Haves

Surprise, surprise...9 months was a lot of fun! Jack became more independent and started to show some more personality.

He's a lover of moving. He wants to dance, walk, crawl, climb, slap, and roll everywhere.

#1 Activity Table - This is another Christmas winner. We have this little table setup in front of our coffee table and Jack is standing up at it as soon as you put his butt on the ground. Obviously the cell phone is his favorite part just like it is on this other push toy from last month. Matter of face we have both toys next to each other and cruises between each one. Hands down his favorite thing in the world. It also now gains him access to the coffee table and mom and dads toys!

#2 Cart Cover - Ours is a hammy down but this one is similar. I love it. I see other parents roll their eyes at me and think "first time mom" but sure enough I didn't use it one time and Jack immediately started sucking on the handle of the cart and then had pink eye, an ear infection, and a cold within a few days....so this is priceless to me. I'd rather annoy other parents then deal with that plague again.

#3 Spin Rattle and Roll Toy - This is a simple baby toy. But he simply can't get enough. He SLAPS EVERYTHING! So the giant spinners get a lot of use and he thinks the rattle noise they make is hilarious. The tiny balls on top are perfect for practicing dexterity and he loves moving them from one side to the other. And he really concentrates on doing one at a time, so hey whatever works :)

#4 Foam Bath Animals - I bought these for myself really :). He was perfectly content with his bath chickens from his 6 months must haves but I wanted more toys for him since he loves bath time so much and now he's in the giant bath. He does play with them but he's picky. He only plays with the dolphins. I think it's because they have the skinny bodies that are easy for his tiny hands to hold or he's just discovered his favorite animal. He'll play with the other ones until a dolphin gets close enough to grab and then they get tossed aside. So to make it fair and equal sometimes I play with them. We can't have sad bath toys ;)

Jack's 10 Month Update

Weight: ~18 lbs

Length: ~28"

Loves: His loves are still pretty much the same. He loves to army crawl, hold on to us while walking or standing, and he still loves his walker. But man that kids needs to learn to turn :). He also loves to play chase. When he's crawling he looks over his shoulder at you like a cheeky fox and then giggles and takes off crawling, hoping to beat you to nowhere, if he's walking he loves to chase you and run over your toes.

Hates: He HATES when he gets stuck. If he's in his walker and a wall has rudely gotten in his way, or if he tries to pull up and stand under the coffee table or that the bottom bars on our chairs are too high to wiggle over. He hates getting stuck.

Milestones: He has done a lot! He's pulling up on pretty much everything, but since he's an army crawler it has to be close enough to the ground for him to reach from his belly. So people, toys, shelves, etc. are all fair game. He can pull up to stand from sitting and he does try to stand from sitting without something to pull up on but he looks pretty sad :).

Update! - I almost forgot Jack has started to cruise a little! He pulls up on his toy table and grabs and waddles like a handsy drunk sailor over to his push toy. He obviously can't walk without holding onto something but slowly he's learning! Hopefully a video to come :)

So last month I thought he was on the verge of meaning it when he says mama and dada but I think I was wrong. He still throws them around aimlessly. But sometimes it does seem on purpose like when I change his diaper he'll say mama or dada if he sees him come in the room but other times he'll look right at me and say dada. So who really knows :)

He can wave now but still needs prompting and he waves with his whole arm which is totally adorable.

He will also share his toys sometimes. If you are doing something cool with his toy (because we have to play or do something while we watch them :) ) he will hand it back to you to do again. It's really the most adorable thing.

Sleep: He is a great sleeper! But he's getting used to work schedule again after the holidays so he's waking up earlier which means waking up earlier on weekends too. But I guess that's just more snuggle time :)

Eating: He still has 4 bottles a day 6 oz each. Then three solids, breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is capable of eating smooshy finger foods but he doesn't really like to. He wants what he wants and nobody can convenience him otherwise. He'll eat some fries off our plate, puffs, and some other various things I cut up for him; but other times he throws a fit and spits it all back out. So we're learning.

Teething: FINALLY HE HAS A TOOTH! It's also his top tooth which I guess is not the norm but hey we'll take it! It so funny to see this pearly white thing sticking out of his gum when he giggles.

Romantic Getaway Christmas Present

A few weekends ago now Max and I went on our Romantic Getaway. It was my Christmas present and I couldn't have been happier.

Max booked a fantastic room at Hacienda Corona de Guevavi B&B (Spoiler: the first picture on the home page was our room! It was enormous!) but didn't plan anything before check in which was at 4 so we had some time to kill. He gave me several options including a guided cave tour, the biosphere, or a national park. But we finally decided to walk around and enjoy the town of Bisbee.

We left the house around 8:30 and dropped Jack off with my in-laws. Of course I packed a giant bag, wrote out a schedule, and other crazy first time mom things but I was going to miss him so much! They were very nice about it and scooped him up and shoved us out the door. It was a 3 hr. drive down to Bisbee so we needed to get started early.

We got there right around lunch time so first things first we ate a delicious meal at an old historic hotel; it was so cool. The rest of the day we spent walking around, antiquing, eating, drinking coffee and holding hands :). I was all so adorable.

We found this old antique toy store and of course I had to check it out. They had the oldest walker I had ever seen and some fun wooden toys. I really wanted to get Jack one of those old wooden boats but Max thought it was goofy so we didn't. When he's a little older I totally plan on coming back and letting him pick something out if he wants.

We got some hand made dog treats, Bisbee Coffee, and a jar of the best desert honey ever!! I also got a super cute glass bracelet from a local lady in this open air alley-way market. Her jewelery was gorgeous. She made it all by hand. She would spin thin lines of glass around and around to make a whole bead then press it down and magically those thin lines would make a pretty desert scene. She was amazing!

I highly recommend Bisbee to everyone it was amazing and the people are super nice.

The B&B was about an 1.5 hrs. from Bisbee which was kinda of annoying but the drive was so beautiful that it made it worth it. We drove between two mountains and even got peeks at snow. There were so many saguaro's and amazing views.

We got to the B&B just after check in and because of some kind of miracle we were there all alone. We got the whole place to ourselves. Our host was truly amazing. She was beyond nice and made us feel like family. The night started off with free wine and appetizers and we got to hear so many stories about the place in the "good ol' days". Little did we know that the "John Wayne" room isn't just named that because of all the cowboy memorabilia but because he actually met the old owners when he was filming Red River. He became such good friends with them that he threw parties and hung out there a lot. It's also known for the beautiful murals on it's walls in the courtyard. They were well preserved and apparently people come from all over to see them. We didn't even know so it was an extra nice surprise for us.

Not only was the B&B gorgeous the property it sat on was as well. It had acres after acres of land. Horses, cows, chickens, and amazing views in every direction.

Sitting around talking felt so comfortable and relaxing that I almost felt bad for asking about dinner and heading off on our own.

But of course she suggested a fantastic place for dinner and the way she sold it we knew we couldn't pass it up, and we were starving anyway :). It turned out to be the best Mexican food I have ever had. The atmosphere was amazing and the food was even better. I would drive all the way down there just for that.

We spent the rest of the night enjoying every second of our little getaway for two. The next morning we had a super tasty breakfast. It was like a combination between a dutch baby and a crepe with fruit baked into it. We had to get back up to Jack so we left right after breakfast, but both of us were dragging our feet. I missed Jack so much but was so glad to spend some time just being husband and wife and not mom and dad. Max truly won this Christmas.

Hope you loved all your Christmas presents as much as I did!