Dear Sheppard...Nine months

Dear Sheppard...

Oh how you have grown and changed this month. You are really crawling these days and you can go very fast! If I set you down and walk into another room you chase after me. Your sister is not too pleased with this new development because it means you can go to her and get into all the toys she is playing with. You are so interested in her and want to do what ever she is doing. This makes you both frustrated at times because she is an independent little lady and doesn't want you in her stuff. One day (hopefully soon) you two will be able to play together.

 You are standing and cruising on everything these days, You will even let go and stand up for a few seconds. For the most part you have really good control over your body. When you fall back you usually roll back and slowly sit up using all your abs. You can crawl up and down the two steps in our house. You love to climb into things-- laundry baskets, the dishwasher, toy bins, and bags. You also like to challenge yourself and crawl under the chairs and over our legs. You still have some hard falls at times, but that is part of learning and growing. It seems as though you always have a bruise of some sort on your face.

You are very much a stereotypical boy. You grunt and growl and pound your hands. You're pretty loud and really like to let us know when you do not like something. Your new thing is this horrible sounding pterodactyl type screech. Your sister had this type of screech too when she was your age, but you use yours much more often. At first it was cute to see you find your voice and state your opinions, but now....not so cute. For some reason it seems like you have really been yelling at meal times. However, you love eating, and will pretty much eat anything we put in front of you (except bananas) so maybe all this noise is just that you like hearing your voice, or your excited about your food (especially ribs)...who knows!

Its good that you keep getting teeth to help you will all this eating! You got two more this month, and you handled teething like a champ recently! I think between your teething necklace and my homemade teething rub you barely noticed those suckers popping through. For the most part you have been sleeping great. You take two or three naps a day and get up only one or two times a night. You are still breastfeeding, but during the day you are too busy to get a good nursing session in, but at night you chow down!

You have a slight flare for the dramatics. When you get really upset about something, you fold in half and put your forehead on the ground and cry...it is so pitiful and sad. This usually happens when you are stopped from doing something you really want to do, like playing with the cat's or dog's water bowl. You are also crying all the time in your car seat...you hate it. Luckily you usually fall asleep pretty quick, but when you don't you let everyone in the car know that you do not want to be strapped down. We did take a few trips this month. We went to your papa's home town of Winnemucca for a wedding, and you had so much fun crawling around the dance floor and hanging out with your great Aunt Vicki and great Uncle Steve. You also got to meet your future bffs Waylon and Paxton. They are the little brothers to your sisters friends, and your mama and papa's long time friend Sylvester visiting from The Gambia, Africa.

You are a busy boy, always moving, smiling, yelling and exploring. We have noticed that you like to sit in W's (see picture above) I guess your papa would sit this way all the time. It is so fun to see what parts of me and your papa you have, and also to watch you come into your own unique person. Sheppy--my buddy, keep exploring!