Ben at 9 months!

•At your 9 mo. apointment you weighed 19 lbs 4 ozs and are 28 inches long. You wear mostly 6-12 mo. clothes and some 12-18 mo. stuff.

•You are growing up SOOO fast and every stage is my favorite. Your little personality is so fun and you are my favorite buddy!

•You started crawling just after your 8 month birthday:) and now you are super fast and starting to pull up on things. You can pull up to your knees but not to your feet yet, because you still stand on your tip toes... weird but we are watching it and waiting for you to grow out of it... otherwise we will still love our little ballerina:)

(sorry the video did weird things)

•You started clapping too and its ADORABLE but i haven't gotten it on video yet--stay tuned:)

•You sleep from between 8-9pm to between 7-8am sometimes straight, other times you wake up a couple times to cuddle with mom which I am ok with. You sleep with your blue blanky from grandma and your binky.

•Your favorite toys are jumper and table (borrowed from a friend-Thanks Joce!), definitely Monkey Face, your bathtub dinos, and BOOKS!! and of course you like to play with anything that's not a toy: shoes, kitchen stuff, combs, etc. :)

• You still just have the 2 bottom teeth, but top gums look a little swollen!?

we shall see...

•You have great hand-eye coordination and have learned how to feed yourself and pick up small finger food--its so cute:)

•You are getting so smart! You remember where things are one day to the next, you seem so aware of everything around you, you can find things I've "hidden" from you, & as SOON as we aren't looking you head straight to what you know you aren't supposed to play with (remote, phones, etc.)

•As previously posted, you also mastered being able to suck from a straw...haven't tried it for a while so perhaps you could have done it before but now we know you can:)

•You love love love to go on walks and bike rides:)

•You love to ride in cars and carts at the mall or store-for the first half hour at least-mom takes too long sometimes!!

•You love your homemade baby food especially sweet potatoes and squash. You will actually touch green stuff (beans or peas) if they are homemade so we have made several batches this month! You eat 3 solid meals a day and nurse 2-3x and LOVE to eat what mom and dad eat.

•The last few weeks we grind up whatever we are eating at dinner for you to eat and you LOVE it! (mom's kabob, rice & peaches, and Ben's kabob rice & peaches

-not my finest meal but just illustrating my point:)

• You love to read scriptures with mom and dad at night. Sometimes you aren't as gentle with the pages as we would like but you are getting better:)

•You are a good helper with laundry-NOT! (how 6th grade is that? haha) You see a pile of laundry and pull it apart one at a time but its pretty cute:)

•You have watched many football games in your short life and love watching and cheering on your family's alma mater! esp #9 :) Win or Lose you still bleed blue!

We love you so much Ben and love that you are such an EASY, HAPPY baby...seriously! we couldn't have a more perfect, great big boy!