9 Months!!!

My baby doesn't listen to me! I keep telling him no more growing up but he keeps doing it!!! My little man is 9 months old :)....... :(. I know I say this every month, but I am in awe of how fast he growing up. I feel like this was another big month for Jax, especially in his confidence. I am so proud of what he is able to do and the little person he is and is becoming. He has such a fun, strong, outgoing personality. Jon and I truly feel so grateful to be his parents and feel like we have grown so much in our roles thus far. I know for me every day is a new challenge to be the best mom I can be and I am grateful for Jax's unconditional love & unwavering patience with me. Well enough of the mushies....here are my favorites things about this last month with Jaxson.

He has become so confident in his crawling, sitting, everything! It's been so amazing to see him go from being a little uneasy and apprehensive to rockin' it :).

He still loves to poke everything and has started to point at things which is super cute.

He still loves to stand at all times and is now pulling himself up. Occasionally pulling whatever he grabs to pull up on, on top of himself. Sad but a little funny. He is a pretty tough kid.

He now throws awesome temper tantrums. The only thing missing is the thrashing around on the floor. But he hoots and hollers, bucks back and will kick his feet and wave his hands. He doesn't do it very often so we still find mild amusement in it, but I am sure that will change very soon! :) 

He loves him some bumper pads. So here is the story.....We had decided to remove his bumper pads because when he wakes up from a nap or doesn't want to go do for one, he had been crawling on top of the bumper pads to try and get out of his crib. Logically we thought it was time to remove the bumper pads. So one night before bed we took them off and put him down to bed. All was fine till about 2am. Then I hear him wailing like he's hurt. So I went in there and found that his pacifier had slipped between the crib railing onto the floor. I grabbed "binks", popped it back in his mouth and went back to bed. Ten minutes later I heard him cry the same way. I looked on the monitor and he was right next to the railing again so I figures he had lost his pacifier again. I went to his room, but found he still had his binkie. I rubbed his back for a few seconds, he calmed down and I went back to bed. (Now mind you this is very unusual for Jax. Usually he goes to bed at 7:00pm, wakes up to feed at 5:30am and he goes back to bed till about 8:00am.) So after another 10 minutes went by, he started wailing again. I figured okay maybe it's a random set back night, we've had those before for no apparent reason. So I decided to do a little progressive cry it out. At almost 4am with him, myself and now Jon awake it dawned on me....the kid just wanted his bumper pads back!!!! So I picked him up, Jon put the bumper pads back, laid him back down....he slept till 8:30am!!!!!! We discovered, he snuggles them like a pillow because there is nothing else in his crib. He kills me!!!! LOVE HIM :) Needless to say, those bumper pads are staying!

He is very determined. If he wants something, he will do anything and everything he can to get it. If doesn't want to do something (i.e. getting diaper changed, getting dressed, eating sometimes, etc.) he will do anything and everything to get out of it. I don't like the work stubborn but he is very strong willed ;).

His favorite noises of the month are....."brmmmm brmmmm", "Nah, Nah, Nah," (which I am praying doesn't turn into No, No, No), "Mamamam", "Daddadaa".

We have gotten the occassional fist open, fist close wave. Its usually to himself, while he examines it. So cute! We also get the occasional high five. Oddly, most often when he is laying down....go figure!

He is slowly but surely converting into what we call the big boy crawl with knees, elbows and all! Typically it's only a few big boy crawls and then back to the combat, tippy toe crawl but he is definitely getting the hang of it. He has also started going from crawling to sitting. It starts as a tippee stand and then one of his feet come forward and then the other, and more often then not, he tumbles.....but sometimes it results is a genuine sit!

Jax is very mischievous! A lot of times when I say his name, he will turn his head ever so slightly and I will catch the cutest, most devious little smirk. Basically what he is saying, "I can totally hear you momma but I'm not turning around, nope, nope, nope." I usually get this look when I am telling him no touching (i.e. the cable box or a charger cable). Truly, there are not a lot of no-no items at our house but he manages to find them all and they are his favorites! It doesn't help that we are currently in the process of packing to move so we have stuff every where. The one benefit we have found in packing for Jaxson is having boxes everywhere because he LOVES them. I don't think he will know what to do with himself once we move and are fully unpacked. Pretty sure we will just keep a box in the playroom for his enjoyment! BLESS HIM!!! :)

The fourth of July brought a few things to light about Jax I had no idea about. I kind of thought he was a morning babes....NOPE! We had to get up super early (6am) for the balloon fest in Provo on the third. Little mister was super tired, quiet the whole time and a little grumpy. He crashed big time after that. He is like his momma, don't mess with his sleep. We also discovered he is a heavier sleeper at night than we gave him credit for....he slept through all the fireworks. And this was not just on the 4th but for three days before and three days after and some randoms ones after that....wahoo is all I have to say. But I noticed I do NOT sleep through the fireworks! :( Unfortunately because of his earlier bedtime we did not get to see his reaction to actually seeing the fireworks, something to look forward to next year!

He loves a puffy. We started giving him puffs to help with his pincher milestone. We discovered he will do anything to get the puffy into his mouth, loves them! We have tried a couple of other finger foods with no success and a little puke because he is a big time texture boy we have disovered. If he doesn't like it, he gags which causes him to puke. So far, Jax and I have been puked on twice. :( GROSS!

He is now in the big boy tubby, well kind of.  We have taken the divider out of his baby tub and he is sitting up in it. I know I should have done this quite a while ago but he loved lounging so much....yep he is spoiled! But now he can splash and play and he's pretty much in heaven. Next step is no baby tubby at all, just a no slippy mat and the big tub! 

His favorite songs are still Twinkle, Twinkle, Baby Mine, Silent Night, Monkeys Swinging in the Tree and now he thinks Little Bunny FuFu is the greatest. He seriously laughs so hard when the good fairy comes down and give the bunny chances. I especially love Little Bunny FuFu because my Grandma Lettie would always sing that to me when I was little while tracing her finger around my face. Which I also to do to Jaxson and he loves it.

His seperation anxiety continues to get better. Jon and I were able to escape on a much needed movie date (building a house is STRESSFUL!) and my sister Brooke watched him. I loved getting a picture of a smiling babes! And I also loved walking to her house and n

Jaxson loves to go on Jon's shoulders. When he realizes he is about to be lifted onto Jon's shoulder he gets the biggest grin on his face and once he is up there, his grin turns into hysterical laughter.  The only challenge we have found is trying to get him down, because it makes him so sad.

So church has become HARDER! (yes, yes I know, it only gets more difficult the older they get) Jaxson is a busy little person to say the least. We have started just putting him on the floor to play because he will crawl up, down and all over us. He thinks Jon and I are his personal jungle gym and he should be entertaining everyone behind him with his smiles! Thank goodness he is finding ways to entertain himself while sitting on the floor. Recently while sitting on the foor during Sacrament meeting, he grabbed the chair in front of him and discovered he could use his arms to slid back and forth on his tush in between the bottom of the chair. He found this quite amusing. Then when he was sitting with us, he found a little friend (a little boy, 2 or 3 years old), who was eating cereal. Jax still loves, loves, loves watching people chew (funny but so true!). So as this little boy ate his cereal, Jax starts busting up laughing and then the little boy would take bigger mouth fulls of the cereal and Jax would laugh even harder. It was pretty amusing to watch! We may only hear about 5% of what the speaker says but we are there! (in the back row, sometimes kind of really late, sometimes pacing with a tired baby, etc.....be we are there!)

Jax still loves the pool. We have been spending a lot of time at the pool trying to take advantage of it while we still live at our complex. Jax has the attitude that he could go to the pool pretty much every day. He thinks his pool floaty is a jumper made for the water. And when he is done, he could live in the cabana. The pool is probably one of the only things we will miss about living in our condo (Lindon Pool next year!).

He loves to hide and thinks he is so funny. He either tries to hide in his crib when I come to get him from sleeping. Or he hides behind the ottoman in our family room. But I absolutely love when he is crawling around on the floor and I tell him that I'm going to get him and he starts to crawl away really fast and then does a 180 and comes full speed at me....He's a funny one!

Okay this is probably my favorite story of the month! My sisters and I were going swimming at the pool in our apartment complex but when we got here discovered the baby pool was closed. Jax loves the baby pool because its warm and he can touch (& jump). But wanting to be part of the party, Jax and I decided to brave the big (COLD) pool. When we first got in, Jax started to cry. Too cold for him and he couldn't touch in his floaty. So I pulled him out and just held him. We swam around for a while and he was on and off happy. I decided to set him on the edge of the pool to see what he would do. When I put him on the ledge, he leaned forward, did a little butt scoot and I caught him. After I caught him I noticed a HUGE smile on his face. So we decided to do it again. At this point he had attracted a few cheerleaders/helpers (his cousins, Jacq & Lola and Auntie, my sister Brooke) and this put him on cloud nine. We started to counting to three, sometimes he would go on three and sometimes not so much. But it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Like every month, I honestly could go on and on about this cute boy of ours! Here are some pictures of our crazy, sweet little guy (sometimes I wish I could freeze him time!!!!).........

"See how I've grown......"
 8 Months, 7 Months, 6 Months, 5 Months, 4 Months, 3 Months, 2 Months, 1 Month, Birth