NINE Months!

 

Whoever created these Sticky Belly things should have really made the 8-12 month ones WAY stickier.  Like hard core Velcro or something?  Needless to say, Cole WOULD NOT leave his sticker on his belly.  So, I tried putting it behind him on the chair, on my hand, etc.  You couldn't keep him away from that thing!!!

Cole has some pretty serious stranger danger going at the moment.  For some reason he is much more scared of women than men, which seems backwards compared to most babies.  You can tell how upset he is by the severity of his frown face before he starts to cry when strangers approach him.  Older ladies are even worse than younger ladies.  It is really hard to explain to the little granny types that come up "Oh, sorry, my baby doesn't like old ladies."  What is even worse is that Taryn doesn't quite have the filter to edit that, so I sometimes have to talk over her and explain things more delicately.  I am a little nervous about how this whole daycare thing is going to get reintroduced in the next couple weeks...   

Cole is now EXTREMELY mobile.  He can crawl everywhere FAST.  He loves to chase Lee around the house while he is trying to get ready for work.  You can just hear him chugging up and down the hallway trying to get Daddy.  If Daddy isn't around, he does the same thing to me.  Once he catches you, he pulls up on your legs and hangs on to you standing.  It makes it really hard to do anything, like make dinner, get ready, walk... 

Cole is also starting to get very vocal.  After his first word, "HI", he kind of took a hiatus and had just been making more yells and screams.  But, all of the sudden he is making big progress and has added "mama" and a "tee" sound that we think is going to progress into what he calls Taryn.  He can also say "all done" and finally has added "dada".   

Cole has started to realize that he is funny.  He will attack his sister.  He dances.  He imitates.  If we laugh at him, he will do it a bunch more times.  He may give his sister a run for the money in comedy. 

 Cole went to the doctor last week.  He weighed 20 lbs 11 oz and is 28 inches tall.  He is about 65th percentile for both height and weight.  His head is in the 90th percentile.  He is still wearing size 12 months and size 4 diapers.  He has 5 going on 6 teeth.  4 on top and 2 on the bottom.  He still has incredible, big blue eyes.  I don't think that he looks all that much like Taryn, but some people say they do.  I think Cole is a pretty darn good mix of Lee and my families and it is very hard to pinpoint any one person that he really takes after. 

Cole eats about 28 oz of formula a day.  He shares pancakes or French toast with his sister for breakfast and eats baby food at lunch and dinner and then a little finger food.  He prefers the REAL food, but just can't quite get enough into his mouth for us to stop giving him baby food.  Despite my attempts, he totally refuses to hold his own bottle and kind of just looks at me like I'm an idiot for even suggesting it. 

Cole just went on his 2nd trip...  Both of his trips have been to Tennessee.  Apparently that is our favorite destination!  Cole did a really amazing job on the car ride and realized that he really loves to swim!  He also discovered that pools make him poop.  Awesome. 

Cole got his 3rd haircut, but this was really the first drastic one.  His first haircut was just a Mohawk removal.  The 2nd one we just trimmed a bit around the bottom.  This one was the real deal, complete with Daddy's clippers.  It was definitely a team effort.  We had him trapped in the Bumbo, I restrained him, Taryn talked incessantly and Lee buzzed as fast as he could.  The haircut makes him look SO different, but just as cute as ever!