William’s 9 Month Update

 

It’s been quite a few months since William’s last update! But thankfully, on the day of his 9 month birthday, the sun was shining and he was in a good mood! So we took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

And that outfit he has on? It was originally worn by my husband. *cue a big ‘awwwwwwww’*

William’s last update was at 5 months and, obviously, a lot has changed since then.

The biggest change is that he’s crawling all around. And mercy! He’s speedy. Elizabeth was very content to sit on the floor and play with toys in whatever room you were in. William knows he’s missing out on something in another room and it’s not long before he’s scampering off. He loves any toy of Elizabeth’s, especially one where she’s said “no William, it’s precious to me!” to him. (Classic little brother)

He is a delightful baby, though! He’s quick to smile and laugh. He’s got the most delightful cowlick which gives him a mohawk. William also has become a ham. At church, it’s not long before someone else swoops in to hold him. One week every time I glanced back he was being held by another teenager. HA!

Anyway, here’s a little update on what he’s been up to!

Height/Weight: At the last weigh in he was 18.5 lbs (48%) and 26.1″  (11%). But that was at 6.5 months… I’m sure there’s an extra inch or two in there now. He looks oh so chunky. But lately I’ve noticed he’s lengthening out.

Routine: Who doesn’t love to see a good ol’ schedule?? It’s been the same basic schedule the last few months, which I’m happy about.

Here’s his current routine.

  • 7:00am – Wake up and bottle
  • 7:30am – Eat breakfast
  • 9:30am – Nap
  • 11:00am – Bottle + Snack
  • 12:00pm – Lunch with Elizabeth
  • 1:00pm – Nap
  • 3:00pm – Bottle + Snack
  • 4:30pm – Usually is demanding some sort of food…
  • 5:00pm – Dinner
  • 6:00pm – Head up for bottle, story and bed
  • 6:30pm – Lights out!

Sleeping: I’ve determined William is a light sleeper. He only wakes up once in the night, and it’s usually to chat for a few minutes. I can handle that! He also sleeps better at night when his naps are no longer than 2 hours a piece. But overall, can’t complain! He’s got such a cute snuggling routine when he’s sleepy. Elizabeth never did that! She wanted to be dropped in the crib and not disturbed.

Eating:  Thankfully he’s backed off on formula bottles and now gobbles up real food! I remember Elizabeth doing the same thing. He at first couldn’t be bothered by food at 6 months. Now I can’t drop it on his tray fast enough. Seriously… this kid screeches if there isn’t any food in front of him.

Spitting up is also gone. He may dribble a bit while crawling around, but other than that it’s disappeared. We even run errands without a bib on now!!

His favorite foods are strawberries and blueberries, cheerios, avocado, sweet potato, and basically anything that comes in a pouch (he’s a big fan of those baby food pouches…)

 

Sizes: William is wearing size 4 diapers and wearing 12 month clothes. There are a few 9 month pjs and pants hanging around, but for the most part they are gone.

Milestones: Since it’s been quite a few months since the last update, here’s what’s been going on:

  • Finally started enjoying solids and feeding himself at almost 7 months
  • Started officially crawling at 7 months
  • Enjoys screeching at the top of his lungs
  • Started babbling at around 8 months
  • First “word” was maaaaaaaama (I’m calling it… claiming it!)
  • At 9 months he’s babbling up a storm. He’s clearly trying to tell us something
  • William can pull up to stand on shorter things, but still can’t quite figure out how to pull up on the coffee tables (thank goodness)
  • He doesn’t sit still and play. He constantly crawls around to explore.
  • The bathroom is a great mystery to him. He’s dying to know what goes on in there.
  • Elizabeth is his idol.
  • He doesn’t understand that “no dishwasher!” means no…. he just looks at me, grins and goes on trying to touch those dirty dishes.
  • Unlike his sister, William could care less about sitting on my lap to look at books.
  • Music and any loud noises are his groove of choice.

You can also catch up on the other month updates, take a peek at my latest diaper bag backpack, or read William’s birth story!

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High Five for Friday #113 – Avert Your Eyes

H54F - A weekly link up, hosted by Cup of Tea, Bright on a Budget, Coffee with Caitlin & Della Devoted

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

Can you believe it’s Friday already? The days are long… but the weeks are short!

1. Last weekend we had SUCH a busy Saturday. We had church, stayed after for a potluck lunch, and then went straight from there to a birthday party. We were away from the house from 10am to 7pm! Unfortunately, when those days happen, the kiddos never get the memo to sleep in the following day. HA! So we drowned our sorrows by going to our favorite breakfast place Sunday morning. That made it all better.

2. I checked “Decorate for Spring” off my list this week, and I was SO happy to do that! I feel like it takes me forever to decorate for the seasons. And I often decorate some areas of the house to basically last the whole Spring/Summer season, so this particular time of year takes a lot of effort to get it done. I also often fail at decorating the mantel. But I’m semi-pleased with it this year!

3. Basketball time! I love March basketball. This week we’ve watched 3 Duke basketball games… and I’m already hyperventilating about tonight’s conference semi-finals game against UNC. Every time they play together it’s a tough, hard fought game. But I’ve got my Duke colors on today, ready to go!

4. Ready for the Elizabeth Story of the Week? We were in the car, stopped at a stop light. From the back seat I hear Elizabeth say, “Mommy! Those dollies are so big! Can we go inside to see them?”. I look out the window and we’ve stopped right by an……….. adult store…….. and she has spied the mannequins in the windows, all dressed……. in an interesting way. This means I know HAVE to find a new way to Costco…….

5. This weekend my parents are in town visiting us. Hooray! I adore my parents, and it’s always a treat when they get to visit. So we are all going to soak as much family time up as possible.

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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Menu Monday | Favorite Menu Inspiration Sources

The best menu inspiration sources

I know you’ve been there…

You’re sitting down, menu planning for the week. You ask your family “what do you want to do this week?” and you get the same old answers. You flip through past menus and nothing sounds interesting. You cruise your Pinterest boards, but do you really need another recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich? (Although……… yes. I usually do.)

Looking to switch things up? Here is where I go when I’m feeling stuck in a rut.

Pinterest | Sometimes just searching “dinner” and seeing what pops up turns up an interesting meal. But often it shows you the same thing. I love cruising OTHER people’s boards to see what they have been pinning. My particular favorite is cruising the pins from Cookie + Kate (my fav food blogger) or seeing what my friends Come Home for Comfort and Polka-Dotty Place have pinned on our shared board New Recipes We Tried and Loved. There is always something delicious they have tried!

Food Bloggers | I don’t read food blogger blogs regularly, but I do jump on their sites when I need some new inspiration! One of my go-tos is Cookie + Kate, a vegetarian blog. She’s heavy on the Mexican flavors, which suits us just fine! Smitten Kitchen is another one that has delightful food. And then there is The Forest Feast! I often just browse her website because it’s gorgeous. But her food is delightful as well!

Cookbooks | I have my trusty go-to Fields of Greens! This is a cookbook from the chef at San Francisco’s Greens restaurant (which is amazing!) and some of my favorite recipes come from here, including a carmelized onion and goat cheese frittata. And if you’ve been following me on IG you know I’ve been loving my cookbooks from The Chubby Vegetarian.  Both books are good, but if I had to pick one, The Chubby Vegetarian cookbook has more variety of recipes. Some other go-to cookbooks are The French Market Cookbook, The Forest Feast, and the ever-helpful reference book The Joy of Cooking!

What do you do when you’re stuck in a rut? Any favorite cookbooks?

 

Need more ideas for dinner?
Follow my Pinterest board – it’s where I save all of my dinner ideas!

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High Five for Friday #112 – Kids Say Funny Things

H54F - A weekly link up, hosted by Cup of Tea, Bright on a Budget, Coffee with Caitlin & Della Devoted

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

Today’s featured blogger is Christina from The Patricios! She’s a wife and momma who loves to blog about life, fashion and recipes! She also loves to celebrate a holiday, like her recent Dr. Seuss Birthday party. Be sure to swing over and say hello!

How was your week? Let’s dive in and share!

1. Ready for your weekly Elizabeth story? This week I’ve had to stiffle so many giggles and keep my face serious when she says silly things! One hilarious moment happened post-nap. She came downstairs, ready for her usual cup of milk and watch her little show. I was in the kitchen getting her milk while she sat in her little pink chair in the family room. I heard her mumble something, and repeatedly asked her to say it again. She didn’t, so I figured it wasn’t urgent. When I walked her milk over, I asked one more time “what were you saying Elizabeth?”. She said “it’s ok, you’re right here now”. I was really confused, so I asked just out of curiosity, “can you tell me what you said?”. And she replied, “I asked “what is taking so long with my milk”“.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I had to remind her that it wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but I mean… such a hoot.

2. William has been a super speedy baby these days. I remember Elizabeth typically stayed right by me wherever I was in the house. William, on the other hand, when he sees an open hallway he’s away. I’m constantly looking around and shouting “William, come back!”. HA!

3. I’ve been trying to check some projects off my list. One of them is organizing Elizabeth’s classroom at our new church. This kids’ class has tons of doodads and props, and it just needs to be organized. I went down on Tuesday to get started. It was nice to at least get started with it, even though it didn’t get finished!

4. Last night’s date night was just delightful! It was pretty low key. Hubby and I just went to a local Italian restaurant and took tons of time just enjoying the quiet. Bonus – when we came back home, Elizabeth was in bed asleep! Our baby sitter said she declared she was “exhausted”.

5. I busted out the Spring and Easter decorations yesterday to get it all up this weekend. Elizabeth immediately grabbed the Easter baskets and plastic eggs and played “Easter Egg Hunt”. She spent hours all day hiding the eggs and then finding them. Hours. I was finding random eggs all day, tucked behind pillows, under a sofa, in a kitchen drawer, you name it. Love her creativity!

And William just thought a basket full of eggs sounded like a fun activity for dumping.

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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Menu Monday | New Recipes To Try

The best Pinterest recipes that you have to try!
It’s the last Monday of the month! That means I’m teaming up with my friends Come Home for Comfort and Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorite recipes from this past month that you HAVE to try!

There are so many recipes to try on Pinterest, that I forget to actually make them. At least this forces me to try a few recipes that get pinned.

Here’s a rundown of what I tried!

Goat Cheese + Carmelized Onion Pizza | This was one of those “tried long ago but forgot all about it” recipes on my Pinterest board. Man is it good! The recipe here uses a flat bread crust, but honestly, you could adapt this flavor combo for a lot of things, not just pizza! It would make a dandy pasta recipe as well.

Veggie Black Bean Enchiladas | These. Were. Amazing. (the second time) Funny story! This recipe has you make your own enchilada sauce. It’s SUPER easy, and could easily be doubled for the freezer. Anyway, I misread the “chili powder” ingredient and used cayenne instead – a whole whopping tablespoon’s worth! It was SO spicy that my habanero-pepper loving husband could barely eat it. The second time I used the called-for chili powder and it was just fine. This is one of those recipes you could refer back to and just switch up the enchilada filling with whatever you have on hand.

Austrian-style Potato Salad | I LOVE this potato salad! I’ve made it for years. It was a recipe in my trusty Cook’s Illustrated magazine years ago and was thrilled to find it online to pin. This potato salad is super creamy and flavorful, but uses zero mayonnaise! Very picnic friendly! The secret is mashing some of the cooked potato in the cooking liquid to make a creamy sauce, and then dress the salad. Genius!

Quick + Easy Crispy Tofu | Where has this recipe been all my life? I am constantly trying different ways to make tofu crispy, but it always falls flat. This was totally doable and it got added to my trusty, old school recipe box. It was that simple.

What are some amazing recipes you’ve tried lately? Have you peeked in your trusty recipe box recently?

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