{9} months

It's official -- he's been out longer than he was in!!! Which means Christmas is just a mere three months away!

This is pretty much what I was dealing with during our quick photo shoot...

Preston has been busy, busy, busy!! He's all over the place these days!! The kids are annoyed with the fact that he is instantly attracted to their belongings. He's now for-real crawling, army crawling like a maniac, everything speck of anything goes into the mouth, pulling to a stand on short items, going mowgli-style and getting stuck, A LOT!!!

He hasn't figured out how to get himself down from this one ^ on his own
And his new thing is to get high-centered on the kitchen chairs, heehee!

We've got a major case of red, chafed crawler's knees here. Momma's working on acquiring some BabyLegs to keep those chubbers from getting rubbed raw.

The boy has lungs. OH BOY does he have lungs!!! Matt used to refer to our nephew Spencer as "mandrake." Well, move over, Spencer! I think we have a new title holder!!! He usually only emits these ear-piercing shrieks when tired or his highchair tray is empty. Or during church. Our ward was introduced to Presty's screams during a baby blessing (eek!) and while the sacrament was being passed (oops!) this past Sunday. We're referring to the mandrake root from Harry Potter as defined below --

"Whenever unearthed, the root screams. The scream of a mature Mandrake when it is unearthed will kill any person who hears it, but a young Mandrake's screams will usually only knock a person out for several hours." from harrypotter.wikia.comYep, that's him!! LOL!

Sleep. I wish he'd be consistent!! He's the easiest kid in the world to GET to sleep - zip him up in sleep sack, lay him down, stick binky in mouth, close door, done. He naps well. And 3 times a day. But nighttime sleep is all over the place!!! He HAS slept through the night, so I know he can do it! He doesn't need to be nursing all throughout the night, for heaven's sake! Matt would rather me just feed him than let him scream. I am NOT against crying it out (CIO) at all. We've done it with every other one of the kids. But for whatever reason, we haven't gone there yet. Sometimes Preston will sleep from 7:30pm-4:30am, nurse, back to bed, wake for day @ 6:30ish, which I'm fine with, but other times he's up at 10:30pm, 12:30am, 3:00am, 5:30am, ARGH!!!! I'm thinking it's time to invest in some earplugs for all of us because I'm not a very happy person when I don't get my sleep at night!!!

Preston has decided that he prefers real people food over the purees. And I don't blame him! He gobbled up this turkey meatloaf and green beans for dinner one night!! I think his fave puree, though, is pears mixed with oatmeal cereal. He can suck down 4-5 cubes of that!! He also loves avocado chunks and black beans, although I don't care so much for seeing that in his diaper the next day!

9 month stats~

Weight: 20 lbs. 11 oz (53rd %ile)
Length: 30 in (93rd %ile)
Head Circum: 18.5 in (90th %ile)

Slowing down in weight gain since he's more mobile now, which is completely normal for all my kids. He got three vaccines, including the first of his flu shot series. We love our pediatrician SO much and I would refer anyone in the WORLD to her!!! She was actually my pediatrician when I was a teen and I'm so glad that all my kids have been able to be under her watch and care the whole time we've lived in Arizona (before & after opt. school). She's awesome with the kids and she's very special to us.The next well check he'll have will be his 1 year check and I know that'll be here before we know it. *sniff sniff* Love our Prestido!!