Peter 9 months

Peter has been learning like crazy this month!

We've had a couple rough months of sleep, mostly because he's always stuffy (a mixture of cold and allergies I think). We decided to put him in the crib in Benjamin's room to see if it would help him sleep. It didn't. We had an especially rough few weeks, then out of the blue we put him down to sleep at 9 p.m. and I went to bed around 11 expecting him to be up soon to eat. When I woke up at 3 a.m. and he was still asleep I was shocked, full of milk and wide awake from getting 4 hours of sleep in a row! I stayed awake til 4 a.m. when he woke up finally to nurse. Well, soon after he slept 9-7 and he has done that the last few nights! He is also back to his 2-3 hour morning and/or afternoon nap. I think he was having major brain growth or something and it was affecting his sleep, because look at what he accomplished this month!

He started:
Walking with a walker
Standing on his own for a couple of seconds
Has pulled himself up a couple of times
Cruising
Sleeping through the night
Crawling
Stopped sucking his thumb on his own (this also attributed to the hard weeks of sleep as he had to find a new way to self-soothe).
Plays peek-a-boo

We bought a sound-machine from Target that does not have a timer. He started his good sleeping before it came in, so I can't attribute it all to this, but it definitely helps him stay asleep despite household noises. It also has a projector that has helped Benjamin's nightmares.
http://www.target.com/p/munchkin-nursery-projector-and-sound-system-baby-soother/-/A-15697981?lnk=rec|slp|search_bought|slp|15697981|3

Peter still showers us with kisses, especially me if he hasn't seen me in awhile. He calls everyone Dada and babbles.

January Pictures

Benjamin was ecstatic to having Peter sit in the cart with him for the first time. Peter is waving. 

I've been trying to take pictures of activities Benjamin likes to do so I can print them and make an activity book for him to look at for ideas of things to do while I'm teaching or busy.

We got our one snowfall of the year. It took Lamoni 2.5 hours to get to work (usually 25 minutes) and it was mostly melted by the afternoon!

Look at that chubbiness!

Playing with the Avengers soap Grandma and Bampa gave him,

I never pinterest...but when I do it turns out alright! These are the refreshments for the Great to be 8 night I put on at church. The funny thing is only the women and children noticed the donuts made an 8. The men just ate them.

Look at that concentration in his cello lesson! Miss Lisa is soooo good with him.

We were in LA for a conference and qualified for a trip to Laguna Beach. It was the first time Benjamin actually loved playing in the ocean. 

My mom on a walk.

It was nice having siblings there to help with the kids and play with them.

We snuck in a trip to see Nana. She and Peter got along great.

He took up her whole lap!

More chubbiness.

Heather King, my 1st counselor in the primary, helped with Peter while I was teaching. I came out to find them in the foyer watching the Piano Guys. Fascination with technology begins at birth.

This is me trying to do laundry...

Peter had a really bad blow-out diaper. I was happy to document it.

Benjamin is really patient with Peter. The only time he gets upset is when Peter is loud while he's trying to talk or sleep. We put Peter in Benjamin's room this past week and it took a couple nights for him to adjust.

Still in the rock and play and still sucking his thumb to sleep! Actually, we recently moved him into the crib in Benjamin's room where on a good night he'll sleep from 10-3 then I nurse him and put him in the rock and play by me. He usually gets up again at 6-7 to nurse. 

He opened this drawer himself and started pulling clothes out. 8 months is too early to make messes like that!

Benjamin learned how to write his name in January. Here he is after Joy School where he wrote it without my help. He will sit at the table happily writing for an hour. He calls out to me "how do you spell..." He's learning how to sound out words too.

Yep. Sometimes this happens while I'm teaching.

At Hoots, a children's indoor play area, with the play group. They have a bunch of those big inflatable slides and jump houses that are at parties. Benjamin went down the slide for the first time by himself! Usually he'll only go down a slide on one of our laps. Charity helped with Peter a lot!