Nine Months!

We went for Maddox's nine month check-up on Friday and he is still growing like a weed! He is up to 19 lbs 11 oz. and is 28 inches long. What a big boy!! Everything checked out okay and he was up to date on all of his shots (which he and I were both pleased to find out). He did get his flu shot though since he hadn't had one yet, but one is certainly better than the four we're used to getting at these appointments. He was a very brave boy though. His sweet little sad face and cries break my heart every time he gets a shot, but fortunately he gets over it pretty quickly. We also finished up his antibiotic today that he has been on for a sinus infection and Blake has gotten over his walking pneumonia so I think we are finally all well (cross your fingers).

Dr. Harmon also told me that Maddox could eat from the table now so we are going to be starting that pretty soon. I still can't believe my little man is big enough to start eating real food...it just doesn't seem right! Tonight he did eat some banana that I smashed up into little pieces and he ate one of those Gerber wagon wheel things so he is off to a good start. He wasn't too sure about it at first though. It was funny because every time I tried to stick a little bite of banana in his mouth he would shudder and make these awful faces. I figured it was his way of telling me he wanted to eat from a jar and take a bottle for the rest of his life....haha! But after a few attempts he seemed to enjoy it. One thing I can tell already though is that meal time is about to get a whole lot messier! I can't wait!

Maddox also went to his first basketball game on Friday night. We went Birmingham-Southern to cheer on Huntingdon's women's basketball team that Uncle Andrew coaches. It ended up being an exciting game--they only lost by one point in overtime. Maddox really watched a lot of the game too. He was pretty captivated by all of the movement on the court. He was proud of his Uncle Andrew too! As always, he provided a good bit of entertainment to the crowd as well.

We are headed to Mobile on Tuesday for Thanksgiving and are excited to get to see a lot of family we haven't seen in a while. And I know that they are excited about getting to see Madddox again. I'm sure they will be happy to see us too, but let's face it, Maddox is the star of the show now!

And what good would a post be without a sweet picture?

Look Who's Crawling...

That's right...little man is crawling now! He isn't moving very fast yet, but he has got his form down. Before now he's been getting around from place to place in weird ways...scooting, pivoting, twisting in circles...but now he has figured out how to crawl up on his knees and everything. He still has to be enticed by something (typically phones, remotes, or pretty much anything that's not really a baby toy tend to work) or have something catch his eye before he heads off in crawl mode, but I am sure it won't be long before we are chasing him all over the place. I think it's probably a good thing for our sake that he's starting out slow.

Apparently this new crawling thing is wearing him out...today Sally said he fell asleep in his crib sitting up...definitely a first for him! He has gotten to the point where when you lay him down in the crib for a nap, the first thing he does is roll over and sit up or pull up on the side. Usually he lays back down after a few minutes and goes on to sleep, but apparently he forgot to lay back down today. This past weekend when I put him down for a nap on Sunday he stood right back up and yelled (happy screams, but screams nonetheless) at the top of his lungs. When I came back in to check on him after a while of this he busted out laughing...I guess he is coming up with new games. This should make naptime fun for everyone, haha!

I Can Pull Up!

My little man is growing soooo fast! Today he pulled up for the first time (of course I missed it because I was at work...boo). He has been working on this for a while now. He tries to pull up in his crib and he tries to pull up on things around the house like the couch, even though he isn't quite tall enough to reach just yet. Sometimes I'll cheat and assist him, but that doesn't count. I was happy to hear that he finally did it on his own since he has worked so hard, but I'll admit I was sad I missed it. Hopefully he'll do it again for me soon. He still isn't quite crawling yet. He can get from place to place, but he scoots all around and does these funny pivot moves to get where he needs to go. He keeps getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth so I know he will take off any day now. I told him tonight when I put him to bed that he's not allowed to do anything else for the first time when I'm not around (we'll see how well he follows directions I guess).

Happy Halloween!

Maddox had a great first Halloween! He was the cutest puppy in the whole world. I was a little afraid that he wouldn't do well in his costume because this is what happened when I tried it on him the week before... But luckily for us he felt much better about it on Halloween and spent most of the night dressed up. We went over to Scott and Jessica's house for dinner and we had so much fun playing with all the other cute little munchkins that were there. In addition to Maddox, we had Jackson, the giraffe, Justin, the pumpkin/puppy, and Avery, the ballerina. They were all adorable! We did miss our little friend Whit who I believe was supposed to be a hot dog. Sorry we missed that! Hopefully he and his parents are feeling better.

Maddox and Jackson even took part in their first trick-or-treating experience. We only went to two houses, but they had fun ringing doorbells and getting candy. Maddox even got himself a king size Hershey bar. I told the lady we didn't need it, but Maddox stuck out his hand to get it, as if to say, "Speak for yourself!"

All in all, we had a great Halloween!

First Tooth!

After much anticipation we finally have a tooth! Maddox's bottom left tooth has broken through. We've been waiting on this for a while because he has been chewing on his fingers (and pretty much everything in sight) and drooling like crazy for a while now. I am pleased to report that this tooth didn't seem to bother him much...no fussiness, fever, bad diapers, or anything that everyone has been telling me about. Let's just hope the rest come through this easily!

Halloween is Almost Here

Since Halloween is less than a week away, we decided go ahead and carve our pumpkin the other night. Maddox was excited to help carve his first pumpkin. His daddy did most of the work, but Maddox was in charge of the newspaper under the pumpkin (or at least that's what he decided his job would be). I don't think he could have been less interested in the pumpkin or more interested in shredding up paper and tossing it around.

Maddox taking his newspaper duties very seriously.

The work in progress. Notice that Maddox is still making sure the newspaper is properly laid out.

Posing with the finished product. Didn't they do such a great job? They are lucky the design I picked out was the easiest one or this could have taken a lot longer! :)

Even though he wasn't all that interested in the carving process (after all he is only 8 months old), he was very interested in the finished product, especially once it was lit up. He also tried to eat it a few times, but that is pretty typical of most things.

Maddox's Favorite Jingle

Recently I have discovered that Maddox is quite entranced by the Milos commercial. He seems to love the tune and he is captivated by the giant pictures of food they flash across the screen...maybe he is trying to tell us he is ready for some real food (although we are still waiting on teeth). Tonight we were playing on the floor with his toys and the commercial came on. Of course, as soon as Maddox heard it, he immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to watch with a big smile on his face. He watched the whole thing and as soon as it was over, he went right back to playing with his truck. I decided that I needed to capture it on film since it is so funny to watch. I rewound the commercial (I love DVR) and recorded Maddox's reaction, which was exactly what I thought it would be. He usually isn't all that interested in tv (except when Baby Einstein is on of course), but this gets him everytime. This may only be funny to me, but I just had to share!