Seven Eight Nine (Plus Valentine's Day 2014)

Nine months!  The boys has now spent as long on the outside as he has on the inside.  The Wife presented quite vividly the difference between what happens during these two nine-month periods in her informative and photo-tastic update, and although those first nine months were pretty amazing, the second nine have been more fun for all involved.

As I said above, The Wife posted most of the details of The Boy's latest developments, but I wanted to post a little Insta-log of some of the happenings over the last few weeks.  He's crawling and cruising all over the place, up (not quite down) the stairs, and we can't help but think he'll be walking proper within a week or two.  He's now showing a nice set of four teeth (the top two are just coming in and it's sort of a trick to get him to let you see them, but they're definitely there), he loves books and toys and crinkly things like junk mail and, lately, gently and methodically tearing apart a tissue.  His sleeping habits are mostly pretty good, even if he occasionally wakes up and realizes that he's not asleep anymore but also that he's extremely sleepy but also that he's apparently TOO sleepy to go back to sleep on his own?  I don't know, it is a VERY curious thing to me sometimes.  But the good thing is that this emergence of Mr. Hyde is definitely the exception, and usually our little Jekyll baby is as good as can be.  Most of the pictures we post here and there are of a happy baby, and though of course he has his down times (he's starting to develop a pretty mighty whine and even a fake cry), those photos are for the most part quite accurate.

The Little Merbaby

My master plan to train up a replacement dishwasher is working perfectly so far.

He's graduated to the big boy tub, which, as you can see, pleases him very much.  He often tries to escape.

The Duck and The Boy regarded each other.

 And now, a word about Valentine's Day.  It was here!  And it was lovely.  There were many delightful surpreezes for me scattered throughout the day, which made for a fun series of Instagram posts, and of course there were prizes for my loved one too (the usual things... flowers, chocolates... promises I tend to keep).

This is what I woke up to.  So much love!

This was delivered later in the morning by a little pony with a ribbon saddle.

And these came later in the afternoon!  Such nice salt dough hand and footprints.  And you can see The Boy trying to make his way into the picture too.

We had a great time having now-traditional sushi at Amber and Todd's house with all the married siblings and parents and overall just basked in the love we have for each other and this scrumptious little squishface of ours.

Mmmm...  I must say the sticky rice I contributed turned out pretty awesome, and Julie's two kinds of cookies were a big hit too.

Everyone having the Big Fun.  (Thanks for the photos, Dad's Insta.)

I hadn't come up with an idea for a Valentine's Day art until late in the morning, and then this happened, which it must.

Happy 3/4 of a year, son!  A few more months and you'll already be 1, which is crazy.  You make us laugh, you make us laugh until we cry, and occasionally we might also cry, but not because of you.

Fuzzy daddy kisses for my growing boy.