Harvey's Nine Month Favs

Ok, so I'm all ready to tell you about the life and times if Harvey at nine months.

*While he doesn't crawl, this kid can get around. He has discovered all kinds of things that he likes to roll/shimmy towards in our house. He likes to roll on over to the entertainment center to push some buttons on the DVD player and to stick his hands in the VCR. And to rip any Netflix envelopes that happen to be laying there. Very helpful. Now, getting to the entertainment center requires a series of flinch/squeeze-your-eyes-closed-because-you're-not-sure-when-you're-going-to-bump-your-head rolls. He just keeps rolling until he eventually bumps his head. Then he knows he has arrived. He also rolls to the fireplace to open the trap door that hides the ignitor, the curtains to give them a good tug, the back door to make the loudest noise with our wooden blinds, and the little springy stopper behind the backdoor is also a favorite. So, crawling is not necessary for this kid. He doesn't mind a little rolling around and head bumping to get into some good trouble.

*He loves to flip in his bed and sleep on his tummy. He seriously laid in his bed like Flat Stanley until just a few weeks ago. We would put him to bed on his back in the middle of his bed, and find him the same way 12 hours later. Then all the sudden, he just realized, 'Wait, I can move in here, just wike I move out dere!'. And so he does, all the time. His bed and Pack-n-Play are not that wide, so it takes some serious moves to flip around, but he manages!

*Harvey loves to beat mercilessly on anything he can get his hands on to see what it will do. This is his main method of discovery in life. We call it the 'slappy paw'. This kid's hands are huge, like bear cub paws. He pounds faces, his tray on his highchair, any and all toys, etc. You get it close to him, he'll give it a thorough slapping.

*Harv has 3 teeth now, all on the bottom. And somehow (going to google this soon), he is able to make a sound that sounds like he's grinding his teeth. But against what? There are no other teeth in his mouth. So bizzarre.

*Sleep. He's such an amazing sleeper. He wakes up in the morning at 7:00. Then he's back down for morning nap from 9:00-11:00. He plays for a bit, then he's down for afternoon nap from 1:00-3:30/4:00 (typically 4). Then back to bed for the night at 7:00. Yup, that's about 17 hours a day. Insane. And, temporary. That morning nap is about to be obsolete, the afternoon nap might even get shorter. Regardless, he's a great sleeper. And the best part, there is no song and dance trying to get him to go to bed. We just go in there, put him in his sleepsack, put him in his bed, and done. He does the rest. He actually doesn't even like to be rocked at all. Kind of sad, but I'll take that over rocking/singing/begging him to sleep.

*He's really decided that he's waaaay too cool for all that baby cuddling junk. You try to pull him in for a good hug, and he's using every fiber of his being to push his head back away from you. The other day I tried to hold him like a baby, and he got stiff as a board, both arms stretched out to his sides, and he was bowing his back trying to get away from me. Where do they learn this?! Man, Harv, you should still think your parents are the coolest. Ever. Cause we are. Have you seen me dance? Yeah, I'm awesome. So just let us cuddle a little more. Three more months, then you can be independent. That's how that works, right?

Tomorrow we have his 9 month checkup, so I'll update with all his stats tomorrow!