9 Months......

My dear Peanut
I wanted to keep this blog updated every month to track your first year of life, but I have been lazy and this is just the second time I do it. I remember though most of the dates of your milestones so I am going to list them here so that we have a record of when each thing happened.
-June 14th, 2008.- You lost your belly button. I always wanted to have the kid who will reach milestones at the front of the pack, but not this milestone (if it is even considered one). I freaked out and for some strange reason thought you were going to bleed out from your belly button; but everything was fine. As fast as you wanted to come out of mommy's belly you also wanted to loose the last thing that was evidence of being connected to me.
- At about 4 weeks I offered you a bottle (with mommy's milk) and you took it without any hesitation about it. In a way it broke my heart. I wanted you to put a fight; a bottle can never be as appealing as Mommy!! but you took it. I was afraid you would not want to nurse any more but I was wrong. You did just fine nursing and taking the bottle when needed. That made it pretty easy when mommy returned to work. Thanks for being so wonderful!!
-July 26, 2008 .- You consciously laugh for the first time. You were sitting on your bouncy chair and I was trying to get a good picture of you and you just laugh. I got the perfect picture!! Thank you!!

- At about 9 weeks you rolled over for the first time. I was so excited and proud of you. I think it was just an accident though because you never did it again until of course you were ready for it.
- October 24th, 2008 you took your first plane ride and you did great!!. We went to visit your great grandmother Mamama who went to heaven after meeting you. Thanks so much!! You made her so happy the last few days she was with us!!! And you made us all happy. Your uncle Diego Jose who is not that into babies complained at 7pm that he had been waiting all day to hold you. Thanks so much for being so great and bringing us joy on those sad moments when were saying good by to Mamama. Life is such a paradox!!
- Nov 3th 2008 you rolled over, and it was not an accident!! you were conscious of what you were doing and you were enjoying (finally) being on your tummy
-Nov 8th, 2008.- We did our first 5K together and we got 3th place on the Key Biscayne Residents division!! Good Job!!!
- Nov 18th, 2008 you sat without support for the first time. We were at the baby class I take you to at Mercy and I decided to experiment if maybe you were sitting up and you did it!! I was so proud of you. You were not the first kid to roll but you were definitely on the front on the pack when it came to sitting without support.
- Nov 27th, 2008 you sat for the first time on a high chair during Thanksgiving lunch. You even had your own name tag at the table.
- Dec 12, 2008, The Dr. gave us the green light to start giving you solid foods, you were 6 months old. We started with Sweet potato and you took it well. Not too excited about the new texture but after a few tries you became the sweet potato master eater. After a few days we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Mantilla in Ecuador and you tried a whole variety of sweet potatoes, parsnips and squash during our visit. You did great!!!
Some time during December you also started babbling!! It is so cute to listen to you "ma..ma...ma...pa...pa...pa..etc".
-Dec 21, 2008 .- You got baptized in Quito. You looked so beautiful that day and all of mommy's army of cousins, aunts and uncles wanted to hold you. You did so good being nice to everyone.
-Dec 24, 2008.- First Christmas eve!! You dressed as Santa Claus and looked adorable.
-Jan 2009 By this time you were about to turn 7 months and I was expecting you to be crawling, but you showed no interest on that. Rolling will get you everywhere and it seemed to be a lot easier than getting in all fours and trying to coordinate hand and leg movement.
I always wanted you to be the in the front of the pack when reaching milestones but I was learning that each baby goes as its own pace!!, and I was loving it too.
- Feb 2009 You got your first tooth!! it was the middle lower tooth and from one day to another it just showed up in your mouth. It didn't seemed to bother you much so I thought we were through the teething problem.
- March 2009.- You are close to crawl, you can sit up from being on your tummy and you can get on all 4s and move your little butt back and forth, you just need to move forward.
- March 6th and 7th, 2009 You had your first fever :( . It was so sad see you so uncomfortable. I don't know if it was teething or a bit of a cold but you started to feel warm Friday. Friday evening that we went to visit Aunt Rachel you were really warm. I took your temp when we got home and you had 100 which is not technically considered a fever yet but it scared me enough to give you some Tylenol. The next day you had a low grade fever all day but you were not feeling good. You wanted to be with mommy all day long. I didn't mind and enjoyed holding you all day, taking naps with you and sleeping with you at night. Daddy had to go to the other room. By Sunday you were fine, enjoying again your beach walks and playing as always. I felt so much better!!! oh and you got another tooth (at the bottom) and I can see there is one on top wanting to come out as well.
- March 15th, 2009 YOU CRAWLED!!!!. On this "milestone" you were maybe at the back of the pack, not the last one but close to. I was so excited. Out of nowhere you started moving forward on all 4s. After a few "steps" you will get tired and decided to slide on your tummy but a few days later you were crawling like a champ and a week later you were getting out of sight in no time. We had to child proof the house and make sure it was safe for you to move around. You do prefer though to go for those few "non child friendly" places we have like Daddy's computer and the bikes.
-March 22nd, 2009 Mommy and Daddy went on a date and you stayed with your Godmother. You did so good, never cried, went on a walk and played with both of your Godparents. Your Godmother decided to style your hair with some gel!!!! I didn't like it, I love your puffy hair!!
This week you also started to consciously wave good night to daddy. You have been waving and clapping for a while now but this week it became a conscious effort. You clap when you are happy and you wave good night to daddy.
- March 29, 2009 This weekend you pulled yourself up to a stand!!! so we had to lower your crib to make sure you didn't follow your cousins in trying and being successful diving out of the crib. You also fell off my bed :(!!!. It was early in the morning and I was trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep, you were playing between daddy and myself and neither of us realized you had crawled to the edge and kept crawling out of it. I heard a big BONG!! and heard you crying. My heart stopped but Thanks God you were fine, just a bit scared!!! I promise I will be more careful the next time and wake up to play with you!! I am so sorry you fell.

I promise to keep better track of the milestones you keep reaching, in the past two weeks it has been so many things and so fast that it is sometimes hard.

You are still a nursing baby and I love it!! I plan on nursing you through your first year of life and more if you want to. It is our alone time and it is awesome!!

I am looking forward for the next 9 months, we are going to have so much fun.