9 Months & 10 Things I Love About Monkey

Okay, I don't know what happened.  I don't have an excuse.  I was a bad bad blogger last week.  But to make up for it, I'm blogging on a holiday.

Last Wednesday Mr. Monkey Pants turned 9 months old.  I'm still in shock about it (although I shouldn't be since I'm already planning his first birthday - yikes) but am trying to deal with it.  Therefore, in honor to Monkey, I'm going to share with you the ten things I currently love about him (these are new things... I'm adding to the list all the time).

1. How his belly button pops out after he drinks his bottle. Seriously, he finished his bottle and all the sudden his little innie looks like an outie.  It is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

2. You can do anything to him - he doesn't get annoyed.  His father ruffles his hair, covers his face, shoves his cheeks together and nothing.  He may try and wiggle away, but that's it.  He doesn't cry or get upset.  I have no idea where he got this even temperament from, it must be a latent gene in one of our families.

3. The swirl in his hair on the back of his head.  It is this perfect circle and it sits smack in the back of his head.  I'm sure some day, when he gets lots of hair, it will be annoying but right now, I love it.

4. How he comes to his gate when you call him.  No matter where he is, if you call his name he comes crawling over to his gate and starts jumping up and down on it.  On the days when he really does not want to be in the corral, all you have to do is get near the gate and he comes a-crawling.

5. How soundly he sleeps.  Once you get this boy to sleep, he sleeps hard.  This photo is taken at the end of a 2 hour nap.  I was going in to wake him up and couldn't resist calling in Brian.  He brought in the camera and took tons of photos.  Monkey didn't even stir.  I miss sleeping like that.  Apparently when he was born he took that power from me.

6. How he takes everything out of his toy box.  I blogged about that here but felt it needed another mention.  I just love watching him do it and seeing his face change as he uncovers his treasures.

7. How he smiles AFTER you take his picture.  Seriously, once he hears the click he is all smiles.  So, even though you see tons of photos where he smiles, just realize that in the photos where he isn't smiling, he did after the click.

8. Even when he is crying you can still make him smile.  He can be having a melt down from teething but he will still smile if you throw him up in the air.  The way I explain this to Brian is that Monkey is upset about a situation only and is not intrinsically upset.  Therefore, if you can take his attention away from the situation then his natural happiness comes up.  The only time this wasn't true was when he cried incessantly for a week (the start of which I blogged about here) because, as it turns out, the breast wasn't doing it and the boy was gassy and hungry!

9. He loves books.  I talked about Monkey's love affair with a specific book here, but that isn't the only book he loves.  He loves his touch and feel books (one of with came from Uncle Joe and Miss Joanna), he loves his ABC book, and he loves many many other books.  He likes to flip through the pages - all by himself.  And he loves to look at the pictures when Mommy reads to him.  That's my little boy.

10. The way he peers at his bowl of Cheerios for more.  Monkey has recently started eating Cheerios when he is at dinner with us.  This keeps him occupied and happy.  I put one or two at a time on his high chair and leave the rest in a bowl on the table.  When he eats the ones on his high chair, he leans forward, raises his eyebrows and looks in the bowl.  This is my cue to give him a few more.  It's just adorable. I'll try and catch it on film.

11. (I know I said 10... but come on, how can you hold me to just 10?)  How he deconstructs his floor.  I don't know how he figured it out (I know, it isn't rocket science but he is the smartest baby around) but Monkey knows that his floor comes apart.  There are a few spots that he likes to deconstruct and I like to watch him.  He doesn't yet put it back together (Mommy gets that fun) but he definitely knows how to take it apart...oh yeah, and eat the pieces.