9 month old Todd

This boy is growing so fast!  Lots of milestones this last month.  He got his first tooth -- actually 3!  One of the bottom middle and two over came in at the same time earlier in the month and he's just cutting the tooth in between.  Daddy gave the poor teether Twizzlers one night, 'cause you know, that's what you do when your fourth child is teething!

He's the cutest little sitter and is real good at getting in and out of that position.

 

 He and Caleb are having more and more fun together!

 

Bath time is getting really exciting.   This baby really wants to swim!

 

We finally got him in for some studio pictures.

 He loves playing with Daddy...

 and Mommy!

 These were his first crawling steps!

He still prefers his awesome alligator crawl a lot of the time, but is getting more mobile for sure and getting into all kinds of things!

 He's even discovered stairs and has started pulling to standing!

 I love his bum in these jeans and they're almost too small so I tried to get as many pics as possible!

Yep, pulling to standing everywhere!

  And eating everything he finds.

 With his new teeth all the way in now, he likes to feel them with his tongue.  I really like his face :)

Todd is such a great baby.  He sleeps well, for the most part, except that he likes to poop at 6:45 every morning and then go back to sleep for an hour or two.  He takes 2-3 naps and always goes right down. Sometimes he gets a little worried when Mom walks away and whines a little but I'm usually happy to cart him around in those moments. He's sweet and I'm trying to savor every moment of babyness.  Love our Todd!

 

Feeling Sentimental

I decided it was time to add Todd to the bar on the right of the screen.  I added a pic of him and then realized it looked pretty silly next to Caleb's picture of the same age, considering he is three years older.  So I updated Caleb's pic, which looked silly next to Wesley's... you get the idea.  But I had a really hard time deleting Wesley's pic that was taken in our house in Chicago.  My heart hurts so badly every time I see anything that reminds me of our time there.  I wonder if I'll ever stop missing it.  It's the people I miss really. Irreplaceable. And I'm realizing how quickly these little people are growing.   Wow!  I'm grateful for my four boys.  Can't believe I get to be their mom -- that Heavenly Father really entrusted them to my care.  That's humbling.  But I love them so much and wouldn't want to be anywhere else (except maybe Chicago, ha).  So grateful to have such great memories of raising them in Virginia and Chicago.  Glad the Lord let us spend a season of our lives in those places and meet incredible life-long friends.  And I really am grateful to be closer to family now and raise these four crazies every day.  Here's a pic of a typical afternoon around here:

 

This is really more of a journal entry for me, so thanks for enduring if you read this.  Just crazy to think about this life I've been given.  Love my boys (all 5 of them) and my friends all over.

Todd is 8 months old

This baby is growing too fast!!

 

He loved getting into Christmas decorations.

 He's getting more snuggly these days. Sweet

 He and Caleb are slowly becoming friends.  It's fun to watch.

 He's getting better and better at sitting.  Just this week he's figured out how to push into a sitting position.  He'll just sit and play with a toy now.

 He has a new scrunchy face.  Funny boy.

 He was really helpful in the wrapping department.

 I continue to love these two together

They have a special connection

 This was Todd's first Christmas.  I kept trying to get a good picture on the big day and got a few so-so ones.

 This boy loves to grab -- everything in sight!  And when he gets a hold of something he clings on for dear life!  I have to pry little things out of his fist all the time, including the hair or ear of anyone who comes near!

 These pics were taken on Monday, 8 months to the day.  They capture him so well.

Todd is so sweet.  He gets dragged every where and handles it so well. I often have people comment after being with us a while that they never heard a peep out of him.  The other day he got really upset around some friends and they were all so shocked -- never seen anything like that out of this boy.  Someone referred to him as the Ward Baby.  He always gets passed around at church functions and just smiles at everyone who holds him.  Pretty easy going.  When he does get upset it is a pretty screechy noise, so I'm ok if we don't hear that much.

He goes right to sleep when you put him in his bed, no complaints usually.  He can sleep through the night but keeps getting back into bad habits thanks to sickness or traveling.  Over Christmas we all shared a room so I had to grab him if he made a peep at all.  We're paying for it this week.  He really wants to eat at 5:30 AM and go back to sleep for another couple hours.   

He eats well.  He has cereals (mixed with breast milk) mostly during the day and nurses before bed and early morning.  He's learning to self-feed.  He loves Puffs and Mums and somehow makes a huge mess with both. When you feed him baby cereal he likes to put his thumb in between each bite.  It's like it helps wash it down or something -- funny.

He makes a funny little pig grunt/lip smack.  Wesley does it back to him.  Love that. 

We sure love our little Todders.  So glad he's part of our crazy!