9 months

It is hard to believe that 9 months ago yesterday, Martin made his appearance! And what a crazy month this has been. We visited family early in the month in Buffalo, we worked frantically on the house, we then packed up the car and drove across the country - stopping in SLC to visit with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents - and wound up in Portland 12 hours or so before his 9 month birthday!

In the meantime, Martin keeps growing up! I need to make an appointment to find out exactly how much up - and it is mostly up rather than out - but that will have to wait for another day. His 6-12 month old one piece clothing are becoming terribly difficult to snap.

He has become much more vocal and much more squirmy in the past few weeks. In fact, I think we should officially call him mobile. He is so close to crawling - but finds it frustrating that he can't move forward. He grew his 3rd tooth in the car somewhere in Nebraska a few days ago.

He went swimming for the first time a few days ago at the grandparent's hotel in SLC. The regular pool was too cold, but loved the hot tub. His new swimsuit from Grandma I is too cute! I forgot my camera, but maybe grandparents can send a picture for me to post on the web.

Yesterday, he started an approximation of waving. He reaches up with an open hand as a response to a wave and waits for yours to touch it. Something between a Nazi salute and an ET finger touch. Soo cute!

He LOVES airplanes and can recognize its sound overhead. When things would get hectic in Ohio, we would go to the back yard and wait for the sound. (Our home there is under a fairly consistently used flight path about 5 miles from the airport.) When he would hear it coming, he would reach up and look to the east (where they usually were taking off) and get all excited following its path across the sky. And become very disappointed when it was gone and Mama or Papa couldn't produce the next one on demand.

He also loves birds - all kinds, including ducks. Grandma E claims he was trying about 2 weeks ago to make the bird sign back to her. I believe it since he was able to make the dog sign (a lot easier) a few days ago in eastern Oregon at a park there.

His favorite toy for the first part of the month were these "stacks". Loved to take the layers of the round cone apart. He loves balls - particularly when Papa carries him while kicking a soccer ball. And he loves to swing high in the swings at the park. That usually gets the biggest laugh possible - almost hysterical - out of him.

He loves paper. Any kind of paper. The corollary to that is he loves books. He has figured out how to lift the flaps to find the animals on his board books and thinks that is great fun! He also knows how to turn the pages - but seems to always want to turn them backwards to go back and look at the last page he saw.

He still is eating most everything including lots of Mama's milk. His pincher grasp is consistently great, so we do a lot of self feeding around here. Green beans and squash seem to be a favorite for that. While I don't go out of my way to give him wheat or dairy (well, Papa does love to give him tastes of ice cream), we are no longer really avoiding anything except for nuts.

All of the above are the little things I want to remember for him. But mostly, I am just thrilled with what a sweet boy we have. He is so good natured, despite the crazy life his parents put him through. What child would sit in a car seat for 36+ hours in 5 days, grow a tooth during that time, and still be as excited as can be to get in the car and go on another adventure to the store once we arrived in Portland? He loves to smile and give kisses (even if he is becoming more selective about when and to whom he wants to give them at any specific time) and continually warms both of our hearts with his sweet personality.