edmund at 9 months

Edmund is 9 months old today. Ridiculous! We can’t believe that he has been outside the oven as long as he was in it baking.

edmund at "9 months"

We feel like we have had him for forever. He is such an integral part of our family, we couldn’t imagine life without him, nor would we want to. We are having a blast seeing him grow and appreciating how much he changes each month. Here are the latest updates.

Looks wise, Edmund followed up his last month of teeth with one final tooth this month (4/2), which brings him up to the grand total of 7 teeth. He looks so cute when he smiles with a mouth full of little pearly whites. We love tickling him to make him giggle so that we can see all of them. Edmund is still working on growing some hair, which he finally looks like he has a little more of. We can tell because when he wakes up in the morning, it is now messy on the side that he sleeps on. His two cowlicks on the back are going to be trouble as his hair gets longer.

According to strangers in the store, he resembles the e*trade baby. (You can judge for yourself by viewing the comparison here.) He is still long and lean and has his 9 month appointment tomorrow, so we will see how lean he really is. 

stretching big like dad

This month has been an adventure with Edmund on the move. The day before Easter, he sat up on his own from a laying position while at Grammy and Grandpa’s house for the first time. As soon as we got home, we moved his crib down to the middle position so that he wouldn't fall out. The same week, we found him standing in his crib! We moved the crib down to the lowest level. He is pretty proud of his new found skill of standing. We now can’t get him to stop pulling himself up on everything.  The only problem is that he hasn’t quite figured out how to get down unless he falls, which then ends in him typically crying. A few weeks ago, he was so tired, but he seemed compelled to stand up in his crib to practice his new exciting skill. He then couldn’t figure out how to sit back down again and would start to cry, his little legs shaking from fatigue. It was so sad, but we couldn’t help chuckling at the same time. Luckily, that only lasted a few days. We are working on getting him to sit back down by himself, especially at nap time. Perhaps he wishes he had a bigger bed, but we won't let him in ours, except for some snuggle time in the morning or a cute photo op in his pajamas.

i claim this bed as my own

Edmund loves to crawl around the apartment, which has been challenging since we are working on packing everything up since we move to our new house in a couple of weeks. He loves to crawl into the bathroom and the kitchen, which are two rooms that I am trying to keep him out of because they are not baby proofed at all. He gets giddy whenever he gets into one of them, although, sometimes he gets some help giggling at his goofy parents.

We are looking forward to having a space that is actually baby proofed. Until then, he can boing the door stops, climb on the couch, pull himself up on the bookshelves, drool on the boxes, shake corn in a container, and hide his toys under things.

This month we celebrated Edmund’s first Easter. (Click here to view post.) We celebrated by dyeing eggs, going to Grammy and Grandpa’s house in Indiana, and playing with his Easter bubbles. He had a great time seeing his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, who he misses since he is far away. The Grashorn house, though, can be a bit chaotic with all of the people there. He was overwhelmed and was so shy the entire time we were there. As soon as we got home, we couldn’t get him to stop chattering to us. We think we need to get him out more.

Edmund is continuing to find his voice. He has finally started to make babbling noises that sound like talking. They sound like "bababa" or "fufffufffuffff". He also makes loud bird noises when he is upset. His friend Emily got to see him in action when he she played with his toys at bible study this past week. He needs to work on his sharing skills, but it’s hard when someone plays with your favorite toy. He also now more easily reacts to facial expressions on others. When you laugh at him, he will laugh back. He also enjoys watching videos of himself laughing.

We started Edmund on finger food this month. So far we have just given him mushy vegetables and Cheerios, but he is starting to get the hang of it. We like watching him try to get things into his mouth with such intense concentration. Since all of his teeth are in the front, he has to chew his food in the front, and it sometimes falls back out again, much to his disappointment. This is the first time that we gave him Cheerios. 

This month has been another amazing month of growth with our handsome son. We are really enjoying seeing him grow, learn, his gleeful curiosity, his ability to problem solve and get over obstacles that we put out for him to crawl over, and watching his personality develop. Just when we think he can't get any cuter, he happens to do it every month. Not to sound like a broken record, but we are so lucky and amazingly blessed to have him as our son. Looking forward to next month and new adventures in our first house!

-Eric and Anna