House of Brown: Nine Months

Where did the time go?

How did this guy turn 9 (cough, almost 10, cough) months old?

Teddy's no longer a docile little nugget, trapped in whatever position I place him.

Nope. He's all over the place.

What with sprouting 5 new teeth, pulling up to standing, and begging for food, our Mr. T has had a lot on his plate lately.

Abandoning purees completely, he eats anything that we eat, a feat that no other child in our household has ever accomplished. In fact, I feel so guilty not sharing certain off-limits foods with him (like shellfish, honey, etc.) that I have to sneak around to eat any granola bars or shrimp.

And he'll tell you what he wants.
When I picked my little bear up from school one day, his teacher told me, "I hope you don't mind, but I gave Teddy some of my pizza today." Of course I didn't mind, he'd been eating pizza with us for the last 2 months. But why?

"Well, he scooted right over to me, sat up and started clapping and cooing and growling at me. I just couldn't say no!"

It turns out, his teacher had Jet's pizza that day, and our little Bear is nothing if not a pizza connoisseur.

Favorite Foods: pizza, mashed potatoes, green beans, ravioli, chicken, hamburger, apples, cantaloupe, avocado, carrots. You name it, he eats it. If he weren't burning so many calories getting into EVERYTHING, I might be worried about him becoming as wide as he is tall.

As I mentioned before, he's quite the communicator.

Clapping is his preferred way of telling us he wants something, but he also finds grunting, growling, and yelling quite effective.

Or, if he's within striking distance of an object he wants, he'll just steal it.

Though he continues to battle teeth and ear discomfort, T's a pretty happy guy.

He flirts with anything in a skirt and is working on blowing kisses.

Hair-pulling is still a signature move, but he's added eye-gouging and kicking to his repertoire.

And it's really no wonder: every time I turn around, he's being tackled or wrestled by a territorial older sibling protecting turf or toy.

This guy is gonna be tough.

But the sibs had better watch out: Big T is pulling up on ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING. Drawers, legs, the dishwasher, Sarah and Will, the man wants to stand, and he is relentless.

Not only does he want to stand, Teddy is starting to cruise. He'll go from leg to table, drawer to outstretched hand, often with a tumble along the way. Like I said, he's tough, so he doesn't usually cry, he just looks surprised and then gets back into the fray.