Three Quarters of a Year

I still remember waiting...and waiting...and waiting for him to be born. Then, somehow, he turned 3 months old. Then he was 6 months. And now he is 9 months old, as many months on the outside as he was on the inside of me.

To commemorate the occasion, I have some "S" words in honor of Shav. But first, a picture...or two...or more. ;)

Once upon a time, there was a boy who had A LOT of hair...and it stuck up crazily from his head. That boy was Tobin; and when Lisa photographed him, it looked like this:

Shav has never had that much hair; but recently I've noticed that the hair that he does have is also capable of standing straight up. And although I don't think he and Tobin really look all that similar, I am reminded of Tobin when I see Shav's hair like this:
I tried to do a reenactment of Lisa's photo shoot; but being as I know nothing about the technical aspects of photography and very little about editing, my pictures didn't turn out nearly as nice as hers. If only she didn't live so far away... :)

Anyway, the "S" words!

Seven - the number of teeth that Shav now has...as a matter of fact, I just discovered the seventh one this evening...it had been a while since I had felt his gums to see if another one had come through, so I'm not exactly sure when the 7th appeared...but it's here now, joining his other pearly whites
Self-feed - forget the milestones of rolling over, crawling, and walking...the milestone I LOVE is self-feeding!...to be able to put him in his highchair with some Cheerios or baby food puffs while I attend to the other boys or do some kitchen task is a huge help!...interestingly, Josiah reached this milestone very late (just a few days before his first birthday, if I remember right), I can't remember about David, and Tobin reached it right at 9 months...Shav started doing this about a week ago, or maybe a little longer, so he's the earliest of all my boys to do this...maybe it's a survival tactic for him: he knows I can't always get to him as quickly as he (and I) would like! :)
Shy - when someone looks at, smiles at, or talks to Shav, he does this funny head-dip thing as if he's suddenly shy...but then he looks quickly back at the person - to make sure they're still looking at him, I think!...it's wonderfully cute, but apparently not very unique to Shav because when beautiful Anastasia was here last Friday evening, she was doing the exact same thing
Schedule - this is what Shav's daily schedule looks like (not that these times are at all exact, but they give a rough idea of what life is like for him at 9 months of age):

he wakes up around 7:15 or sometimes (blessedly!) later,

nurses,

then I take him downstairs and put him in his highchair for breakfast (which is rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with apple juice),

he watches the other boys as they get up and come downstairs and eat breakfast,

he has some playtime in the johnny jump-up or the farm toy or the playpen or the bumbo in the laundry room if I'm down there or something like that,

he usually is ready for his morning nap by about 10:00,

I put him down awake and he almost always whimpers as I leave his room and close his door but is quiet by the time I take the few steps needed to cross my room and close that door (having two doors between him and the rest of the house helps when three other noisy boys live in the house, too!),

he sleeps a couple hours and wakes up sometime during the other boys' lunchtime,

I nurse him, usually while they're all sitting at the table (Shav and I can sit in the living room, and I can still keep an eye on what's going on in the kitchen),

I put him in his highchair and either feed him some baby food or let him munch on finger foods if I need to put Tobin in bed before I feed Shav,

during the afternoon when the house settles down during Tobin's nap and Josiah and David's quiet time, he loves to be with one of us, watching what's going on,

either he's with me as I do various household tasks or he's with Josiah or David as they play quietly and he hangs out in the bumbo or johnny jump-up (which, by the way, is probably his very favorite activity in the whole world right now...he jumps around like a wild man in that thing),

by 3:30 or 4:00, he's ready for his afternoon nap which is usually a little shorter than his morning nap,

then up for suppertime (nursing and baby food) with the family (and sometimes he gets to eat first, depending on how late it is when Jeff gets home from work),

the evenings vary, depending on family activities,

I have a feeling that this summer, we'll be spending lots of evenings outside, and I'm sure he'll love that,

then getting ready for bed (sometimes a bath first),

nursing,

in bed between 8:00 and 8:30.

Often sometime between midnight and 1:00 AM, he will rouse from sleep and possibly cry out a little. He usually gets himself back to sleep, but once in a while, he'll really cry and I'll nurse him. Of all the boys, he's the least consistent sleeper I've ever had...and yet, I realize that he's still a pretty terrific sleeper.

Shots - this evening we took Shav to Dad's office so he could get his first shots (we do immunize our kids, but we do it on a delayed schedule)...he got two, one in each leg; and he didn't cry a whole lot or for very long but he did kick so vigorously that I really had to hold him down (he was sitting in my lap) so that Dad could get the medicine in him...Dad also gave two shots to Tobin who did amazingly well: not crying at all for the first one, and crying only a short time for the second one...giving shots to his grandsons was the worst part of my dad's day (which shows what a tender heart my dad is) :)

Stats - before the shots, Dad weighed and measured Shav: 18 pounds, 14 ounces in weight, and 29 inches long, almost 3 pounds more than Tobin was at this age...I thought Shav was bigger, but you know how hard it is to judge that because it's so easy to forget how big (or small) our children really are at certain stages...Shav certainly does seem SO BIG to us..."Toto, I have a feeling" he's not a baby "anymore"!...when I see a newborn (like sweet baby Kristen who was here at our house last Friday for our potluck at the ripe old age of THREE DAYS!), the contrast between that stage and this 9-month stage of Shav's life is striking...what do mothers do when their babies aren't babies any longer? :)

Shav, you are so dearly loved. Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for you. He gave you to us before we even knew we needed or wanted you, and you are ample proof that His ways are best and His gifts are GOOD!!