cannon at 9 months.....

A few things about Cannon at 9 months...

-He is teething and he is not happy about it. The tooth on the bottom has popped through and another one on the top is making its way.
-He weighs 18 pounds 10 ounces and is 27.5 inches long - 25th percentile for both (not adjusted).
-He is now too big to take a bath in his little blue tub.
-He can sit up very well and for long periods of time.
-He is getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. He is also belly crawling backwards.
-He loves to play with my face and grab my nose when he is eating.
-He has a temper and isn't afraid to show it! When you have something he wants and you won't hand it over, he will let you know what he thinks about that.
-Stranger/Separation anxiety is starting to set in. He definitely likes to be with his mama.
-He loves to play peek-a-boo and thinks it is pretty cool when you clap.
-He is taking Prevacid and I am thickening his formula. It is really helping with his reflux.
-He is still in LOVE with his big brother. All attention is focused on Charlie when he is around. This connection melts my heart.
-He is round, cuddly and absolutely adorable.

I cannot believe he will be smashing cake into that cute little face in 3 short months.

a pool full of tears...

We started swimming lessons last week. It started out pretty rough. I knew we were in for trouble when Charlie would not even get in the pool on the first day. He would sit on the edge and put his feet in but that was all he was willing to do for the first 15 minutes. Finally one of the teachers was able to talk him into getting in with her, as long as she promised to keep a tight hold on him the entire time. By the end of the first class he had blown mouth and nose bubbles in the water and did one "bob" (when you go all the way under the water for just a second and then right back up.) He only agreed to the bob because he did not know what it was and once it was over he was sure that he was never going to do one of those again!
Happy to be sitting on the sidelines.
Definitely not wanting to get in.
After his first bob.
Blowing bubbles.

Doing the motorboat game.
Doing the Shark song.
Red Light Green Light kicks.
This week things have gotten much better. He is doing bobs like a champ, swimming with the noodle and is even jumping off the side with a little assistance. After last week I never thought he would have made so much progress so fast. That's what I get for underestimating the little dude. We are so proud of him, and more importantly he is so proud of himself. Hoping this experience will help him in the future when it comes to facing new fears. Way to go buddy!

this is it.....

We had been hyping up the neighborhood parade all week to Charlie. We bought the decorations for the wagon and talked about the fire truck that would lead the parade. We were about half way through the parade route and Charlie says "So, when are we going to the parade?" We told him we were in the parade that very minute. Then he says, "This is it? Just walking?" Good to know he was so pleased with it all. Turns out the Otter Pop at the end was the highlight of the day. Maybe next year we will just skip the parade and buy a box of popsicles.

in the blink of an eye....

Mister Cannon has been busy getting all independent on me lately. Check out his skillz:

He can sit up on his own quite well now. He still prefers to be lying down so he can roll around. He actually is not rolling as much as before, but is now spending a lot of time on his belly. He has been pivoting around and is even getting up on his hands and knees. His OT stopped by yesterday and was so excited by how much progress he has made in just a week. She thinks he will probably be crawling by the end of the month. I have no idea, but I do know that he gets this sparkle in his eye and you can just see how determined he is. Once he figures out what to do with his arms I think he will be moving in no time!

I have to admit that I LOVE this age. I just love watching him develop all these new skills. His personality is really starting to come out and he is so happy with himself when he does something new. He can also entertain himself for longer periods of time which is a big help. He is still quite fussy but I am hoping that has to do with the teething. Hopefully that will subside soon. (or just in time for the next tooth to begin to make an appearance, right?)

I was tagged by Heidi to complete this ABC All About Me. I usually forget to do these, so I thought it would be fun to play along.
A – Age: 30
B – Bed size: Definitely King!
C – Chore you hate: Cleaning windows
D – Dog’s name: no pets
E – Essential start your day item: Don't really have one...bowl of cereal I guess?
F – Favorite color: Red or Green
G – Gold or Silver: Silver
H – Height: 5'6"
I – Instruments you play(ed): Piano
J – Job title: Mom
K – Kid(s): Charlie and Cannon
L – Living arrangements: Temporarily living with my parents in their newer 2-story home.
M – Mom’s name: Dena
N – Nicknames: Mandy (exciting, right?)
O – Overnight hospital stay other than your birth: Hospital bed rest stays and 2 C-sections.
P – Pet Peeve: When someone smacks their mouth when they eat.
Q – Quote from a movie: "This corn is like an angel" from Dan In Real Life.
R – Right or left handed: Right
S – Siblings: Jon
T – Time you wake up: Anytime between 5:00 to 6:30am - way too early if you ask me. Cannon disagrees.
U- Underwear: I will pass on this one...
V-Vegetable you dislike: Onions and Peppers
W – Ways you drink your coffee: I hate coffee!
X-rays you’ve had: Just dental x-rays I think
Y – Yummy food you make: Most of the food I make is just good enough to "get by".
Z – Zoo favorite : Monkeys

mmmm.....

On Sunday, June 21st, Cannon tried baby food for the first time. Since Charlie's first food was sweet potatoes, I decided to stick with tradition and have it be Cannon's first as well. It was just as expected. A lot of funny faces, spitting out and food everywhere except his mouth. It took a few days of just playing, but he is now doing great and is eating about a 1/2 to 2/3 of a jar per feeding. We are still just doing it once a day but I will probably try to work in a second feeding in the next few days. We tried squash yesterday and he likes it as well.

He really looks thrilled about the whole experience, doesn't he?

On a side note, it seems to be popular right now to make your own baby food. Is it bad that I have no desire at all to make my own baby food? I am already tired of cleaning the high chair of the huge mess and it has only been 2 weeks! I remember being SO happy when we could put Charlie in a booster chair at the table and were able to get rid of the high chair. Although, Charlie is still a very messy eater. Between the two of them, it is a full-time job keeping the dining area clean. Maybe it is just my boys that are so messy? Okay, whining over!

a lion king dream come true....

As you can imagine, the trip to see the Lion King in Las Vegas was a huge hit. My parents said that Charlie did great on the nine hour drive. He was so excited to see all the advertisements and billboards for the show all over the city. He was very diligent in pointing out every single one of them, just in case my parents may have missed one. On the day of the show, he took a long nap so that he would be rested up since the show did not start until 8pm and was 2.5 hours long. He also wanted to spray his hair orange so my brother took him to Sally's Beauty supply to get some hair color. They did not have orange so he settled for red. He was freaking out all the way to the show. He got a little impatient once they got to their seats and had to wait for it to start. He sang along to all the songs and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. About half way through he looked at my dad and said "Well, I think I am going to go up on the stage now and see Rafiki." As you can imagine, he was very dissapointed when he realized that wasn't going to happen.

He is still just as obsessed as before. He still watches all the clips on YouTube and asks to listen to the CD in the car. Now, he is especially interested in the German and French versions and is learning the words to all the songs in these two languages. It is just about the cutest thing to hear him singing He Lives in You in French with his little voice in the backseat of the car. He is pretty sure that we will be going to Germany soon to see the show there. I would love to go to Germany, but I just don't see it in our future anytime soon....Anybody else on their way to Hamburg and have room for a little guy to tag along?

This video is for Charlie. I wasn't even going to put it on the blog, but he requested it. Just a warning, it is not exactly riveting. But it is great to see how excited he was since we couldn't be there to see it first hand. :)

freehand scraps july gallery....

The July kit for Freehand Scraps has to be my favorite kit so far. I loved the colors and the papers and embellishments were just perfect. I hadn't gotten around to making a mini-album for Eric for Father's Day like I have for the past few years, so even though it was going to be late I decided to make one with this kit. It just seemed perfect for it.








What did I tell you? Cute kit, huh?!? This was the first mini-album I have ever made with the bind-it-all. I messed up one page and was pretty ticked I had to fix it, but overall I like the end result. I don't make enough mini-albums to justify buying a bind-it-all, so luckily I have some connections at Archiver's and was able to borrow theirs at the crop the other night. :)

I also made this tag for a little gift I put together for Charlie's teacher. I totally stole the idea for this gift from Heidi Swapp. She had it on her blog a few years ago. I liked that it was full of things that someone would actually use - especially when you are going on a trip to Hawaii like his teacher is. Lucky!

Be sure to check out the kit and the rest of the gallery at Freehand Scraps!