Nine Months

I love this age!  The babies have so much personality and they're moving and getting teeth.  Brian and I are back to getting no sleep, but it's still fun.  I'm going to start with Colin this time.

Colin

Look at that adorable bedface!  You can also see from this photo that he is a drool machine.  When he's not crawling, he's got at least four fingers in his mouth.  Yesterday one of his two front teeth poked through.  For him that meant not taking a nap for more than 20 minutes the whole day, drooling constantly, and wanting me to hold him.  So sad.  Everything Colin does is cute even when it isn't.  You know what I mean?  Like somehow getting past every possible barrier and getting into the bathroom to check things out.  He also enjoys crawling into the pantry when it's open.  He is the fastest baby in the West.

Nevermind the playdough on the floor.  Isn't that cute!  When I'm sitting on the floor Colin takes it as his cue to come wrestle and pull my hair.  He has the biggest grin on his face when he does this.  It's funny when it's happening to Bridget, but kind of gross when he's doing it to me.

Colin makes lots of different noises, most of them are loud.  He's pretty tough, which is a good thing since he has almost zero depth perception.  He bonks his head in the same place at least once a day.  Colin is very snuggly.  He snuggles with pretty much everyone.  When he sees a blanket on the floor he crawls over and lays his head down on it.  Even blankets get love from Colin.

 Colin can climb stairs!  He figured it out at Grandma's house where there are fewer stairs in a row.  He'll get to about the fifth stair at our house and kneel there and cry until someone rescues him.  (I'm always right next to him when he's climbing the stairs.  When he stops, he looks over at me as if to say, "Why don't you just CARRY me up the stairs?!")  Colin prefers to stand when he's not crawling.  He can even walk along in a side step next to the couch.  The other day he stood for a few seconds all by himself.  One of my friends described him as "scrappy," which I think is very appropriate.

Emil

Can you see Emil's teeth?!  He's got two huge ones on top, too.  Getting teeth is rough.  Emil hasn't been sleeping well or eating well (he's in size 12-month clothes, though).  There have been a few mornings recently where I've awakened to numb arms from holding a giant baby for a few hours during the night.  Emil is not snuggly.  Once in a while he'll rest his head on my shoulder and give me a second of love, but then he's back to wanting to play.  He loves to be swung around and thrown into the air (Colin does NOT love that).  Emil will laugh and laugh when we blow into his neck or tummy.

We like to leave fun toys for the babies to find in Bridget's little kitchen area in the basement.  Sometimes Emil will crawl around with the plastic chicken leg in his mouth.  If there is music playing, Emil will move his head back and forth and bounce up and down.

Those little teeth are sharp!  And Emil is always looking for something new to bite down on.  Both babies love it when Bridget and I sing.  They are a great audience - big smiles and sparkly eyes.

Emil stands up next to stuff, too.  He doesn't do pratfalls like Colin - he just sort of eases back down to his bum.  Speaking of Emil's bum, it's big.  Nothing tickles me quite like the sight of Emil crawling away.  He doesn't make quite as many sounds as Colin, but he can sound exactly like a frog when he's feeling his teeth with his tongue (that's what he's doing in the above photo).

Every new trick the babies do means a little less sleep or a little less time to accomplish anything for me.  I've had to finish a time-sensitive dinner while listening to them cry.  Everyone's clean laundry remains unfolded and in baskets in my room.  My house is not clean.  I hardly ever shower.  And yet!  This is exactly what I want to do every day.  I'm so happy to be Bridget, Emil, and Colin's Mama.