Pensacola

This past week we headed down to Pensacola for both a family beach vacation and to see some old friends from college get married. I was thrilled to be able to take the whole week off work and just spend some much needed quality time with both Ian and Kirk without having to worry about the hustle and bustle of the normal day to day grind. My only complaint is that it wasn't nearly long enough. The trip was definitely a bit different than I had originally envisioned since Ian decided to start pulling up just a few short days before we left meaning he was very busy the whole time we were there. Needless to say it wasn't a very relaxing trip but it was a lot of fun. We got to introduce Ian to both the pool (which he loved from the very start) and the beach (which most definitely took some warm up time). The first day or so that we took Ian to the beach he cried both when I tried to put him down in the sand and when I tried to put his feet in the ocean so we gave it up and just headed to the pool where he had a great time splashing and playing around with us and watching the older kids. After that we just took him out to the beach and gradually introduced him to the sand and water very slowly by first letting him sit in my lap then letting him sit in the sand on a baby float and gradually sneaking him onto the sand before he could realize where he was. By the end of the trip he was sitting in the sand playing happily and sitting at the edge of the water with me watching daddy swim in the ocean. After spending the whole week just having fun and spending time with my sweet baby boy it's going to be very hard to head back to work this week.
Family Photo


Asleep in the Cabana





How did I get here?



This picture was taken during an early morning walk on the beach. The sound of the waves lulled him to sleep before we could get back to the condo.



Sand Discovery


Loving riding on daddy's shoulders

Last but not least I had to share my favorite moment of the day. As I was running water for Ian's bath tonight he decided to pull up on the tub beside me and observe. Could he be any cuter? I think not.

9 Month old Busy Body

Last week we took Ian for his 9 month check up with the pediatrician and he is now up to 21 lbs 7 ounces (75th percentile for his age) and 29.5 inches (90th percentile). The child continues to grow like a weed right before my very eyes. It's hard for me to believe that we will be celebrating his very first birthday in three short months, so bittersweet.

Ian is EXTREMELY active these days and is doing something new it seems daily. He has been army crawling for quite some time now but is now finally starting to get up on his hands and knees and rock around and has even done some traditional crawling though it only lasts briefly and is usually prompted by us putting him on the cold tile floor in nothing but a diaper. Nothing like a little self preservation as a motivator. Just last week he started pulling up on things and has now become obsessed with perfecting that skill. Unfortunately for him his balance leaves a little something to be desired so I am now officially not able to leave him alone for even a second because I am constantly having to "spot him" to keep him from wiping out. Around the same time he started pulling up he also became very interested in trying to climb things as well. He shocked us last weekend by deciding to climb a couple of the stairs in the house, check out the video I took of that.

Untitled from Tabitha Williams on Vimeo.

His other favorite activity of the moment is taking steps while holding onto our hands, this has also become an obsession. He loves doing this so much that he doesn't really want to sit anymore which makes trying to get anything done interesting. I will try to sit him on the floor and he straightens his legs out to stand almost every single time. It's pretty hilarious to watch this since he's not that good at it yet and is extremely wobbly but he always has THE biggest smile on his face and looks so very proud of himself while he's practicing, pretty stinking adorable.

We're currently working on introducing more table foods since we have been given the okay to give him pretty much anything, though I am a bit gun shy due to his complete and utter lack of teeth. He is becoming very independent and lately has decided he doesn't want anyone to feed him which has made things interesting. He is great with his pincer grasp and is getting better everyday with things like cereal puffs but when it comes to soft foods the end result is a lot of smashed food all over the place. Sometimes the boy eats so much that I'm afraid he's going to eat us out of house and home then other times I can hardly get him to eat a thing. You just never know from one minute to the next what you're going to get these days.

Here are a few of my favorite more recent pics:
Sleeping Babe

Meltdown

Laundry Basket Fun


Aflac spokes baby