Seth is 9 months old!

Seth turned 9 months old this month. This has been a really hard month for Seth. He is the worst (and slowest) teether I have ever seen. He has spent most of the last 2 months crying half the day and crying and waking up all night. Finally, his last tooth came through and we can see its edge. Seriously - two months to get two teeth partially out. The poor boy - its going to be a long couple years if they all take this long.

Otherwise, Seth is a pretty happy boy. He is getting pretty fast at crawling, but seems content to do the army crawl. He pulls up on everything all the time. He is standing no matter where you look. He is a huge climber, too. He climbs out of everything - your arms, his highchair, the seat in the grocery cart, and with seat buckles on, too. This kid does not want to be contained! He still hates his car seat as much as ever.

Seth is a little too interested in moving to be interesting in eating. He gets bored after nursing for just a few minutes. He climbs out of his high chair and tries to do contortionist stuff to get out of buckles. If he doesn't want to eat (which is most of time), he will cry and shake him head back and forth vigorously. I have mostly given up, so I let him sit on Andrew's little chair on the floor and climb all over that while I feed him. He mostly just likes cheerios and bananas and curry. He likes bread products, too. And he sure loved the ice cream he had when my parents were here - couldn't get enough of that.

Seth is still babbling a lot more. He says Mama and Dada still. He said "Yuck" when my parents were here - I think it might have been for the ice cream .... it was definitely for something yummy. I swear I have heard him say Andrew, but I haven't heard it recently, so I could be wrong. Most of the time, it seems like Seth just says stuff after much premeditation.

My parents and sister Sarah visited for several days. Seth, true to form, wanted no one but Mom and would quickly crawl into my laugh whenever anyone else tried to hold him. He is a HUGE mommy's boy, right now, which can be kind of hard for me. I am surprised he does so well with our babysitter. But as soon as I come out of my room from working, he goes straight to me and then gets this huge smile on his face, like "Ha ha. Now I have what I want".

Seth really loves reading stories now, mostly because he likes to sit on my lap. He really loves Karen Katz book "Where is Baby's Pumpkin" as well as "Snuggly Puppy" and a fisher price Peekaboo book. He gets the hugest smile and shakes out of excitement when he sees them. He loves listening and dancing to music. He also likes playing with Andrew's toys, seeing Mom cook, being held, and pulling things off of shelves. He loves to chew on everything, look outside, go places, and see things. Suprisingly, though, he is not a big fan of his stroller and cries and wants to be held half way through a trip.

Here are pictures of Seth, probably mostly from when my parents were here. Enjoy. As you can see, Seth loves the zoo (we go every week), the humidity of the butterfly house makes him sleeping (he loves to sleep in his swing), and when he gets impatient in the double stroller (old and ghetto, but it was only $15 on craigslist), he pulls on Andrew's coat (or now, that's it's warmer, his hair).

Finally!

We finally bought a new (to us) car yesterday! And we paid cash for it (super yeah!). We bought a 2006 Mazda5 and it's blue. It looks like this. Soon, we'll take a picture of proud us next to our car. We needed a bigger car, since we'll keep it for a long time and we'll probably have another kid in the next 10 years (NOT an announcement. I want to have the next child after I'm done with grad school so I can enjoy pregnancy and babyness without being stressed continually with grad school). And we just couldn't stomach a mini-van yet, so this is a nice transition. It's flexible and can seat up to 6 people (though a little tight in the back for anyone but kids).

This is the first time we bought a car for reals since we've had a 1995 Ford Taurus that I've had since high school! Hopefully we can run this one into the ground as well and keep it for 10 years. Probably unlikely, but we'll see. We kept the Taurus a lot longer than we imagined.

Andrew is 34 months old!

Andrew has had a tough month, but seems to be getting finally adjusted to St. Louis. He still hasn't made any friends yet, but we are enjoying the city and he is meeting lots of kids, just never the same ones twice.

We have had a busy month. Andrew loves the zoo. Since it's gotten warm, we have been trying to go there every week. I'm sure as it gets closer to summer, the zoo is going to start to get really crowded, but we'll see how it goes. Andrew tells everyone and anyone about every single animal that he didn't get to see. He is so disappointed whenever any animal isn't there, and he wants to see very single animal every time.

Andrew also LOVES story time. We have been going 1-4 times a week! Andrew loves the one at Richmond Heights, because they play with play-dough and have suckers. He likes the one in Clayton because they do crafts and they have the Dora and Thomas books shelved separately so he can get a new one every time. And the ones at the Barnes and Noble and Borders are fun, too. Maybe tomorrow we can try out the one at the History museum. He loves story time and is always begging to go. The other kids get antsy, but he keeps asking for more stories. I also like that all the story times here do singing and crafts - I feel like its developing some other skills (scissors, glue, coloring) that Andrew shows no interest in at home.

We have also been able to go the park almost every day now. We live about a 5 minute walk from the city park which has three separate playgrounds (and a pool and a ice skating ring!). Andrew has a new babysitter who watches him and Seth two afternoons a week and she takes them to the park almost the whole time. He loves it! Especially on sunny days where there are other kids at the park.

We are also lucky to have Parents as Teachers here in Clayton. Our educator is great - gives me really great parenting advice and they have a playroom there that Andrew loves. He screams and screams when we leave.

In other news, Andrew is completely potty trained at home, but as soon as we put pants on him, he can't remember to go. I'm sure it will come in time - at least I hope so.

Andrew has been starting to talk a little more aggressively. He keeps saying "Shut up", even though he goes to time out for it. It drives me crazy. When he is mad, he says things like "I don't like you. I'm going to shut you and Seth up in the closet and you will die". I'm not quite sure how to respond to that, so I mostly ignore it.

Andrew has started to get really picky about food. He doesn't want to eat during meals, wants to snack all day, and only wants to eat a handful of food - mostly fried rice with soy sauce, plain yogurt with blueberries, crackers, cheese, cereal with fruit, milk, popcorn, crackers with hummus, soup, and chicken nuggets. He could live on that food - at least it is mostly healthy. He still is spitting things out a lot, but it is getting a little better.

Andrew's new love this month is Berenstain Bear books, which we have been checking out of the library. He wants to read ALL the time, seriously hours a day. Sometimes, even I, the queen of books, get tired of it.

I also have started letting Andrew watch Sesame Street most days. He really enjoys it, it is mostly educational, and it helps so I can get Seth down for his nap which is right when the show is on.

Andrew learns so quickly now. Sometimes I feel like I need to teach him more, but I feel that learning through playing and reading books is the best way. I might start working on letters. Andrew has picked up some on his own. He knows the letter "S" and says "sssss" whenever he sees it. Andrew has completely memorized the CD my parents gave him for Christmas and now knows tons of nursery rhymes. He sings along to all the songs at story times, even though none of the other kids, too. I'm glad he loves these things and I really don't want to push it.

We bought him some watercolors and this is finally the first art he is interested in. Now, he wants to paint every day. Yeah! Hopefully that develops a few of the hand muscles. I do worry a little about whether he'll be ready to write when he hits kindergarten.

Andrew is super excited about preschool - I am really excited about the preschool we picked out. It is really great. They are having a playdate on Andrew's birthday so we can meet other kids in his class. I am also thinking about having Andrew go to camp there for a week or two in the super - it's just in the mornings 3 days a week and would probably be fun for Andrew.

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head.