Our new favorite toy

Christopher's Great-Grandpa Vonderhaar sent him his first check in the mail a few weeks ago. He said I should go buy him a new toy with it. Christopher did not object. We got him a sports activity center that has a basketball goal, a baseball that spins and a football that twirls around (Conan's not going to be happy I used twirl to talk about a football- I'm not sure how else to describe it though). When we first got it home Christopher thought the box was his toy.

Then I opened it and he thought the instruction manual was one of the best things he'd ever played with.

At first he was a little apprehensive, but then he realized he could attack the basketball goal and it became lots of fun. 

I put the bat off to the side because I thought he was too little to play with it yet. I was wrong. We were playing hide and go seek, where I go in one room and he comes to find me. I always know he's coming because I hear the pitter patter of little hands on our wood floors. All of a sudden I heard pitter... clunk, pitter... clunk. He was crawling with the bat in one hand. I guess he likes it. 

9 Months

Last week Christopher turned 9 months old! We went to his check-up on Thursday and Dr. Julie said he's doing great. He's 29 3/4" long which is almost the 95%. He's still our little skinny minny though. He's 18# 1oz. - 75% for weight, but only 10% on weight for length. Dr. Julie said we don't have to worry about it too much. She said we should just start feeding him whatever we eat. He seems to be liking this much more. He loves Cheerios. I can't believe the power that cereal has over babies. He can be screaming and I just put a couple on his tray and he stops everything and starts putting them in his mouth. We had some babies over for a play group a couple of weeks ago and they all did the same thing. I really think Christopher would sit in his high chair all day long and eat Cheerios if I'd let him.

Since Conan had to bulk up all of the time for football back in college, he's taken on this Christopher gaining weight thing. I started with avocado- I thought it was a great idea, some good fat, lots of calories. Conan decided butter is the answer. At first he wanted 1/4 stick every day. I've talked him down to a little less than that. We've been doing ground beef and little pieces of our vegetables. I think we're also going to try some hard boiled egg yolk. He's really enjoying the grown up food. I'll keep you posted on how the weight gain is coming along. Any ideas for other high calorie foods babies like?

His eye brows aren't really that red- I think there's squash in them.

 

He loves to point. 

One of our first Cheerios experiences. 

"I can't believe you've been giving me pureed squash when you've had these all along".

Weekend Update

These past couple of weekends have been so much fun, and I haven't had a chance to write about them. We went to Chelsea Piers with the Little Guy and had a blast. We didn't see Suri or Kelly Ripa's kiddos, but we still had a great time. They have ice skating, bowling, gymnastics, and tons of sports. Most of the activities are for older kids, but as soon as Christopher starts walking we are so throwing him in the ball pit and making him play micro soccer. It's going to be really nice next winter to go burn off some toddler energy I'm sure. We ate pizza there (I'm eating cheese again!!) and then went to a cute little park. We put him in the umbrella stroller, which was quite the change from his Suburban stroller that he's normally in. After that we took an interesting bus ride home. I won't go in to details, but we had some fools with differing political views going at it... and they were all at least 70. Crazy. 

Last weekend Sarah and I went to Saturday Night Live. I still can't believe we got to go. I sent an email to get tickets in August and they got back to me about a month ago. Conan and I decided we weren't ready to leave the LG with a sitter right before bed. He's very used to his bedtime routine and I can't imagine what a poor sitter would have to deal with if we weren't there. So, Conan was so nice and let me go with Sarah. (He's the best!) Sarah and I had tickets to the dress rehearsal, which is right before the actual show. It's exactly the same, and they actually do extra for the rehearsal and cut it out before the real show. I was telling the page who was passing out tickets how this was my first time out without Christopher since he was born and then she told us to go stand in a separate line. We soon found out this was the line to sit on the floor! Since we were first in line we got to sit in the very FRONT row. It could not have been a cooler experience. Tracy Morgan was about 5 feet away from us during the monologue, weekend update was right in front of us, and we almost got run over during set changes throughout the whole show (including a cow and a hawk). Tina Fey made an appearance that night too. The show was so funny, we were cracking up during the whole thing. I felt so lucky to have gotten that experience and I will definitely try to get tickets again next year so I can take the hubby. Christopher will be okay with a baby sitter by then right? 

I don't have any pictures from Chelsea Pier (I forgot the camera), so here are some random ones. I have lots of really close up ones of Christopher now because every time I get out the camera he attacks me and tries to grab it. It's hilarious, but it makes it tough to get any pictures of him now that aren't of just his face. The next one is him in his play pen. I had just washed a bunch of him toys and I was letting them dry in there. It was like a baby's dream in there, all of his toys in one spot and he didn't even have to move to get them to put in his mouth. The next is him pulling up to get his toys out of his toy box. I've caught him diving in face first to get what he wants. No pictures of that though, I have to rescue him promptly when that happens. I just realized I should probably explain why there's a blanket covering the TV. We play CDs through the TV and Christopher is so mesmerized by the blue screen he won't do anything but stare at it until we cover it up. Conan's sister, Mariko and her friend Chloe are in town this weekend, so I'm sure we'll have lots of fun stories to share again soon. 

St. Patty's Day

We had a great St. Patrick's Day. Christopher and I got dressed in green and took the subway to Midtown for the parade. It was neat to see and the people watching it were even more amusing. Since we were in Midtown we stopped in to see Dad at work, which was by far the best part of the day for Christopher and me. 

No more ears?

If it were up to me, I think I would put Christopher in outfits with ears on them until he's 13. I know he's getting to be a big kid now... he's crawling, hanging out with the other babies at the swing set, eating crackers. When do I have to stop the adorable baby outfits? I guess I can just wait until he's talking and can tell me himself, right? That buys me a little more time with my baby in ears.