9 and Mostly Fine

So, a month ago, I wrote a post and forgot to publish it.  Here's Ashy Boy at nine months and yes... he will be ten months in four days.  I'll do better.  I swear.

Ash at 9 months is a spitfire.  He will give you a smile that will bring the world to a stop one second and the next second he is a raging inferno, complete with hair pulling and gnashing of gums.

He has been much harder to get on a schedule than River.  He mostly goes to bed around eight, wakes up at five to nurse and then at 8:20 am for the day.  He should be taking two naps still, but it seems like a miracle when he actually does.  I try to put him down twice, but usually only have one successful nap and unlike River's 3-4 hour naps, he averages about an hour and a half.  I then try and put him to bed earlier, to make up for the lack of daytime sleep, but if he goes down at 7:00 pm, he wakes up an hour later and thinks that was his second nap!  It is beyond frustrating.  It pretty much makes both of us feel like this....

Speaking of bad moods, you can see the nine month photo shoot was not Ash's favorite thing.  

These pictures kill me.  How can someone be so upset and still so stunningly beautiful?  Ashy Boy, I feel a little guilty looking at these pictures, like I should have stopped clicking and maybe tried again later, but it is your fault for being so handsome.  I just couldn't help myself.  Plus the onesie decal wasn't going to last for a second try.

9 months, no teeth yet and still multi-colored eyes.  He is crabby and producing enough drool to fill a shark tank, so we keep thinking teeth are about to cut through, but not so far.

This just reminded me of all those Sears portraits from the eighties, so I had to include it.

Ashy is a messy eater!  All infants are a little messy, but he is one of those babies where it looks like a bomb went off every time he eats.  I never had that with River.  I mean we have baby food on our ceiling people!!!  We nicknamed him Baby Thor and joke about him dropping the hammers.  He seriously just bangs his arms down as hard as he can and food, spoons, and jars fly everywhere.  Much to my chagrin, he also like to grab his hair once his hands are nice and sticky.  Since he absolutely loathes getting cleaned up with a washcloth, more often than not, he just ends up in the tub.

This is nerdy, but I was excited about his new sleeper for winter.  I made him take a few pictures in it.

This one cracked me up.  He looks like he's a super hero about to morph.

The boys are playing together more and more, whether Ash wants to, or not.  Mostly, he loves it, but sometimes I have to tell River to give him an inch... just an inch.

Obviously he listens really well.

River wanted to see a white temple, because the Salt Lake Temple is gray, so we made our way up to the Brigham City Temple, which was a first for all of us.

It was hot and Ash was grumpy he couldn't go for a swim, so the photo session was short.

I think I must need a different lens to get the whole temple in.

He is getting pretty "wordy" these days.  Momma has made a return to his vocabulary and Dadda is getting said more often, but mostly it is jibber jabber that sounds like ahbah.

He has started clapping.  It rocks my world.  Here is a common scenario in my house.  Ashy pulls River's hair.  I tell Ash, "No!"  Ashy bats his lashes, smiles big and starts to clap.  I forget any sort of discipline and shower him with kisses.  I am not proud of this.  It is just a fact.

He started waving too.  Now goodbyes take twice as long.  Who can walk away from a smiling baby waving with his whole arm?

He's a nose crinkler.  It is so cute... especially when he huffs and puffs.

We went for our first overnight camping trip.  This wasn't just Ashy's first time, but it was River's first time as well.  We have been to the mountains a lot, but never braved the night.  We were always worried our kids would keep our friends up.  This was a ward camp out, so I figured my little ones wouldn't be the only ones making noise late at night, so we did it.  Bear had to work, since it was a Friday night, but the boys were easy on me and friends in my ward helped me juggle setting up the tent and wrangling the boys.

Can you see Ash's tent inside the tent?  It is to keep the Bears out.  Not black bears, or grizzly bears... River Bears.

Ugh... it didn't works so well.

My best friend was in town for two second at a work training in Logan, so I took my future Aggies up for a visit.  This was Ash's first time in my beloved Logan and he seems to be a fan.

The Aggies Biggest Fan!

I tried to get a picture of Ash kissing me on the A, but unlike River, he was not thrilled to have his mom make him a True Aggie.

Do you see the hands covering his face.  He kills me.  Ash, my love, get used to the kisses.  I will not be stopping anytime soon.


Here is my River at nine months for comparison.

River might have Ash beat in the arm roll department.