I like talking about Allen...Have you noticed? :)

Once again, I haven’t gotten around to updating the blog in quite some time. Allen is now nine months old…actually in just one week he’ll be ten months old. I can’t believe it. We’re excited for his first Christmas. Here’s just a little review of how he’s doing:

He started to crawl right before he turned eight months.  At first he army crawled but it wasn’t long before he was crawling like a pro and zooming all over the place.  He likes to stick his butt up in the air when he crawls too, it’s really funny. Now he pulls himself up and walks along things. He loves to pull up on a kitchen chair and push it all over the house.  So anytime I hear that screechy sound of chairs moving around I know Allen’s up and walking.  Haha. He loves to hold onto our hands and have us walk him around. It won’t be long before he’s walking on his own.  You would never guess this little boy was born with club feet.

Allen can even walk along the table while wearing his brace. I’m seriously impressed watching his moves, he looks like a pro skateboarder or snowboarder the way he balances and rocks back and forth. He looks like he’s about to do tricks. Speaking of his brace, we were able to get a Dobbs bar for him and hoped it would help him sleep. Turns out, we don’t like it as we’d hoped. We went back to the Ponsetti bar and like it just fine. The Dobbs bar was weird so it was hard to stand in (Allen likes to be able to stand up in his brace, and the Ponsetti is more like a snowboard that he can stand in). And because the Dobbs bar is a hinged bar (which is why we thought we’d like it) it actually twisted too much. Anyway, Allen’s feet are perfect and we accept that he’ll be the brace until he’s four or so. I do tend to pout about how he can’t wear footed jammies though ;)

Going back just a bit, since I wrote last Allen had his first Halloween. He was the most adorable baby sea otter ever. I was a zookeeper and carried my little otter around. I even took Allen trick or treating. His favorite candy/chocolate is Reeses. Every time he sees the orange wrapper he squeals with excitement…so funny.

At the end of October we got some pictures of Allen and even a few family photos (for like the first time).

He also had his first Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure I somehow managed to forget to feed him Turkey because I was too busy juggling him and eating my own dinner. Oops.

With Christmas approaching, we took Allen to meet Santa for the first time. He just looked at Santa questionably but didn’t cry. Allen has never been one to be stranger shy. He loves everyone J If anything, he just looked concerned about Santa’s beard. I don’t think he’d ever seen a beard like that.

I’m pretty sure Allen’s favorite thing about Christmas is the Christmas tree. He loves to pull the ornaments off and is gradually undecorating the tree for us.

At 9 months, Allen weighed 18 pounds 9 ounces and was 28 ½ inches tall. His checkup was actually on his 9 month birthday and I was at the hospital at the same time that Allen was born (4:52 PM).  Something about realizing I had my little boy exactly 9 months prior made me emotional. We went down to the labor and delivery floor and I just glanced at the doors and thought about what a special day that was. Then we stood by Allen’s NICU window. It brought back so many feelings. I’m just so grateful to have this little boy in my life. We love him more than anything.

Looking back...

Allen is SUCH a character. He loves to play with Kodi, our dog, and giggles when Kodi takes toys from him. He also likes to play tug of war and makes the funniest face ever when he tugs (like eeeeerrrrrr)…don’t know how to explain it but here is a video of me tugging something from him.  Hilarious.

Allen loves to clap everytime we say “Yay!” and he understands when it’s appropriate to clap too. We saw a Christmas dance performance and after every song he clapped. He’s such a smart boy.

He also loves music and dancing and especially loves listening to Larry play his guitar. Oh and he loves to copy his daddy. He’s even learned this really creepy voice (anyone heard Larry do this?) well now Allen can do it. Coming from my sweet baby it’s really funny but scary. Lol.

So that’s just a little update about our little guy. As for us as a family, well nothing much is going on. We’re just enjoying having Allen in our lives and we’re so grateful for the joy he brings into our home. Allen has really been the strength that I need in my life and I just want to say that I’m so grateful to be his mom and learn from him.

I’m grateful for this Christmas season to reflect on the baby boy that our Heavenly Father sent so we could have all the blessings that we have. Our lives aren’t perfect and we have our challenges, seen and unseen. But it’s such a miracle that because of our Savior, everything just works out. I hope we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas and thank our Heavenly Father for sending his Son. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas J Hopefully I’ll update the blog again before the New Year!