NINE MONTHS!!

Isaiah Perry Starnes is 9 months old!!  I'm not sure why, but the "quarter" milestones seem like a bigger deal than the rest (3, 6, 9, 12 months).  We are so enjoying this precious blessing from God.  It's hard to remember what life was like before he arrived.  This really is such a fun age, and I often wish I could just freeze time where he's at currently.  At the same time, I anxiously await each new milestone and change.

Here are some updates for our memory's sake:

- At his 9 month check-up, he weighed 21.8 lbs (75th%) and was 29 inches long (80th%).  At each check-up, he moves up to a higher percentile, so he seems to be making his own growth curve rather than following the typical.  He was not so happy with Dr. Pendergrass at this last visit, though Doc wasn't surprised since increasing stranger anxiety is normal at this stage.  Isaiah had his 3rd ear infection at this appointment (at least the timing worked out with an already scheduled visit), and I just hate seeing my baby suffer.  Thankfully, his pain seems to resolve pretty quickly once we start antibiotics.
- 3 teeth total now, but it looks like at least 2 are going to pop through any day.  His gums really seemed to be hurting tonight, so we might see something new in the next day or two.
- He's quite the little ham these days.  He claps when he's happy or proud of himself.  He loves to blow raspberries, especially after I've just put food in his mouth (hard not to laugh at these when I'm telling him "No").  He often uses his finger to flap his lips (hard to describe, but I think you know what I mean).  He's waved bye a few times, though we're still working on it.  He has a funny adult-sounding laugh that he'll do out of the blue sometimes, which makes us laugh, which makes him laugh.... 
- He's very mobile without being mobile.  Let me explain...he isn't crawling yet, but he can get to everything he wants one way or another it seems.  I will deliberately sit toys on the opposite side of the blanket from him to entice him to crawl.  He'll go from sitting to a position on one knee and both hands with one leg out to the side for leverage and then STREEEETCH to reach whatever he wants.  He can typically get anything within 3 feet of him.  Apparently, that's good enough for this boy (for now at least).
- He's occasionally attempting to pull to a stand.  He fell doing this at daycare a couple weeks ago and bumped his head--I'm afraid that's just the first of many.  He definitely has the strength in his legs to stand up, so it's just a matter of time (watch out world!).
- He graduated to a big boy carseat  (aka convertible) instead of the infant carrier.  We actually bought the convertible seat over a month ago, but we just really loved the convenience of the carrier and used it as long as possible.  He's now outgrown it in every dimension and we were forced to move on.  I'm not sure if Isaiah is too crazy about the change yet either--it may just be that he's not crazy about being strapped in period.  It's become quite a battle to buckle him in, and he seems to think it's a game most of the time.
-We moved the jumperoo up to the highest level a couple of weeks ago.  He's not as interested in it these days, either.  He'd rather be sitting on the floor playing with his toys most of the time, but it comes in handy for us when we need to get some things done and not worry about what he might get in to.  Our days are numbered, I'm afraid.
- Isaiah has been experiencing some separation anxiety for a couple of weeks now.  It's pretty mild, but if he's not really focused on his toys, he starts to fuss and cry when I walk out of the room at home.  He's also cried a little when we've dropped him off at the church nursery or daycare once or twice recently.

A few recent pictures:

Did you know we already started him in baseball training camp?  He's just recently started paying attention to the baseball on this toy.  For a while, he just wanted to chew on the bat.

"What's the big deal, Mom?  Haven't you ever seen a 9 month old hit a homer?"  Notice the shirt--we were cheering on our Vols against UAB that day.

Hammin' it up at the GrandStarnes' house.  I promise, we do dress him in clothes that aren't related to UT football!!

Meeting Hallie

We went to Hickory two weekends ago and stayed several days to meet Hallie for the first time and visit the Starnes clan.  This was Isaiah's first trip to Hickory and first time to meet several family members and friends of the fam.  He was under the weather for some of the visit and teething a good bit, but overall, he did really well.  Chris' old room has now become the grandbaby nursery complete with crib and changing table, which made things much easier on us.  Isaiah also enjoyed several toys Grandmom had ready for him--his favorite was the classic Fisher-Price ring-stacker.  He was so content just playing on the den floor with those colorful rings.  He teased us a lot with his movements from sitting to near-crawling so many times, but he didn't crawl more than one 'step'.  He did try pulling up a few times with success once or twice.  Needless to say, he had lots of cheerleaders.

We really enjoyed all of the quality time with everyone, and Isaiah had it made with so much attention.  I think Frankie enjoyed all of the extra laps and hands for petting too!  Hallie is a sweetie and we look forward to many more visits.  Here are several pictures from last week (some borrowed from Melissa's blog):

The whole fam after a grill-out with the Helms

It's SOOO hard to believe that nine short months ago Isaiah was smaller than Hallie is now!!

The Holcomb Family

Playing with Cousin Liz

Grandmom and Grandad with the kiddos

No Words Necessary

Belated 8 Months

Isaiah turned 8 months on August 25th.  It just astounds us when we look at him and realize how much he's grown and changed over recent weeks!  Here are some updates:

- He got his second tooth around 7 1/2 months, so he now has his two central incisors on the bottom.  Let me tell you, they're sharp!  He still chews everything in sight, so I don't think it will be too long before another one pops through.  His little toothy grin is awfully cute, though I don't think we've managed to capture it on camera yet.
- He's now eating some fingerfoods (started just before turning 8 months).  He's mastered Puffs and Multigrain Cheerios, and we're working on fruits and veggies that are easy to pick up.  He likes banana, but I have to coat the pieces in Cheerio crumbs so they're not too slimey for him to pick up.  We tried avocado, but a lot of it ended up squished in his hands.  He had lima beans this week and did pretty well with them, though they clearly aren't his favorite.  At daycare, they have a table with multiple infant seats built within it, and when they sit Isaiah at the table while other kids are eating snacks, he's quick to grab for they're food.  As a result, Isaiah get 2-3 snacktimes a day at daycare!!!  At least its just Puffs and Cheerios :)
-We're working on learning to use a sippy cup.  He likes to chew on the spout rather than drink from it, and he really enjoys banging it on his highchair.
-Isaiah still isn't crawling, but I know it's just a matter of time.  He just seems to be very content sitting on the floor with a soft block in his hands (or his mouth, really).  I guess he's not much of an explorer, and I'm pretty okay with that.  He scoots on his behind to move small distances or to turn around.  He really dislikes being on his belly at all right now, so that also hinders learning to crawl.
-He has learned to clap and he loves when we play pat-a-cake.
-There isn't an 8month check-up, but I did have to take Isaiah to the doctor last week for an ear infection.  He weighed 20.9 lbs, a pretty big jump from his 6month weight of 16.5 lbs.  I think that's the largest increase in weight that he's had in a 2 month period, and you can tell he's filled out more just by looking at his cute cheeks.  He's grown out of a lot of the 9mo sized clothes and is wearing some 12mo items.

We visited family over Labor Day weekend.  Unfortunately, I failed to get my camera out at all on Sunday while at the family reunion on Mom's side, so I hope someone will send me pics from that (hint hint Jewel).  Here are some of the pictures I did take over the weekend:

Boys' Night

I'm behind on blogging, so the "Boys' Night" actually occurred August 16th. Chris invited good pals Justin and Kevin over to the house on a Monday night when the Braves were playing the Dodgers. I was still working the night shift at that point, so I left the "three men and a baby" after a dinner of pizza. I came home the next morning to find these pictures on my camera and couldn't help laughing out loud. While I'm sure the guys enjoyed the baseball game, from the pictures it seems they had a better time playing with Isaiah.

Isaiah clearly doesn't know what to think about the nude photoshoot happening here.

Bedtime bottle from Justin.

Kevin must have been hungry too.

Cute video recorded by Justin during bathtime:

Hallie Virginia Holcomb

It's a girl!! Melissa had her sweet baby girl at 4:55am on September 1--Hallie Virginia. She weighs 8lb 6oz and is 22 in long. We may have a future basketball star in our midst! We're thrilled to have a new niece (I can finally buy pink for someone!) and I know she and Isaiah will be great pals. We're going to visit in a few weeks and will post more pictures after we get back.

Here are some additional pics from Melissa and Jason's blog (Holcomb Happenings):

We think she looks like Daddy, don't you?