9 Months

I promised myself I wouldn't get all soppy and watery-eyed writing this post (I'll save that for when he turns one) but it is hard not to get a little sentimental. Eli turned 9 months a few days ago. I have such a love/hate relationships with his monthly birthdays. I love seeing him grow. He's gotten super long (no idea how that happened with Colm and me as his parents) and he's standing up against everything, falling all over the place, crawling like a real baby (instead of doing his usual army crawl), dancing to music, and my personal favourite, playing peek-a-boo. He picks up whatever article of clothing is lying around ('cause let's face it, there's always clothes thrown about our floors) puts it over his face, then pulls it down with the biggest expectant grin. I act like he's terrified me and he thinks it's the funniest thing that has ever happened. I love it. Also, I find it slightly unnerving. He's becoming a person. His brain is working beyond "Eat. Poop. Sleep. Repeat." He's evaluating situations, understands when he's doing something he shouldn't be. It scares me that he can think like a real person. I don't understand why. It just does.

As much as I love all this growing and all the fun that comes with it, I'm starting to feel like these baby moments, these really little days, are slipping through my fingers. I'm desperately trying to capture and remember every little special moment, because soon they'll be gone and he won't be a baby anymore, and the more I try and hold on to the little itty bitty baby-ness, the faster he's growing and the more he's acting and looking like a toddler. Ugh, I hate it. It's so strange - our adult friends, for the most part, stay the same. They might look different over the years, but for the most part, they've already done all their growing up. It is the oddest feeling, missing someone that is actually right in front of me. Because Eli is there, right there - but every month it's a different version of the Eli that was there before.

A brief glimpse of his latest stunts:

Matching clothes have become less and less of a priority, as you can see

Love you Bubs.