November!

At the beginning of the month Shaun gave up the army crawl and now is only doing the regular crawl. He can move super quick! He also started walking along furniture too. He turned 9 months. His 9 month professional pictures are linked at the right.

He also started eating what we eat for dinner and other finger foods. He has been eating baby food out of jars for 3+ months now. He thought that the harder textures were weird at first. It took him awhile to realize that he can put the food in his mouth himself. Of course, everything but food goes in the mouth easily! We started with Cheerios and Kix for practice. He learned really quick how to feed Abby though (and so did Abby)!

His first meal of ours was a hot dog (ground of course). He seemed to love it! He also enjoyed his first Thanksgiving! He had our feast, ground to make for easy chewing. I’m excited to have him eating what we are. Doc said that he should be eating everything that we are by his birthday, so we are starting slowly. We dropped one bottle, so he is down to 3 a day and 3 meals instead of 4 bottles and 2 meals. I am still pumping so he is still getting my milk and usually 1 bottle of formula a day now. This month we had to start adding formula because my supply is decreasing in preparation for stopping. I’m going to be done with pumping around his birthday! My goal from the beginning was for him to have my milk for a year, and I think I will make it.

Bill reenlisted for 4 more years in the Navy reserves. He is just trying to make it to 20, so he can officially retire. He is on the downhill side, on year 12! It’s hard to believe that I met him when he was in year 1!

I am thankful for a lot this year. Most importantly for my family and my job security! I love being a mom and I love how our family has changed this year. I love seeing how good of a Dad Bill is. It makes me love him even more. I am grateful that my job is not in jeopardy during these rough economic times. There has been talk on the news about state employees being laid off and worried about their jobs. I am grateful to be in an agency and job that brings in the money, so we even add jobs when the economy goes down. I also just learned that my cousin is expecting her first child. This is a big answer to prayer and we are excited to have a second little one in the family close to home.

We also went and visited Santa Claus for the first time! Shaun didn’t know what to make of it I think, but he did not cry! We are all now getting into the Christmas spirit!! Merry CHRISTmas!