Ben: 9 Months

When Ben woke up this morning, I swear he looked bigger than when he went to bed last night.  He looked older, too.  Maybe it's because for only like the third time in his entire life, he slept all night?  Or maybe because turning 9 months old is sort of a big deal.  I mean, 9 months sounds significantly closer to "one" than a mere 30 days ago when he turned 8 months.  In any case...we had a fun-filled day, which you'll see at the end.  Here are the pics from Ben's day:

one week

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

nine months!

9 months: the age when taking a halfway decent picture of the boy is nearly impossible.  I had like 60 pictures and only a handful where half his body wasn't a blurry mess from him moving all over the place...

seriously in love with these chubby baby feet

remember how I said he perfected his wave?  he was really showing it off for his photo shoot!

ok...seriously!  how old does he look here?  I can hardly see my baby in that face.

And, not to be outdone, Natalie also wanted me to have her picture taken with Ben's "9 months" sign.  

She says, "Cheese me, mama!"  

she likes to work the room when getting her picture taken

Since it was like 1,000 degrees today (or maybe like 88, but whatever, it was humid and the sun was hot), and the kids were all about to make me into a crazy person, we decided we'd try our hand at a pool party!  We filled the pool after breakfast so that by swimming time, it had sufficiently baked in the sun and felt more like bath water.  To the two boys (that's right, Jack was over today) who are only so-so on the water, it was perfect!

Natalie on the other hand....kid loves the water.  And the sprinkler!  

(can you see Jack trying to sneak off in the background?  Chasing him gives me a workout!)

Ben kept trying to eat grass, so when I had to run after Jack, Ben was put in the stroller.  

oy, these boys...

The sprinkler was placed so that it was spraying in one side of the pool.  Now that Ben can cruise around, he found himself right in the path of the spray.  He didn't cry, but he certainly didn't love it.

but this face loves it enough for the both of them!