Peachy Keen: 9-month-olds are busy

James is army crawling everywhere! We have had to majorly baby-proof our house, as you can see (in the picture below) from our lovely baby gate going around our fire place and electronics. James is so funny because if he is going somewhere that he is not supposed to go, he speeds up when you go to pick him up. He is a little ham!

We had a play-date with Benjamin Graupner (his dad works with Ryan as an Internal Medicine resident, and I absolutely love his mom, Kayce!)

James wasn't quite sure what to think of Benjamin. He kept trying to grab his face!

Hey mom!

James loves his glow-in-the-dark dinosaur shirt that his Pappy and Gigi got him! (He is busy talking to me here about it.)

James and I traveled to Oxford, MS for the weekend to see some of my friends from college and to see my parents. We had a great visit! While we were there, James turned 9-months-old, and I had to capture it! :) (Side note: he was up most of the night before this with a fever because he got his first cold while we were in MS. )

Here are all of the things that James is currently doing at 9 months:

Loves to give hugs and kisses. He is a huge flirt and smiles at everyone!
Starting to have some stranger anxiety but he is usually pretty happy around anyone
Army-crawling all over the place (he gets up on his hands and knees sometimes, but he is faster when he is on his belly)
Goes from a crawling to a sitting position
Eating stage 2 and 3 baby foods and eats whatever we give him! (thankfully he is not picky)
He likes to feed himself with his pincer grasp. Gerber's puffs are his favorite (I call them crack puffs because they are seriously like crack to him. If he even sees the yellow package at the store, he goes bananas! I have to avoid the baby food aisle at Walmart.)
Pulls to stand and LOVES to jump
Imitates sounds and will say "dada, hey, and baba" occasionally. I am working on "mama."
Claps his hands for patty cake, waves "bye", and will raise his hands up in the air
Likes to click his tongue, blow bubbles or raspberries, and squeal really loud
Hums when you sing to him and also likes to "dance" when he hears any kind of music

Here are a few pictures from this previous weekend:

We went and ate at City Grocery, and it was delicious as always!

We had to go visit our old stomping grounds: the Kappa Delta house

We ate at the Oxford Grillhouse, and it is my new favorite steak restaurant. Sooo good. Seriously. If you are in Oxford, go eat there.

While I was home, it was my mom's birthday! We got to spend a little bit of time together before I had to head back to North Augusta. Here are some pictures from our lunch together:

James is checking his Pappy out

Home sweet home

Showing off his ocean pajamas

Ryan got to go with us for James's 9-month checkup! We had to strip James down to his diaper to have him weighed and measured, and Ryan was worried about him getting too cold- hence James being bundled up like a burrito in Ryan's jacket!