Only two more months until we have a one year old! How is that even possible? I swear, these past few months have absolutely flown by. I feel like Declan is learning something new every day! He’s so smart, funny and has a bubbly personality that’s just infectious. Everyone who sees him comments on how happy and smiley he is, which I love. This month Declan has been more on the move! He crawls extremely well and loves to stand supported. He can take a few steps on his own if prompted, but is still fairly wobbly.

Unfortunately he has also started to develop some separation anxiety (although I know that’s developmentally appropriate). It makes me so sad when he cries when I leave the room. Although he does manage to calm down and entertain himself after a few moments, which is good! I think my favorite moment from this month was when we spontaneously caught hid first really big laughs! Ryan was tossing toys out of the way in the playpen and when his elephant bounced off his climbing wedge, he thought it was absolutely HILARIOUS! He laughed every time we threw his elephant and eventually laughed so hard, he fell backwards haha.

A few more things I want to remember from him at nine months:

• Declan learned to clap for the first time
• He has officially graduated from his helmet
• Little man got four teeth this month
• Declan has started saying ‘baba’ on top of ‘dada’
• One of his favorite things is to smash his face against the playpen mesh
• He loves to be tilted upside down
• Declan is starting to learn to wave
• He enjoys dropping things over the edge of stuff and then looking for it
• Declan is still a major fan of smoothie pouches and has one every day