It is hard to believe that nine months have passed since Max’s birth. He is becoming such a big boy with a big personality! Here are a few nine month stats for him.
Weight – 18.739 pounds (8.5kgs)
Height – 68 cm
Max is a busy, busy boy! Always on the go and moving, even when he should be sleeping. That is right folks, he is still a terrible sleeper!! He taking roughly two naps a day, a short one in the morning (30-45 minutes) and a long one in the afternoon (1.5-2 hours). But even that is hit or miss. He is regularly waking up between 5:45 and 6:30 in the morning and we try to get him in bed between 7 and 8 at night. Although, some nights he wants to play until midnight! Once he is asleep he will sleep until around 9:30 or 10. Most of the time I can get him back to sleep right away, but occasionally he will be wide awake for a couple of hours. He is up and down all night long, with his longest stretch of sleep being 3 hours. One day maybe he will sleep more. At nap time he is starting to "put himself to sleep", meaning I rock him for a few minutes and then lay him in the crib. At which point he will cry until he is asleep. We can sometimes do this at night, although often we will have to rock or nurse him to sleep. 
Max is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. He is regularly cruising along furniture while holding on. And a new trick he learned this week was how to stand on his own without pulling up on anything. He will start by sitting on the floor and then move into the downward dog position. From there he will stand straight up. He is so proud of himself when he does it too. The kids at the hostel think this is so great and will clap and cheer for him each time. Sometimes when we are clapping for him he will bounce up and down, almost like he is trying to dance. He can hold this position for quite some time, but hasn’t figured out how to move his legs to walk without holding one to something or somebody.
I have mentioned it before, but he is absolutely in love with his big sister. Mikayla can get him to laugh and smile in a way that nobody else can. He loves being in her presence. And she loves being with him, most of the time!
He is into everything. We really have to watch him these days. Some of his favorite things are tearing up paper (much to Mikayla’s dismay) and digging through the trash (kind of sounds like we are raising a puppy :-/ ). 
Max loves to play Peek-a-boo. He has even started moving the blanket up and down to play with us.
We are working on waving and clapping with him, but so far he just looks at us like we are a bunch of idiots (which might in fact be the case).
Max definitely knows his name and will turn towards the person saying it almost every time.
Max is making lots of noises too. He can string together the sounds mama and dada well. He has also perfected the blowing of raspberries sound. He really likes to show off this skill when he has food in his mouth!
Still no teeth for my boy, but he loves to eat regardless and is great at "gumming" almost any food we give him. A couple of weeks ago he ate all the chicken off of a chicken leg plus veggies! I am afraid once he gets bigger he will eat us out of house and home. He loves to feed himself and will often turn down purees. Some of his favorite foods are fruits of any kinds, especially bananas, avocados and butternut squash. He also loves Puffs, although our stash is dwindling. He tried couscous and quinoa this week and really seemed to enjoy both. Smoothies are also one of his favorite foods. He can suck well through a straw. Other things he has eaten and enjoyed are meats (we joke that he is a Swazi man because they love their meats), orange veggies (carrots, butternut, sweet potatoes), green beans, broccoli, bread, and cheddar cheese. He is not a fan of yogurt though, you should see his face when we offer it to him, pure disgust! He tried some black beans and chickpeas the other day and enjoyed those, although we try to limit his intake of legumes because he is already a very gassy boy! 
He is 100% a momma’s boy and wants to be around me all the time. If I leave the room he will crawl after me or cry until I return. Although if I can distract him long enough to escape he doesn’t seem to notice, only when he can see me go. He will still easily go to others, especially the staff and kids at the hostel. 
At nine months Max has traveled to four different countries. I was in college before I could say that! He was even able to visit his home country, the United States, for the first time in January/February. 
Our little Max loves to give out kisses, open mouth kisses that is. He will lunge at your face with his mouth wide open and "suck/kiss" your cheek or chin. It is very cute if I do say so myself. 
He has such a funny disposition too, he is either hot or cold. Meaning one minute he is as happy as can be laughing and playing and then the next he is screaming his head off! Crazy how quickly he can switch from one to the other!
In less than three months we will be planning this big boys first birthday party!!
