9 Months

I'm a couple weeks late on this post, but I still can't believe our little Clarkie is already 9 months old! He has been growing like a weed, weighs 21 pounds and is almost 30 inches tall. He loves to crawl around and open all of our cabinets and drawers and get everything out. He walks along the couch and with his walking toy, and can even reach the top of the kitchen table! He has also started clapping, waving and he'll dance to any kind of music. Wants to eat everything we are, but he only has his two bottom front teeth so far. He sleeps so great at night and takes a two hour nap most days. He's super vocal, babbling and mimicking our speech and screaming all day, but he's still very quiet around new people. His favorite toys are, unfortunately, cords and computers, so we do our best to hide both. He also headbutts his daddy on command, which hurts daddy more when he's wearing his helmet! We love this little man more and more every day, everything he does amazes us.

Looking out his bedroom window; he has the best view in the house, overlooking the Catalina foothills and national forest.

Daddy got him dressed on this particular day
We went to the zoo with the playgroup from church this week. If you look very closely, there's a rear end of a polar bear in the background of this shot.
Flamingos; Clarkie was over it by this point, more interested in watching the other kids.
His favorite cabinet in the house, the plastic cabinet. This scene happens at least once a day, but it makes him happy, so we haven't locked this particular door yet.
Helping Mommy do the dishes is the least he could do; what a sweetie!

The Last Getaway

This post is s little out of order, but we decided back in August to do a trip to Danville before Clark started law school, and we would have no time for a trip for the next 3 years. It's a loooooong drive from Tucson to the Bay, but it was worth it. We had a very fun trip, visiting Great Grandma, as well as both sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles. Clarkie also got to go to the beach and see the ocean for the first time. He loved it! The Santa Cruz water was freezing, but it didn't seem to phase him. And I think he ate a lot more sand than we realized at the time.
And to explain the second picture, for the last month Clarkie has been wearing an orthotic helmet to fix his brachycephaly, a.k.a 'flat head syndrome.' Be careful if you have a new baby, all this 'back is best' stuff for SIDS is creating a lot of this problem. Clarkie is doing really well though, he'll be wearing the helmet probably through Halloween. Just in time for a super awesome costume. Any suggestions? We're thinking a skater, Magneto, or a lego man...