Top 14 at 9 months

Brandon will be 9 months next week! We have some cute new spring pictures that I'll post soon (you get a sneak peak of one in the new header), but we've been meaning to do another "favorite things" post for a while now. This is mostly so we can look back and remember all the things we love about Brandon, but some of you might be interested in his cute antics too.

Here are the top things we love or think are interesting about Brandon right now. I couldn't narrow it down to 10, so this is a top 14 list.

• Brandon loves attention (what baby doesn't?). If I'm trying to get something done in the kitchen, he will army crawl across the room and then pull on my pants and ram his little head repeatedly into my shin until I pick him up.
• He loves to stand! He hasn't figured out how to pull up on furniture yet, but if one of us is on the floor with him, all he wants to do is climb on us until he's standing. Once he's standing up holding onto our fingers or shoulders, he laughs and does a silly little bouncing dance.
• Brandon does not like loud noises, but he is slowly becoming more tolerant of them. He HATES the vacuum cleaner, squeaky windows closing, and he is very suspicious of the blender when it goes over low speed. He also starts crying whenever his daddy screams in victory while watching a sporting event. It's probably good for Brandon's mental stability that Michigan State didn't make it to the final game.
  
• Brandon seems to be a little over sensitive to most sensory input. He has super hearing powers for one thing. And he hated grass the first few times he touched it. Now he is really interested in grass and will venture off the picnic blanket to feel it. After his first bad experience with grass (not the drug), I got a little worried (after all I am an OT who has worked with many kids who have sensory problems, and I never thought I'd have a child with them!). So I got out my therapy container of dried rice & beans and did some work with him. He wanted nothing to do with this activity at first and would only touch it with his his fingertips. After 2 "sessions" he now loves to put his hands in the dried mixture. I've concluded that Brandon is hesitant of new sensory experiences, but he just needs a few minutes to explore them on his own with some encouragement and then he is fine. He comes by all this honestly...I had major issues as a child with some sensory stuff. If there was one wrinkle in my sock, my day was pretty much ruined. My blessed mom spent countless minutes each morning before school trying to get my socks right. And I still dislike being barefoot in the grass.
• He has a cute little head shake right before falling asleep. He has done this since he was born. He will shake his little head in a quick "no" gesture really quickly right before he doses off.
• He loves his blanket sleeper. I think it is his security blanket. As soon as we put it on him, he holds the extra fleece fabric on the front and rubs it on his face and bites on it a little bit.
• Brandon gives us kisses! Well, kind of... Sometimes when we kiss his cheeks, he'll turn his face towards us with an open mouth and try to put his mouth on our face! If he succeeds, he will suck like a little fish. More recently, though he has started to bite, so I don't let him give me vampire kisses very often.
  
• Brandon turns book pages, but only if it's a book he's interested in. Out of his book collection of probably 40 books, he really only likes about 6 enough to pay attention for the whole thing. These include Dr. Seuss ABC, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, The Eye Book, Goodnight Moon, Oh the Thinks You Can Think!, and The Hungry Caterpillar. We could read these over and over all day long and he wouldn't get tired of them (but we would)!
• Brandon is always moving. We are convinced this is why he is in the 10th-25th percentile for weight.
• He loves those baby puffs, and they are extremely helpful for keeping him occupied in the car at stoplights and on any kind of outing. His pincer skills are quite good!
  
• Brandon is starting to have stranger anxiety. If someone new holds him, he either smiles at them right away or starts crying. I don't know why he doesn't like some people at first. He warms up to everyone pretty quickly, though.
  
• Brandon plays a "bib game." While eating, he likes to take off his bib. When I attempt to get it from him to put it back on, he will grab onto it tightly so we are playing tug-of-war, and he just looks me in the eye and laughs. Little stinker! I have ordered a bib that he will not be able to pull off, and I am anxiously anticipating its arrival.
• He laughs when I say "I love you, Brandon." Since he was about 5 months old, whenever I would say those words, he would look at me and give me a little giggle. I love it!
• He smiles at me in the store. I usually put Brandon in the Ergo Baby Carrier when I do my grocery shopping still. He likes it better than being in the cart because I am continually moving. Usually about halfway through my shopping I'll look down at him, and he is just staring at me smiling. When I give him attention, he giggles. It's like he's thinking, "I've seen enough of this store, Mom, I just want to look at you." Pretty cute, huh?