Nine months old!

Chad has been an outside baby for as long as he was an inside baby!

Chad celebrated his nine month birthday by going to the doctor.  He's shooting up the growth charts and is now 20.5 pounds (51st percentile) and 28.25 inches (52nd percentile).  And his big noggin is in the 87th percentile.  No need for shots this time.  The doctor just checked out all his parts and called him cute.  He celebrated his birthday with his two teeth!  Tooth number two came though just three days after the first one.  Yay, symmetry!
I was informed that the person who discovers a baby's first tooth is supposed to buy the baby a pair of shoes.  I think this is a stupid tradition, and the discoverer should be able to buy HERSELF a new pair of shoes.  Alas, Chad needs shoes for Cool Aunt Steph's wedding anyway, so I went to the baby store in search for shoes.  They had the CUTEST little black dress shoes.  They were $15.  And then right next to them were semi-cute black suede shoes.  Those were on clearance for $1.25.  Frugality won over cuteness.  (Cool Aunt Steph, if you feel that YOUR day will be ruined by Chad's cheap shoes, I can go back and get the pricey ones, but I'm taking the extra $13.75 out of your wedding gift.)
The doctor wants us to start cutting back on formula and getting more solids into him.  Formula is pricey, so I am very happy to comply with this.  We've been getting some mixed reviews with new foods though.  He's starting to get picky.

We all remember how the blech-eyed peas went down.  Or rather, how they didn't.

Black beans.  Disliked.  Can't say I blame him.  If they aren't mixed into Mexican goodness, they just aren't worth eating.

We have a winner! Raise your hand if you <3 beets!

Couscous.  Only tolerated when mixed with beets.

Much like the crab on his shirt, Chad has excellent pincer skills.

Eating pasta like a good little part-Italian

Cheerios.  This is a daily staple now.  Most end up on the floor, but Fenway eats Cheerios, so it's all good.  Finally, we found something positive about that cat!

Mozzerella cheese.  Most went down his shirt, where it melted.  Not sure we'll be doing cheese pieces again anytime soon.

Cottage cheese.  You can see his first sports-related injury in this picture.  He lunged for his soccer ball and face-planted into the wooden floor.  There's a bruise on his forehead from that one.  There's also a bruise on his cheek from knocking his head into my chin during a dance party.

Chad went to his first baseball game last month!  We got free tickets to the Bulls.  Chad was one of four babies in our group.  He was the cutest (duh!) and also lasted the longest.  We stayed until the top of the 6th, when he freaked out and we had to make a quick getaway.  The score was still 0-0 at that point.  It' wasn't the most exciting game.

I have cuter pictures of him with his hat, but they're on my phone and I don't feel like going downstairs to get that right now.

Here are some other recent pics of Chad's cuteness:

Watching the birds.

Scouring the dessert menu at the Mellow Mushroom.  Except that right when we were ready to order dessert he started crying and no one got any.  Thanks a lot, Chad!

"Hey cat, have a shoe."

First haircut!  Just a little trim to clean up the front and over his ears.

Two preps in polos



And finally, Chad says "Happy Birthday!" to Uncle David!  I know we're a tad late in posting this, but I promise we took the pictures on your actual birthday.  In fact, Andy may have been on the phone with you during this photo shoot.