The Stai's: Long Overdue

Has it really been over three weeks since I last posted? And where are those haircut pictures I promised you? I'm sorry for the neglect dear blog reader. I will try to make it up to you :)
Jack had his 9 month check up a couple weeks ago. He is doing well and right on track. I can't remember the numbers, they weren't shocking. He's an average baby in weight, height and head size. I think I'm bored of the baby numbers game. In two years I won't remember what he weighed at 9 months old :) Either way, he's doing well and is as active as ever. He's so active, that I think he's burning all of the calories we're feeding him. The doctor has instructed us to feed the kid as much table food as we can to try to fill up his belly. We're eating avocado chunks, cheese chunks, Cheerios, yogurt, black beans, an assortment of diced fruit and veggies including corn (one of Jack's favorites), buttered toast, pancakes, etc. For the last couple of months, Jack has not slept through the night. Actually, it seemed like the opposite. A good night would mean two night feedings. A bad night would mean three night feedings. I talked with his pediatrician about this because I am one exhausted mama! She thinks feeding him more solid food will help with this, and so far since stepping it up in the finger foods arena, I've seen some good progress. There are far fewer bad nights and he's actually starting to have great nights where he only wakes up once. There also was that one night that I fed him around midnight, came back down stairs and forgot to turn the monitor back on which resulted in a wonderful night's sleep for me! Whether Jack slept through the night that night is debatable since I couldn't hear him. I felt fairly guilty the next morning, but he was still alive and happy. Which makes me believe that I just need to let him cry it out. I'm not prepared for that yet though, so we'll just keep shoveling food in his mouth and hope that helps him sleep through the night!
Did I mention that Jack is very ACTIVE? So active that he has decided that his favorite game is to crawl up our stairs, over and over and over again. Last night Brant counted, and Jack climbed the stairs a total of 10 times in 20 minutes. We haven't bought a baby gate yet, I have borrowed one from a coworker, but I don't think it will work with our staircase. I think we'll have to invest in a heavy duty one that we permanently install, or Brant and I have to make climbing the stairs with Jack a hobby. Stairs are a parents worst nightmare, I think. They make me so nervous! Ours are double as bad, since they are floating stairs. You can see through them, which means Jack could fall through them. Yes, it's time to invest in a couple of baby gates so I don't have to watch Jack like a hawk all of the time.
Another favorite of Jack's is to slowly crawl around acting like he his playing with toys while he makes his way to our wine rack. Within 5 feet of it, he kicks it into high gear and speed crawls to the rack to try to pull wine glasses out of it. He's such a stinker! That's another thing to baby proof on our list.
Brant taught Jack how to high five awhile ago, but I think Jack forgot. We've been trying to get him to high five, wave goodbye, and clap. Last night I high fived Brant slowly a couple of times, and Jack figured it out, so now we have a high fiving machine (at least for now, until he forgets again!) In the waving and clapping, Jack just looks at us like we're crazy. I can't wait for the day he will return my wave!
That's all I can think of for now. Here are some pictures to hold you over. Have a spooky Halloween!

After Jack's Haircut: