Now I am 9 Months...

9 months ago, I gave birth to an incy-bincy, cuddly little koala bear who liked to curl into a tiny ball inside my Baby Bjorn and sleep for hours...

... hmph.

in which it is near-on impossible to photograph the man-boy on his back...

Then, about 8.5 months ago, Elliott discovered he had arms. And legs. He regarded them with interest. These days, I am certain he has about 8 of each, his tentacles able to weave and extend and grip and wind and tug and wrap like he's an octopus. Indeed, just changing the boy's nappy requires sheer determination, brute strength and about half an hour; no sooner have you got two legs in the air than his little body has flipped like a pancake and he's trying to crawl off the end; its all I can do to get him over onto his back again before the process starts over...

Yup, the boy is a boy. In every sense of the word. His shoulders are square. His first word was 'yum!' (I swear this is true -- ask Fern!) He has a short attention span. He has a voracious appetite. He is messy. If you are sitting in his path, he will slip into 4wd and climb up and over, continuing on his merry way as though you were never there. And he loves his mum.... at night when he's tired (it's all I can do to keep him up til 6.00pm!) he crawls around the house calling out til he finds me, then he climbs up and holds onto my legs until I scoop him up and take him to beddy byes... and I get to hold him for about 10 minutes while he has his milk, to gaze into his huge greeny-greyey-browny eyes until he's full and he's on the move again, leaning away from me towards his bed where he wants to be deposited with his teddy and blankies....

Sigh.

9 months old and I'm still mad about you, sonny-boy. Who else with 4 teeth in their mouth could look so cute?!

the many faces of Elliott Daniel...