9 Months!

I love when Blake's 'week birthday' matches his 'month birthday'! Today he is 39 weeks or 9 months-whatever you prefer. :)
He is such a busy body- still obsessed with standing, but he is now very quick to pull himself up to standing and is much more stable and balanced. He frequently lets go with one hand and has let go with both hands a few times. He almost immediately lands on his bottom, but he's feeling more confident and taking risks. (I hope that the risk taking stops there!)
He officially has a tooth! His bottom right tooth appeared on Feb 25. I thought I had felt it early in the morning, but at first I chalked it up to imagination because I didn't feel it again (and I tried multiple times) until that evening. I tried really hard to get a picture, but he wasn't having any of it- you'll see the attempts below. Once he got his tooth he started mashing his puffs and now he can get an entire puff- not just a partial one. While I'm happy he is using his mouth and 'chewing' the dogs aren't so happy. They were reaping the rewards of a child who would pick up his puff pieces and toss them onto the floor. Now, he picks (most) of them up and eats them.
He thinks the puppies are hysterical- mostly at meal times when they sit under the table hoping for some treats. He looks at them and laughs and laughs. He seems to pant when he is engaging with them- he opens his mouth and breathes in and out his mouth like he's imitating them. He says "mama" sometimes when I'm holding him. I would like to think he's purposely saying "mama" to me, but I'm not convinced that it's purposeful- it maybe just coincidental. (If you ask my mom, she says he says "mama" to her also and that it is purposeful!)
In general, he's playing with his voice even more than before- the sounds and the volume! In the car he and Brady have 'yelling' contests. It started with Brady mimicking Blake yelling and then it would escalate from there with them both getting louder. But now, Brady can start the game and Blake will answer back. He'll even answer me! :) It's really not uncommon to hear all three of us yelling 'AHHHHHHHHHHHH' at the same time.
Stories are also more of an interest. I can actually read an entire short book without him chewing on it! We just started "Dear Zoo" again and he really enjoys helping open the flaps.
Nap time seems to be improving with increased duration times. He took an hour+ nap for my mom this week and one for me today! Yea!!! Some nights are better than others, but overall he's only waking up once and sleeps from 8 to 6:30 (although if we weren't up and rustling around, I think he would sleep later.) I'll cross my fingers for that tonight and tomorrow morning!
In the past couple weeks Blake has been sad a few times when I left for work. Thankfully Grammie is there to give him snuggles when I leave. :)

I think this angle is very misleading. This was the first day I felt the tooth and it looks like it's sticking up so much more than it really is.