From: Alston Family
   Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:22 PM
     To: The Email Picture Group
Subject: The Boys 9 Months

In a lot of ways we really can't believe it has been 9 months! They are so grown up already!

We had a baby wellness visit at the doctors: No shots today, yeah! Both babies were deemed healthy and developing normally. Braden now weights approx 17 lbs (but his height has jumped up for the second time) and Whalen 21 lbs.

Lets see... since we last wrote about what they were up to (so since 8 months)

Braden has been crawling like crazy, and has been pulling up to stand on things when they are at the right level. Sometimes on his way to crawl to one of us (since it takes awhile) he gets distracted by a toy and veers off to play. He now gets around very well, moving from sitting on his own, to crawling, to standing, then PLOP back to sitting, and crawling again. His two bottom teeth are pretty much up now, no sign of the top ones just yet. Braden loves to cuddle, will crawl right into our laps and grab on, it just melts my heart when he does that. He loves grabbing onto our faces and bringing them close, with me he usually gives kisses, but with Gideon he will also tug at the facial hair or bite at his nose (which he did once to me - ouch!). He also loves to use us as a jungle gym when we lay on the floor on our backs. He will leap onto my belly and pull himself over to the other side, sliding off again, then look and me and giggle, then crawl right up to my face and give me a kiss and a smile, then off to the belly again. Braden really loves the dogs, he gets so excited when he sees any of them, and Luni and Felfel have gotten a lot more used to them. He seems to know instinctively to not get too close to the face, but will reach over and grab at a tail or pet a leg when they aren't looking. Both boys love whatever we have in our hands (dinner plates, cups, etc), so we often times give them a safe version that they can play with (plastic plates, plastic bowls, colored water bottles, wooden spoons, Tupperware etc). Braden made up this adorable and hilarious game with the slightly see through plastic bowl we gave him to play with, he holds it up to his face (the inside of the bowl) and his eyes get really wide (as he is trying to peer through) and he just laughs and laughs, then he'll pull it down and look at us, then do it again, we figure its kind of like "looking at the world through rose colored glasses" except I think the bowl is green - which is apparently a "funny" color.

Whalen is really getting around, loves things that he can reach up for (ack! be careful!) so we have to think of fun safe ways for him to get to do that (like tie a piece of dangling material from a doorknob). His crawl is getting very good and he stands up whenever he has the littlest thing to help out (even the wall), he can cruise a little (move from place to place standing) but is not very good at it yet. He likes to be daring and let go of what he his holding onto, which sometimes lasts seconds before he plops down, or sometimes just as he starts to tip he grabs back at the couch (or whatever) to steady himself. He always wants whatever is JUST out of reach. He has been enjoying jumping in his crib lately (then we sing "no more monkeys jumping in the bed!"). Whalen has for a long time played a type of a peek-a-boo game with us, where we cover his head with a blanket and say "where's Whalen?" and he giggles (the blanket shakes) and we say it a few more times until either he pulls the blanket off or we have to and we shout "there he is" and he goes into a fit of giggles. Well, a few weeks ago he started playing peek-a-boo with ME in his crib, I walked into the room and noticed he was ducking down a little then he POPPED up with a huge smile, he had to do this twice before I caught on then I would say "PEEK-a-boo". The thing that Gideon is most excited about is: he is really into playing soccer (well, he laughs when Gideon bounces a rubber ball off his head), he even stretches his neck out in preparation, its really funny, well, the other day as Gideon was showing me, Whalen sticks out his hands and CATCHES the ball! He has since done it several times so it was not just a fluke. Whalen has also been giving kisses now (again, the open mouthed WET kisses) and is so cute when he lays his head on a pillow in between playing and rough housing. He also has been giving us (or himself if we aren't handy) wet raspberry blows on our skin (he prefers belly, but any surface will do). Oh, Whalen's top two teeth have begun to peek out now!

The boys really love playing together and following each other around, and taking the toy that the other is playing with and kissing and pulling hair and wrestling and knocking each other over... I think this is ONLY THE BEGINNING! Most of the time its so so wonderful to watch, but you do have to be ready to separate at times. They just have to look at each other to start a huge giggle fest, which is difficult during feeding or nap times, but so much fun to witness. They both really love taken their strolls with daddy, he says they really notice nature now and love the outdoors. They have seen deer and coyote recently, and when Gideon takes a dog along too, the boys "help" him walk the dog by grabbing the leash and giving it a tug. They also enjoy most of their outings, like trips to the store/home depot/ etc and love all the attention they get.

Sunday is Father's Day! Have a happy and relaxing day all you wonderful fathers out there (I'll be spending mine with the two best fathers, my own and my husband).

Naseem