9 months - Standing Tall

Here at 9 months old, as you can see, Max has mastered the art of standing. He pulls himself up on everything and everyone and loves to cruise around the house holding on to furniture to get from A to B.
Most every night we awake to the sound of crying, only to find a very much asleep baby standing up in his crib just wanting to get back down again. So we stuff the pacifier back in his mouth and lay him back down, trying not to wake him up with our giggling.

He's also gotten two teeth! So they need to be brushed. And that is much fun IF, and only IF, he gets to do it himself. If mommy wants to do the job right, it's a bit of a fight. But afterwards, he gets to chew on the brush and "brush" his own teeth, much to his satisfaction.
He points at his toothpaste and toothbrush every time he enters the bathroom. So we aren't sure if his first words will be "sut" (pacifier in Danish) or "tooth". We'll keep you posted.

The picture with Morten is just a funny story we wanted to share with you all.
We had gone out to enjoy a day on the town and managed to bring everything: toys, pacifier, diapers, blankets, bread to chew on..you name it, we had it. Except for: His bottle.
So here we had a very thirsty baby on a Sunday afternoon, where everything is closed, about 20 miles outside of town and nothing to drink. We found a little cafe and stopped and got some coffee for ourselves, but they had no milk to sell. But they did have cream for the coffee...
I'm assuming you can guess the rest of the story. Needless to say, the cream was a hit. Sort of like melted ice cream.
Max sort of waited around for us to open up another after having drunk 5 of the cream packets, but we decided to try and keep his cholesterol levels at least moderate until age 3 just poured water into the little cups. He drank a couple of them, but soon, he was on to us and turned his away.
But we had a good laugh.

And the final picture is just as evidence that, though we describe him as the best, sweetest, happiest, funnest and most lovable child ever to be born, we realize that we are a bit biased. So here it is: proof that the child does cry....
Usually, because he isn't getting his way. Now, where on earth do you think he got that from???

8 months - Getting into Trouble

Here's Max as he is entering the world of trouble making.
Luckily, mom has had 7 months of learning to just breathe deep, relax and say, "oh, who cares" as practice. So all the opening-closing, opening-closing, opening-closing of doors, the opening of cabinets and pulling out of all the dish towels and the playing in the dirty laundry is simply priceless.

Max has also become quite interested in daddy's bike. It's only fitting: he's his father's son. He also loves riding on the back of my bike in his own chair and I often can turn around and find him with his head down watching the wheels turning or the shadow of the bike on the road. He's quite observant that way.

And the final shot is Max's first real serious bonk. We aren't actually sure what happened... He was playing with his duck (yes, the one he carries in his mouth everywhere) and then all of a sudden he was on his back, crying, with this big, goose egg on his head. We think he swung that duck around and knocked himself out. He didn't cry very long, though. And the knot disappeared as quickly as it had come. But daddy was very proud of his brave son, and grabbed the camera.