Happy 9 month birthday, Tate!

Today Tate turned 9 months old! This seems so crazy! What happened to our little infant?! Tate just cut his 4th tooth 2 days ago and is still working on his top teeth. So now he has 4 teeth on the bottom and none on the top. Every day he seems to be a little bit closer to crawling. He scoots everywhere on his tummy or on his bottom, but hasn't figured out that it would be much easier to just crawl. He has lately been super interested in anything we are eating and wants to see it and lick it. He barely eats any baby food (besides his daily bowl of rice cereal)...he just isn't a fan of baby food anymore. The baby foods he used to like, he gags when he eats them. Tate has been able to walk (only backwards:)) in his walker for a couple of weeks now and still is enjoying his jumparoo as well. He is very chatty these days and loves to imitate sounds we make and faces we make. He says, "hot", "hi" and "boo" and claps all of the time. His favorite toys are cups and water/pop bottles. He loves the pool and his baths more than anything else it seems! We are going to be switching him to a "big boy" car seat in a couple of weeks, so no more carrying our 20+ pound baby in the carrier! We've been long awaiting our upcoming trip to Florida at the end of July and know that Tate will have an absolute ball there. Especially because his "girlfriend" Ava will be there for him to play with the whole time! Unfortunately, there is a chance that Sean may not be able to come to Florida after all. He has an opportunity to get a new job and is still finding out if it will conflict with the trip, so we'll see. If he doesn't go, I am sure that he will be sad that he will be away from Tate (and I) for a week and a half. We are hoping that he is still able to go, but we know that we will survive without him if he's not. Tate has his 9 month appointment next week and will be getting shots again. He has changed so much since his last shots and is definitely not the baby that he once was...he's much more vocal, so I have a feeling that these shots will be the worst ones to date. Pray that they go well!