Well.
I’m just slightly behind on documenting the happenings of our family. John Wicks will be 10 months tomorrow, so this post will be {mostly} 9 month pictures with a combined 9-10 month update. And, as this is JW’s only baby book/scrapbook of sorts, prepare for picture overload. 
The last few months have been full of rapid growth and change for this little guy. He is officially mobile–crawling all over the place at rapid speeds. Mom and I took the boys to a park in Jackson while I was visiting, and we sat Wicks on a tiny platform about a foot off the ground for a picture with some little friends. In the 2 seconds that we turned our heads to chat with some other moms, Wicks had crawled right off the platform and face-planted into some mulch. He’s a tough little guy, but he got his first battle scars. Lesson learned: He moves quicker than you think. Don’t take your eyes off him for a second {and platforms aren’t the best idea}. He’s also trying to pull up to his feet a lot. I found him standing in the crib a few mornings ago.
Big boy don’t play when it comes to food. He knows what he wants, and he’s mad when he doesn’t get it. He prefers table food to baby food {can you blame him?} and is pretty much eating anything we can break into small enough pieces. He loves cheese, ham, any kind of bread/crackers, pasta, cheerios {OBSESSED} pizza, peas, carrots, mixed veggies, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, cantaloupe {all fruit… both my boys really love fruit} and yogurt. We recently spent a day with my brother, and he aptly observed: “Luke eats to live, and John Wicks lives to eat.” Truer words were never spoken. He’s still nursing about 4 times a day, but I’m honestly not sure how much he’s getting. He doesn’t nurse for long, so I’ve been giving him a sippy cup or bottle with water at meals just to make sure he’s getting enough fluids. He likes sips of water in between bites of food.
In spite of his love for food, he’s pretty average when it comes to size. At his 9 month appointment, he weighed 19 lbs and measured 28 inches long (50th percentile for both). He’s chunkier than Luke was at this age, but he’s shorter. Thankfully, almost all of Luke’s clothes have worked for him! PRAISE!
He loves to sit in Luke’s room and play. They don’t play together, per se, but they do play independently beside each other. Of course, Luke can be territorial {read: selfish} and snatch whatever toy JW is playing with. And sometimes John Wicks has his eye on whatever Luke is playing with and tries to go after it. Oh, sharing. Such a tough and seemingly elusive concept for little {and sometimes big} minds and hearts! You certainly don’t have to teach children to prefer themselves. There will, however, be no shortage of opportunities to talk about our great need for Jesus to redeem our sinful hearts and help us prefer one another above ourselves. I pray they will see their great need for grace early on! Siblings are good for each other. And brothers are fun. I’m enjoying their growing interactions and am excitedly anticipating all the fun days of play ahead. They really do love each other. L loves to tell JW goodmorning and goodnight. They are both excited to see each other after they’ve been apart. JW laughs at all of L’s antics and mimics him. If L claps, JW starts clapping. It’s the cutest. John Wicks LOVES LOVES LOVES to clap, especially for attention. He knows when he’s got everyone’s attention, and he loves to squeal and clap and flirt!
Wicks is a great sleeper. He sleeps about 12 hours at night (usually 8 to 8 with LOTS of flexibility) and usually takes two naps during the day {1 to 2 hours each}. If we’re out and about in the morning, he’ll just take one nap in the afternoon.
People ask what we are calling him. Officially, he will go by the double name John Wicks (school roll, church, etc), but we call him a plethora of names here at home. Adam and I most always call him Wicks or Wicksie. Luke calls him John Wicks, Wicksie, and J-dub {he introduced him as J-dub the other day…HA!}. Luke also {for some reason unknown to me} thinks it’s hilarious to change the first letter of a name or word to “b” even when it doesn’t start with “b.” For instance, at Christmas, he started calling the manger the “banger” instead. He would say it and just die laughing. Well, one day in the church nursery, he decided to start calling Wicks “Bicks.” As you can imagine, the nursery ladies were very concerned about what he was actually saying and wanted me to know that they HAD NOT taught him to say whatever it was he was calling John Wicks. 🙂 The only name I really don’t prefer he be called is just plain John. Or John Wilkes, as some of the sweet old ladies at church mistakenly call him.
Whatever he’s called, we love this sweet boy! He is precious and funny and just so darn kissable. He is a unique little creation, a precious gift from God entrusted to us for a season. We thank God for the privilege to love and parent him, and we pray that we would be faithful.
I’ll love you forever, John Wicks.
Gospel-Shaped Womanhood 