9 Months Old

Nathan,

Nine months old! 75% of a year! How did we get here so fast?! You are incredibly fun these days, learning new things, becoming even sweeter day by day and bursting with personality. You are just too precious for words.

You continue to improve your mobility day by day. Crawling usually can get you anywhere you want to go, and your speed has certainly increased this month especially when you are after something, you switch into turbo speed which is usually accompanied with giggles. You are everywhere, crawling from one end of the house to the other in seconds.

You are still pulling up on everything as well and have perfected it. You love to pull up on our legs. It's hard to get things done with you attached to us, but we'll put up with it because you are cute. This month you have begun to take a few steps while holding onto furniture. I notice you cruising most along the edge of the bathtub. I think it's the right height for optimal walking and there are lots of gizmos and gadgets and buttons to entice you to walk the length of it. About a week ago I saw you pull up on your stroller that was in our entryway and push it. Your daddy saw you too, and we immediately decided you needed a walker to give you some practice. I went out the next day and got one for you.



You'll walk with it occasionally, but really you just like to push all the buttons and see the lights. You'll stand behind it and lean over to push the buttons. Everyone who sees you on a regular basis, nursery workers, friends, etc. all comment that you will be walking very soon, and I believe them too! They also tell me you'll be running by your first birthday. We'll see baby, but I don't mind if you want to stay little for a while longer. Somehow to me walking translates into toddler instead of baby, and I don't know if I'm ready for that, sweet boy. All these milestones sure are bittersweet for a momma.

 

This month we have noticed you being more careful sitting down when you have been standing up. You'll slowly lower your legs before you let go of the furniture. It's cute how careful you are at times when at other times, you'll plop right down to zoom off for something.

You are babbling all the time and making new sounds occasionally. I can tell you watch our mouths when we talk to you and try to imitate the sounds we make. My "mamama" is still coming out "bababa" when you try and imitate, but we'll get there someday, I'm sure.

You weigh 18lbs, 11 oz (10%) and are 26 1/4 inches long (5%). Your head circumference is 18(50%). You wear 6-12 month and 9 month clothes and a few 12 month. You wear a size 3 diaper.

 

You are waving now. It's not usually on cue, but you'll wave in response to us every once in awhile. We notice the most waving when you are excited. You'll talk loudly and wave your hands back and forth like you have something really important we need to know. 

You continue to be a great eater. This month we are introducing more table food and finger food in addition to your bottles and baby food. I'll give you diced up pieces of banana, peaches, cheese, and pasta at times. You also love graham crackers. They are your new favorite food. You have learned from your puppy dog how to beg, and your daddy and I can rarely eat in peace these days because you are standing at our feet "asking" us for bites. We'll give you bites of yogurt, oatmeal, cheerios, flour tortilla, rice, bread, green beans etc. We usually have something on our plate you can have a bite of, and since you are so adorable, we almost always give you some.Your fine motor skills are definitely improving and you have replaced your raking reflex with the pincer reflex. You seem so big when you reach and pick up a piece of food with two fingers instead of using your whole hand.

Your feeding schedule this month has started to line up with typical meal times, which has been more convenient for us.
You eat breakfast between 7-8 and will take a 6 oz bottle along with fruit and yogurt or fruit and oatmeal. Lunch occurs between 11-12 and includes a 6 oz bottle along with a vegetable and a fruit. You have a bottle when you wake up from your afternoon nap usually between 3 and 4 and then have dinner around 5. You have meat for dinner along with cereal or some fruit. Then you eat your last bottle right before bed around 7:30-8. As great as you are doing with solid food, you have really lost interest in your bottles, which is surprising because you used to go CRAZY over them. Now, I think you are just too busy to sit still and drink a bottle. You'll sip a few ounces and then want down to play. You'll come back for a few drinks every now and then when you spot the bottle in your line of vision, but it's a battle at times to get you to drink your whole bottle.

 

You take two naps a day, a morning nap between 9:00 and 10:00 that lasts 1-1.5 hours and an afternoon nap between 1:00 and 2:00 that lasts 1.5-2 hours. You go down for the night around 8 and sleep until 6-6:30. 

   

You are in love with the dishwasher. It has so many things for you to hold onto and play with. You'll pull spoons out of the silverware container and if we don't watch you closely, you'll climb right in it. You can be in the other room and see me open it, and you'll bolt straight for it.  Maybe someday you'll like unloading it as much as you like playing in it now :).

One of your favorite games to play is for us to flip you upside down and tickle your belly. You'll laugh and giggle and we'll pull you back into our laps and you'll lean your head back to go upside down again. You would play that game all day if we would let you.

You had your first bout with sickness this month (besides a tiny cold you had at six months). Your ran a high temperature (It got to 104 at one point) for a couple days, and we felt terrible for you. You are such a good baby though even when you are sick. As long as someone was holding and snuggling with you, you hardly fussed, but you never wanted to be put down. I enjoyed the extra days of cuddling with my busy boy, but am so thankful that you are well now, and that you are almost always a very healthy baby.

You are very tactile. You seem to try and explore your world by touching and feeling. One of your favorite things to do is tear paper, kleenex, cotton balls, or whatever you can get your hands on. You also enjoy feeling the grate cover for our fireplace and pulling the fuzz off of Rhapsody's tennis balls. I catch you so many times holding an object in your hands and passing it from one hand to the other trying to fully experience it. It will be interesting to see what your learning style is as you get older. I'm thinking you may be different than your mom and dad.

You are also more interested in books and they will hold your attention for a longer period of time before you get bored and take the book out of my hands. You'll listen to the story and stare at the pictures. Your favorite book right now is "I Love You Through and Through." You always laugh while I'm reading it.

The words are certainly true sweet baby. "I love you through and through, yesterday, today, and tomorrow too."