9 Months Old

My precious Samuel,

 You are NINE months old and as sweet as ever. You brighten our lives so much, and everyday we are thankful for the blessing you are to our family.

 

You started clapping this month, and you do it all the time. It's so cute, and something about babies clapping fascinates me. The brain development of an infant astounds me. I think of everything it takes (socially, neurologically, etc) for you to figure out how to clap, and it still blows me away. You also make the motor boat sound all the time. It's your favorite sound, and you started saying Dada this month. I brought you into our bed in the middle of the night because you didn't want to sleep. You crawled over to your daddy, pulled up on him and started saying dada. So precious even at 4:00am!

You are using a combination of army crawling and crawling on your hands and knees. It's probably about half and half right now. For long distances, you seem to prefer army crawling, but recently I've seen you crawl across a room on your hands and knees. You are pulling up on everything and falling down just as often. You've got a tough head as many times as you've hit it. You seem to have great balance. I think if you trusted yourself, you could almost stand alone, unassisted.

You love to drink out of a sippy cup. Usually, you'll take a gulp and spit the water right out, but you are crazy about it. If Nathan leaves his cup anywhere within your reach, you take off after it. It's one of your favorite toys.

I weaned you from nursing just this last week. I debated for awhile and finally decided we were both ready, and although I'm still a little sad about it, I completely think it was the right decision. You've done so well with a bottle your whole life, that it wasn't much of an adjustment for you. I've had a bit of a harder time figuring how much formula to add now that you're not nursing, trying to make sure you're getting enough milk to meet your needs but not too much that you refuse to eat solids. We're getting there.

We also started you on yogurt and meat this month. You're not a big fan of either. I mix your yogurt with fruit, and you'll tolerate it with breakfast. The first few times you tried meat, you spit out every single bite. You're getting used to it, but it's still a struggle at times. You still gobble up all your fruits and veggies and cereal. You go crazy for any type of finger food we give you. We're mainly sticking with cheerios, yogurt melts, and puffs right now and slowly adding a few new table foods as we go.

Your feeding schedule hasn't changed too much
7:00- bottle
7:30-8:00- breakfast: Fruit and cereal or fruit and yogurt
10:30-11:00- bottle
11:30-12:00 lunch: Fruit and veggie
2:30-3:00- bottle
5:00-5:30- dinner: Cereal and meat
8:00-8:30- bottle
You still take a bottle at some point during the night.

You are wearing 9 month, 9-12 month and a few 12 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. When we use up this pack of diapers though, I'm going to move you up a size. At your 9 month appointment you weighed 21lbs, 9oz (70%) and were 28 inches long (50%). Your head circumference was 18.5 (90%)

You've had a rough month teething. You got a top tooth on 12/1, and you have three more that are just bulging at the gum. I know they have to be painful, and because of it, you've been unusually fussy and needy (and up for hours at night). Everyone is hoping those little teethers pop through soon!

Watching you and your brother interact is the best thing! He mimics us and the way we talk to you. I hear him saying (in a high pitched baby voice), "You'll be okay, little guy, you'll be okay." He complains to us all the time when you get into his toys, demanding that I hold you and telling you that they are not your toys, but as soon as I put you down for a nap, he asks where you are and tells me to wake you up, because he wants to play with you. You adore him. Sometimes we'll go in his room together to wake him up. You just giggle and laugh when I put you in his bed with him. I love watching you two turn into best friends.

Happy 9 months, Little One. You are one loved baby boy!