9 months old!

Another month older. I had no idea it would go this fast. I almost wish there was a pause button, but then again, watching him learn and explore is so exciting and fulfilling that I'd probably not be able to keep it all paused for very long. This month things definitely changed! He became so mobile and wiggly and curious and actually quite nosey!

He's 19 lbs 2 ounces (just below 50th percentile), 28.5 inches long (just above 50th percentile), and his head is still big at 19" (95th percentile).



He's still crawling backwards but he pulls up on everything he can and much prefers standing to sitting or crawling. He's learned how to get the toy he wants from the toy basket! After a few months of hating the Exersaucer, he has tolerated it much better this month.

He's eating more table food than baby food. His most favorite treat is a graham cracker, although he still loves his cheerios. He isn't excited at all about having a bottle and often fights it pretty hard (pushing us away or throwing the bottle as far as he can). We tried switching to regular formula this month and it went ok for a few days, which is better than it has gone in the past. The doctor thinks it's not the milk as much as his acid reflux, so we're back on Zantac and Alimentum but have plans to introduce yogurt soon and see how that goes. Then maybe we can try regular formula again. Either way, Dr. Schweiker says he'll be on whole milk at a year rather than rice or soy milk so that's good news!

He makes a lot of sounds - da and ba are still the most prevalent though sometimes you get a ma, pa, ga, ra, la or ta. He's become more interested in books this month, although he gets the most pleasure from turning the pages!

He consistently sleeps from 7:30 PM until 6:30 AM unless there's something going on, like a cold or a tooth or something bothering him. The napping really improved this month. Two good naps at 9 and 1 are pretty much required if the evenings are to be tolerable. However, this month was also the end of the wanting to be rocked phase, much to my dismay. Jack prefers to put himself to sleep and in fact, if there's ANYTHING else to do, he isn't going to go to sleep. It's certainly easier to just put him to bed awake, but I really miss our snuggle time in the rocker listening to lullabies.

He's much more independent in general. He wants to feed himself and figure it all out himself. If you try and help and he's not interested, he'll just push your hands away. He's rather stubborn in that regard, but always sure he knows what he wants! But so it goes...they grow up and want to be more independent, and I know that's a very good thing. While I miss my tiny guy, I sure do love this bigger guy so full of personality! We learn more and more about each other every single day and it's just all so overwhelmingly wonderful!



Thanks doodlebug for being such a joy...