9 Months Old

Age: 9 months

Approximate height and weight: 26.5 inches, 15 lbs., 15.2 oz.

Milestones:

• Crawling super fast, along with the ability to maneuver through tunnels.
• Cruising alongside the baby fence and anything he can pull himself up on!
• Quickened pace using his push walker and more stability holding onto it while I turn it around (although we've had a few unfortunate incidents where he's fallen backwards and the walker rolled over him...)  
• Using all of his might to try to take his first step. He keeps lifting his foot to do it, but loses his balance before being successful. I predict it will happen within the next month!
• Gaining a deeper understanding of games and humor. One of his favorite things to play is "Jaws/sea monster" in which I'll start humming the "Jaws" theme and he quickly crawls over to his raft (his play mat) to get out of the water before I strike. I swim around the edges and attack his feet over the edge and rock the raft. Sometimes he'll make a run for it and I chase him, grab his feet, and pull him back to the raft and he gets a huge kick out of it.
• Still loving music in any form, whether it's the radio, the music his toys play, or a steady beat. Even if you hold up the radio or his tape player, he'll prematurely start rocking to the music before it even starts playing lol.
• Being a little explorer and investigating everything he encounters... his favorite things being every day objects like the wooden spoon we got him, anything on a shelf he can pull off, and the sock drawer.
• Handling his solids better and eating more and more finger foods. We transitioned from purees to chunkier mixes with little pieces of veggies, rice, meat, etc. and after a couple initial instances of gagging, he is tolerating them pretty well. His favorite finger foods by far are crunchies. One serving size is about 20 and we give a few here and there throughout the day. He loves them so much that if he's standing and you shake the can, he'll plop right down and sit with his mouth open haha.
• Separation anxiety is in full swing. He's fairly independent, but likes to keep me within view. Even if he's completely distracted, he perks up right away when he senses me leaving and gives me the most desperately sad little face.
• Clapping!
• Cutting his top two teeth! He looks so cute, but now has a habit of chewing on his crib like a little beaver. I finally got some rail protectors, but not before he managed to scrape off a good helping of paint from them. It was startling to see paint specs all over his face a couple times, but I've heard the same story from others... and thankfully, the crib paint is non-toxic.

Likes: Exploring the world around him, clapping, waving goodbye dramatically with both hands, climbing everything he possibly can, nearly taking his first step before losing his balance, standing independently like a champ, drinking from cups and feeding himself more and more successfully, and eating CRUNCHIES!

We recently opened up the baby gate so that he can roam around most of the kitchen and hallway and he absolutely LOVES it. He's managed to whack his head on the walls and table but it doesn't even faze him. The cats on the other hand are a little unnerved that they can't find peace outside of the playpen anymore, but I keep working on promoting a good relationship between them and BB as best as I can. It's just hard when BB can't differentiate between petting and slapping!

Dislikes: It can still be hit or miss taking him places, but once he warms up to a place, he's much more adventurous nowadays... but this also means he's much more of a handful where ever we go! 

Memory: Bath time has to be one of the funnest, most heartwarming times with BB. We started giving him a rubber ducky to play with and he love to bat it around in the water and make it "go down the slide (the newborn reclined part of his tub)." I just always want to remember him as the sweet little boy smiling and laughing while he's splashing everywhere without a care in the world.

Mommy and Daddy: I love watching Leif interact with BB, he's such a playful, amazing Daddy. The funniest thing is seeing him trying to reason with BB when he won't stay still enough to get his pants back on and starts crawling away or Leif trying to keep him from throwing the spoon. BB is also becoming more intentionally affectionate, so it's the best feeling having him crawl up on my lap, putting his arms around me, or giving me a little kiss on the cheek (a.k.a. putting his open, slobbering mouth on my face... but I'll take it!).