9 Months

being more kid and less baby everyday

Every month goes by fast but this one felt likeit was going  Mach 5. Perhaps it  because I got to spend almost all of it with family. Either way my little man is so gosh darn big now. I think he has more in common with his older toddler cousins than he does with the infant now.

Gross Motor: He is crawling! He can also sit up on his own (e.g. go from back to belly to sitting all on his own) and the busy kid has already mastered pulling up to standing. Crazy. While he might have been on the slow side to learn how to crawl I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he was one of those 11 month old walkers. He eagerly walks across entire rooms if I hold his hands. 

Fine Motor: The pincer grasp gained more refinement and speed during the last month. He is also interested in matching up lids (even though he's really bad at it). And little man loves to touch everything--he leans forward like ET with his index finger stretched out when you're holding him trying to feel the fridge or an object on the counter. Also Dinobaby can get his pacifier into his mouth on his own, whoop! Although he  never does this when he actually needs a pacifier, by the time he gets to that point around I'll probably want to wean him off of one anyway. 

Social: Are there two phases for stranger anxiety? Seriously. He more or less came out of his first phase last month, but in the last week it's come back. Maybe it's not so much stranger anxiety as mommy clinginess since he's okay with other people but after a short while gets sad and wants me to hold him again. That's okay--I've got plenty of cuddles for him.  

Language: He babbles much more, definitively responds to his name, and really has no idea what I'm doing with the baby sign language. (Probably because I'm neither consistent nor particularly enthusiastic about it...whatever. He'll learn English- and that's pretty miraculous on its own.)

Personality: Although glimpses of his personality were certainly evident before now, as he gets older the differences between him and other babies seem less coincidental then they did before. For one, he ridiculously observant. He follows waitresses as they move around the restaurant as we eat. He loves to look at anything that you're holding in your hands. He's also a terrifically happy kid. Normal is defined by a smile. Yep, we love it.

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Upcoming is a post on music for babies, my thoughts on television, and  a multi-part series on cloth diapers---and since I was visiting family and actually used  store-bought baby food (and for a significant period of time) I'll probably also have an updated post on baby food since I now of grounds for making comparisons. Hopefully those will be up over the next month. Love y'all