Nine Months Old: 3/4 of The Way There

When Emerson was born, I thought about his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, but I never really looked past those events because that seemed so far into the future. And he was doing all kinds of new stuff each month that I just haven't thought much about what would happen beyond eight months. Now here we are, he is nine months old and I am in all new territory with no clue what to expect, but whatever is in store, I know it will be great!

He continues to be extremely active and happy. He has the best smiles and laugh. He is just like me in the fact that he is easy to please and yet he can flip a switch and be cranky, haha. He doesn't tolerate anything when he is hungry or tired, again, just like his momma. So naps at our house don't get skipped or we are in serious trouble.

We always have to have a warm up picture.

Here is a breakdown of all his activities this month:

Sleeping: The doctor gave us the OK to eliminate his one middle of the night feeding as he is well established on table foods and should be getting enough food/calories during the day to sustain him 12 hours at night. I am nervous because I know it won't be pretty, but I think it is time we all got a full nights rest. Not sure when we will start the elimination process, but I know Jesse is going to have to play a heavy hand in being the comforter at 2 a.m. because as soon as Emerson sees me, he is going to want to eat, haha.

We are down to two naps! This was a huge accomplishment this month. Who would have thought dropping a nap would be so difficult, but we finally succeeded. He now naps around 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and then bed around 7 p.m.

Eating: Emerson is a really good eater, which I am thankful for. There are very few foods he doesn't like and he has had no allergic reactions to any food so far. He now has a preference for feeding himself, so I have introduced more finger foods. He loves to feed himself small pieces of toast and grapes. Also new this month, we tried broccoli, yogurt, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, kiwi, blueberries, white potato, strawberries, ground beef and ground chicken.
  
Activity: A "real" crawl is starting to emerge each and every day. He has crawled several strides on all fours before on carpet, but since our house doesn't have much, he doesn't seem to have any interest. Emerson is getting very good at going from a lying down position to sitting up to crawling and back down again. In other words, that boy can move! He is also starting to pull himself up on things around the house, so far he has pulled up in the bathtub and in his crib. For a while at night he would cry out because he would stand up, but not know how to get down. It took a few days, but he can now sit down on his own.

Sometimes we take the simplest things for granted. Who would have thought that standing up and sitting down would have to be learned. And to a nine month old, those are some serious challenges.

Super cheese ball.

Doctor visit stats:

• Weight: 18.4 oz (28th percentile)
• Height:  28.4 inches (58th percentile)
• Other: No shots at this visit, yay! Our little guy is starting to lose some of his baby rolls and starting to lengthen out. We go back again to the doctor at 12 months.

Likes, dislikes and other milestones:


 

• Favorite toys (right now): Any ball, he has started to understand the game of toss. I roll the ball to him and he tries to throw/roll it back.
• Loves to feed himself
• Getting better at using a sippy cup, but still struggles with the idea that you have to tip it up to get water out of it.
• Has his second tooth in
• Celebrated his first Christmas and New Years
• Likes to be read to before naps and is a really good listener
• Really into any touch-and-feel books
• Started throwing hissy fits! He has a little tantrum when he doesn't get fed fast enough or is tired. He throws his head backward and throws his arms around. It is very dramatic
• Working on waving hi/bye and clapping
• No more baby bath tub, he now takes a bath in the regular tub and he's not too sure about all that open space yet

Things to look forward to:

• Going on a mini vacation, not sure where exactly yet
• First Valentines Day
• Celebrating daddy's birthday

Saved the best for last. He is such a character.