Liam you are 9 months old today! You are so much fun and pack a ton of personality into your 17lb body. We are so amazed by you. Daddy and I were talking about how fun it is to wake each morning and hang out with you, as you're always doing something new these days. You're an absolute delight to be around and such a wonderful gift to wake up to every morning.
You are (very approximately) 17lbs and 27 inches tall (I think we may have flubbed this measurement up, you are really hard to get a hold of to measure lately)... but you have a well baby appt. in 2 weeks, so we should know your official stats soon. You wear size 3 diapers and are fitting into most 9 month clothes.
Here are the skills babycenter.com says you may have mastered or will master during your ninth month:
Stands while holding onto something--absolutely. You LOVE standing, you'll use furniture, your walking dino, play table, activity center, tv, boxes... basically anything that will hold you steady (and even some things that don't) to help you stand. You've even let go once or twice (and held it for a brief second!) before falling on your bottom.
Jabbers or combines syllables--you say "dada" regularly (mama you save for when you're in need emotionally, i.e. crying). You repeated "all done" (agh-du, agh-du) last weekend, but have yet to do it again. You also mumble random sayings (gaga, gugu, duhduh, etc.)
Understands object permanence--my broken cell phone says YES! you certainly understand this. I absolutely hate when I leave my cell phone or the remote within your reach. I'll take it away and you'll scream, cry and kick until I give in or it takes several minutes to distract you with something else. I had things I needed to do yesterday, so I gave in w/ the cell phone and now it doesn't power on. Oops!
Skills that may be emerging:
Cruises while holding onto furniture--the couch is your favorite place to do this. You also cruise using your dino walker, which we've shown in previous blogs.
Drinks from a sippy cup--you've been drinking from a sippy since your 6th month. We're contemplating trying a sippy with a straw to see if you can do that too. Lately you've been really insistent on holding the sippy, but some times it's upside down and you get nothing to drink. When I try to help you usually get upset w/ me! Oops again!
Eats with fingers--you can eat pretty much anything on your own now (with the exception of blueberries--too tiny and bananas--too slippery, but you find ways to get some of these difficult items into your mouth). Cereal puffs, crackers, cheese, etc. are no match for you anymore, however.
Bangs objects together--you love doing this with these little plastic balls you have. Other than that, you can do it, but you're not too keen on banging noises or clapping sounds.
Advanced skills:
Plays patty-cake--I feel terrible that I've never tried this with you. Another oops!
Plays peek-a-boo--this has always been you're fave. Now you'll put a blanket or object to your face and move it while we say peek-a-boo. You giggle every time.
Says mama and dada to the correct parent--I'm not so sure you know the difference. You do smile at me and say "dada" when I ask you to say "mama." I think at the very least you know you're being a stinker.
Other things you're doing:
You like to give kisses (you're a regular lil' Romeo in our mama/me group). Mama gets lots of kisses from you on a daily basis (big, wet, opened mouthed ones--that I adore). Daddy told you to kiss mama this morning and you did. It was too sweet.
You love practicing walking (your dino walker toy is your favorite--you're basically running with that thing now a days).
You are learning to put yourself to sleep, refuse to be rocked, so we lay you in your crib, rub your back and you're *usually* you're asleep in 3-5 minutes.
You are sleeping 5 hour stretches, wake for 40-45 min. around midnight-1am and then go back out for another 5-6 hours. It's so BLISSFUL to sleep again.
You still have no teeth :( but are drooling like crazy and had what looked like a little white pimple on one spot of your gums, but it has since disappeared. I'm SURE we'll see a tooth (or two) soon.
You've started "dancing" or bobbing your head and bouncing your body when you hear music. It's too funny when you do it in combination with assisted walking. HA!
You LOVE our vacuum cleaner so we bought you one of your own. You sit on the floor and "drive" it around.
Speaking of drive--you remind us of a toddler when you push your trucks/cars around the floor and crawl along with them. Seems like you're still too young to understand this concept.
You like cords--vacuum cord, lamp cords, etc. Definitely NOT something we want you to enjoy so much.
Baths are one of your favorite activities. How you can crawl along that slippery surface is beyond me, but you do it with ease. You just play and play with your toys and stand every once in a while (even though we ask you not to). You also love to stand and pee in the tub. You silly (and gross) lil' boy!
You're like a parrot--you imitate almost EVERYTHING we do these days. Dancing, talking/noises, kisses, etc. It's so funny to watch you play copycat (and somewhat scary too!).
You are so determined--for example, today you pushed a toy lawn mower from one side of Kmart to the other (the toy mama thought would entertain you while we waited on a sale's associate was certainly NOT going back on the shelf!).
You've started eating MEAT--chicken to be exact. At first you loved it, then there were a couple days you fussed when we gave it to you and now you like it again. We've figured out you like it mixed with your veggies, not separate. You also had spaghetti noodles the other day (some you slurped in)... don't know about those though, as you had little pieces of them in your mouth almost 40 minutes later. You have also started on brown rice and love it.
You went to your first non-family member's birthday party yesterday. You had a lot of fun playing with the other babies and taking in the sites. You looked so cute too--dada gave you a mohawk for the party (your first "hairstyle").
You're making lots of new and silly noises (and you KNOW you're being silly). Again, such a fun lil' ham to be around. You make me laugh/smile all day long.
Not just because you're ours, but Liam you are truly special, unique and precious. We adore you so much and are so proud of your progress (trying to walk, talk, go to sleep on your own) all while being such a happy-go-lucky kid. We're so blessed and thankful to have had these 9 months with you. Happy 9 Months Mr. Man!
Update 3/14: I totally forgot to mention we finished w/ our mommy & me group (and sadly we won't be returning, due to the move. It'd be a 1hr drive from the new home to the group).
Liam had so much fun (and so did I). I think he learned a lot. When we started the class he was just laying on his tummy trying to inch forward. 2 weeks later, he was crawling. And a few days later he was pulling up & standing. I think the other kids really encouraged him to try new things.
And I loved having other mommy's to talk to who were/had gone through the same experiences and had the same feelings (highs/lows). They were a wonderful group of ladies and it was a great experience for us. I'm sure we'll find something similar around the new community we'll be living in. Anyways, here's a photo of us on our last day of class!
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