9 Months

We have entered into a new world of danger, CLIMBING!  Thomas has decided that no obstacle is to big or hard for him to scale. He loves to climb on top of boxes, toys, the dog, our legs, pretty much everything.  He also likes to play under chairs and navigate the wooden jungle gym.

He is still cruising along furniture and is starting to stand a few seconds alone here or there.  As of right now he is not strong enough and still a bit unsure about standing too long or taking steps without his hand on something. 

He loves to dance in the kitchen, play with his slide, “wash” things with his hands, and chase and throw his balls around.   He also is enjoying books more and more and will sit for a few minutes to look at them.  A big new thing is him realizing that he can make people laugh, then he turns into a clown and continues to try to get someone to laugh.

His laugh is about the cutest thing ever!   Besides laughing at us when we are doing something silly, he will always laugh when tickled.  He also sometimes thinks that random things are hilarious and will crack himself and then us up.

We named the month of December no schedule month.  Between guests being here, our crazy schedule and traveling it seems like one minute he was in bed at 7 and the next at 10.   We tried to keep him for the most part on a typical schedule, but if the day was off he would rally and figure it out.  We don’t know if it is age,  tiredness,  reflux resolving or what but there have been quite a few nights of  a 5 to 6 hour chunks of sleep.  He and WE are still struggling to put him in his crib, but occasionally he finds himself in there.    He is one of the best snugglers and Mike and I are pretty good at snuggling him back too!

 

Thomas is eating more independently and continues to vary his intake of solid foods on a daily basis.   He has become very good at getting things into his mouth on his own, and will try everything we give him.  That doesn’t mean it will stay in, as he has also found out he can spit things out pretty easily.   He has now tried everything that we eat as long as it isn’t a baby no no.   He also likes to drink out of a sippy cup and drink water out of his straw.

Thomas continues to add sounds and “words”  daily.  He has a sound/word that he says for the cats and sounds for showing his is irritated, mad, or excited.  He has not added any new consonant sounds.  If he is in the mood to “talk” he will have a back and forth “conversation” of sounds.   He will look for named things in our environment and will follow simple directions.

The car seat might be getting better.  We are hesitant to say it is over, but it has been much easier for us with him in the car seat on our trips.  We do still try to plan longer trips around his naps so we don’t run the risk of him screaming for hours at a time!

Thomas had his first bought of the stomach flu and an ear infection this month.  He had his well baby visit and was 18 lbs 6 oz (20%)  and was 27 and 3/4 inches long (30%) and his head is the 60%.  His pediatrician is very impressed with all of his developmental skills and assured us that he is at a healthy weight, even though his percentiles are dropping a bit.  She explained to us that typically this happens when babies begin to crawl and walk between 9-12 months and he has just lost the excess baby fat sooner.   So we will keep feeding our little mover as much as we can and let him decide how much he needs to grow!