Nine Months
Nick Names: Smoosh, Baby, Goober
Height: 29.75 inches (94th percentile)
Weight: 22 pounds, 13 ounces (91st percentile)
Head: 17.75 inches (52nd percentile)
Special Outings: Hike of Horn Pond, Parlee, Wright Locke Farm
Visitors: Tom’s Parents, Nicole, Alice & Olivia, Grandma & Grandpa, Jackie
Loves: Food, Moving, Bouncing, His brother
Hates: Being tired, Having a toy stolen, Not being included (Major FOMO here)
Baby, baby, baby. You are such a fun addition to our family. Your laugh, your faces, your happy little grab onto my arms when I bounce you up and down and you snuggle your face into me.
You’re happy as long as you’re a part of whatever’s going on. If someone walks into another room, you squirm after them as quickly as possible, and if you’re having trouble keeping up, or they vanish out of your sight, you’ll start screaming until someone picks you up. Sometimes you’ll just decide that you’re done on the floor and you’ll squirm right up to someone’s feet and look up at them with your big eyes until we grab you.
You’re still not crawling, and don’t seem very interested in it. While you can get up on hands and knees, you don’t very often. You seem perfectly happy with your ability to swim across the floor, pulling yourself with one arm and kicking with your legs. It leaves your skin all red and scuffed up, but again you don’t seem to mind.
You love to watch people, but lately we’ve been making an effort to make sure you’re doing as much as watching. I let you finger paint for the first time at home the other day, doing the same thing your brother was doing. I actually think you had more fun than he did, although you were very annoyed at the smock I put on you. You tried to eat the paint, which didn’t surprise me, since everything either goes in your mouth or you have no use for it. You still love food, and often finish your meal and your brother’s.
There’s not much that you’ll cry about. Being hungry. Being left alone in another room where you can’t see everything that’s going on, and now only recently, you’ll get mad if E takes a toy out of your hand. All of those are pretty easy to fix though. You’ve never been one to cry for long periods of time, or for no reason, and for that I’m grateful. The screaming at toys though – I’m starting to see a glimpse into our future of brothers fighting over toys. I know it’s inevitable as you both learn how to navigate relationships with peers, so I’ll choose to focus instead on the incredibly cute moments you share.
Like when your brother gets down on the ground next to you and you two go head to head, noses touching. When you’ll both crawl on the floor, one after another, giggling at the slow chase. When your brother gives you random hugs, or comes to sit down next to you, and you reach out and hold on to him. The best is when you’re lying down next to each other, just rolling around, hugging, playing. I can see the bond forming, and it’s everything we hoped for. He’s definitely your favorite person, and you look for him over all else.
You still have no teeth, but it’s not slowing down your eating at all. You are amazing at feeding yourself now, and can pick up the smallest pieces of food between your fingers. You’re pretty done with bottles, and I’m actually impressed we’ve managed to hold on to them this long. They don’t interest you. But we have no complaints. You’re pretty awesome!!