9 months (or 39 weeks)

Kasper -

You are 9 months old today. 9 months! You are barreling towards 1 year without giving much thought to how your Mama feels about it! As of tonight at 10:07 pm, you have been "outside" longer than you were "inside". So in the same amount of time it took to make you, you are a real live standing, crawling, getting into everything baby. Yikes!



Time for your monthly re-cap!

Milestones: You really excelled at your gross motor skills this month. I actually hadn't realized how many new things you are doing until I went back and read your 8 month post! Wow! You still army crawl most of the time but you are also able to get up on your hands and knees and take a few wobbly steps. I think you are happy with your ability to get where you want to go on your belly so the hands and knees crawling is just for fun. You now go from crawling to sitting very smoothly and then from sitting to standing in a blink. You like to stand anywhere at any time. You barely cruise around furniture but can walk along the couch if my cell phone is at the other end. Sometimes you get brave and let go to stand on your own for a second or 2. Most of the time you have an assortment of bruises on your forehead from bumping into things or falling down. Like I said before, you are 100% boy so I'm not surprised one bit. At 8 months, you were just starting to stand in your crib. We now regularly find you standing in there when you wake up. Either that or sitting quietly in your crib with a paci. This morning, for example, we woke up at 8:30 for the first time in 9 months. I peeked in your room and you were just sitting in your crib. I can't be sure how long you had been awake. It's very cute.

Food: You still have a hot and cold relationship with food. Sometimes you eat well, sometimes you are not interested. I ruined squash for you on our trip but I'll try it again later. You eat a bunch of different fruits and vegetables but aren't crazy about yogurt (it turns out you aren't intolerant to dairy, but you don't like it). We started egg yolk this week and you don't hate them. So far, the only food you've really disliked has been broccoli. You get a sippy cup of water at meals and are now able to hold it correctly to take drinks by yourself. This month I witnessed something I never thought I'd see - you fell asleep at the dinner table! It was pretty cute.


At daycare, you eat breakfast and lunch as well as drink 14 ounces of milk. We're going to increase your milk because you seem to be starving when I pick you up. Or maybe you are just so eager to nurse. You are still an avid nurser and will never turn it down. You nurse at least 3 times a day including in the morning, after work and before bed. I still nurse and rock you to sleep most nights. I'll miss these days when you're too big to rock to sleep. I'm already starting to reflect as I stare at you as you drift off to sleep with your long legs hanging off my lap.

Sleep: We've been struggling in the sleep department for the last couple of months. We cycle through no wake ups, 1 wake up per night, 2 wake ups per night and no sleep at all. This month you had a terrible spell where you didn't sleep at night and would cry and cry. That was tough on your Mom and Dad but as suddenly as it came on, you were sleeping all night again. You didn't sleep well on our trip but have been doing better since we've been home. Also since we've been home, we can put you down drowsy and you'll put yourself to sleep. I won't get too comfortable, though, I know how things can change!

Your bedtime has been the same for a long time and I don't see you pushing that bedtime back anytime soon. You take 2 naps at daycare and lately they've been almost an hour each!

Other: You took your first airplane trip this month! We flew to Washington for Great-Grandma Quinlin's funeral. It was a sad reason to make the trip, but you had so much fun meeting everyone! You were a great traveler! You were a little off your schedule and sleeping in a strange bed, but you managed to keep a smile on your face. On this first trip, you got to see Mt. St. Helens as well as stick your toes in the Pacific for the first time.

You are developing a little separation anxiety, unfortunately. It's not too bad as far as going to other people, but you don't like when I walk away from you and usually crumble to the floor in tears. Interestingly enough, you don't cry when I drop you of at daycare. I think it's because you love it there so much.

You've said what I'm calling your first word - "Uh oh". I don't know if it really counts as a word, but you for sure use it correctly. When you drop something you're playing with, you quite clearly say "uh oh". Then you drop the toy a bunch more so you can keep saying it.

You wave now! If waved at, you'll often wave back. You look very pleased with yourself as you do it. We're working on clapping but at least you have waving down. As a side note, we got some forms from the doctors office that we're supposed to fill out before your appointment next week. It asks us to say if you do a variety of things in a variety of categories. You killed the gross motor section but are surprisingly behind in fine motor and social sections. I thought you had more fine motor skills. To your credit, the form goes from 9 mo 0 days through 9 mo 30 days so at 9 mo 0 days, you're doing fine.

You are really becoming a fine boy. A rough and tumble, curious, silly boy. I can't wait to see what this month brings. Hopefully it's more arms for me so I can keep up with you! Papa and I love you so much, peanut!



Love, Mama

Of course the outtakes this month included some standing. At least he wasn't sliding off the chair this time!