And Baby Makes Four

Nine months old

Our baby boy is now nine months old! Over the past month while we’ve been busy house hunting in California and moving out of our Dallas home, he has hit some fun and exciting milestones.

• Crawling – While he had been doing the backwards crawling thing for about a month, on April 28 he officially crawled forward for the first time – his motivation being the cord for my MacBook. Now, two weeks later, he is maneuvering anywhere he wants to go. He loves to follow his brother or cousins around, and to check out toys, furniture, or anything else interesting that crosses his path. He is so cute to watch. If he knows he is headed for something “off limits” and you call him out on it, he starts giggling and crawling faster to get to it before you stop him. But then, he’ll stop, sit up, and look over at you to see if he still has your attention. When he realized he does have your attention, he shakes his little torso in sweet defiance, as if to say, “Just you try to stop me!” (It’s funny how this attitude is cute in a baby, but infuriating in a toddler/preschooler…)
• Eating – My initial plan was to introduce textured food early on, but we took a long break when our initial offerings of banana and avocado were met with resistance (read: gagging and throwing up). I’m happy to report that Peter now seems to like textured food, including banana, avocado, and sweet potato puffs. The puffs are a good form of entertainment when I am cooking dinner or trying to get something else done – it takes him a long time to get each one into his mouth! He continues to enjoy any and all jarred baby foods.
• Sleeping – Despite some recent night time wakings, overall Peter is sleeping very well since he had tubes put in his ears. He takes two naps a day – usually about 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the afternoon. The second nap coincides with Benjamin’s, which makes me very happy.   I used to often resort to nursing him to sleep, but now I usually just sing to him, then put him in bed awake, and he cries (more like complains) himself to sleep in 5 to 10 minutes. Although he no longer takes an official third nap, if I run any errands in the evening, he will take a 30 or 45 minute nap in his car seat. If he doesn’t get this cat nap, he is really fussy by bedtime, which is usually around 9:00. He is ready to start his day between 6 and 7 a.m., but if he wakes up before 6:30, I usually put him right back to bed after I feed him, and he may sleep until 7:30.
• Communication/Language – Peter shows signs that he understands a lot of what we say. He “performs” certain tasks by request, including “clap,” “dance,” “splash,” and “pat.” We usually say these words three times in a row to encourage an enthusiastic response: “dance! dance! dance!” If I ask him where Chloe (our cat) is, he will start looking around for her. More than words, though, he is very good at interpreting tone of voice. He knows when I am being stern (like when I let him know that it’s not okay to pinch or scratch my arm), playful, or soothing. His dancing is very cute. When Benjamin plays songs on his CD, or when he hears a song on tv, Peter starts swaying back and forth or bouncing up and down. He loves dancing!
• Health – Peter has been ear infection free since having his surgery at the end of March. What a wonderful new world it is for him and the rest of us! He is happy, easy going, and sleeps well. Unfortunately, we are currently dealing with a prolonged bout of yucky poops. He is on day nine of these abnormal and frequent dirty diapers. It has caused him to lose some weight and have a recurring diaper rash, and we are going through diapers like crazy! But he is still eating, sleeping, and playing well, so he doesn’t really seem to be sick. He had his nine month check up last week, and his pediatrician sent a stool sample out for lab analysis. We should find out this week if there’s any explanation for his digestive issues.
• Weight and Height – As I just mentioned, Peter’s current issues have made him lose some weight, so his nine month weigh-in of 17 lbs. 15 oz. probably isn’t fully accurate. It places him in the 10-25th%. His height is 28 5/8″, which is 50-75th% . Benjamin weighed 16 lbs. 5 oz. at nine months, and was in the 3rd%.

So that’s Peter at nine months old. The next few months will be full of change for all of us, and despite our cross country move and adjusting to a totally new place, I don’t want to miss any of his big or small milestones.