ninth mesaversary

Nine months in, nine months out.

This month has been so fun to watch him almost move. It's quite hilarious, actually. He can get from one place to another, it just takes a long time. From a sitting position he leans forward, rocks up onto one foot and one knee, and then sits back down. Somehow repeating that over and over can get him across the room. He makes efforts to crawl, but has a hard time getting his legs to do what he wants and he ends up scooting backwards. He's like an inch worm moving in reverse.

He's started pulling up on things, but he doesn't seem to understand the power in his fatty legs yet. (Trust me, as one who has endured many kicks: they are strong). He does pull ups and then hangs out in a funny crouched position. And often ends up in a split. Which doesn't seem to bother him until he realizes he's stuck.

Teddy Bear now joins me in the kitchen while I cook or do dishes. He sits on the floor and watches every move I make. Sometimes he tries to crawl up the legs of the dinner table and he ends up in a kneeling position, with his arms stretched over his head and his belly resting on the leg.

If he's in a chair he immediately leans forward and pulls himself so he can look over the edge. Or fall if he isn't being watched. (This only happened once. And another time Mr. Yin caught his leg as his head was two inches from the floor.)

He's finally started to really eat solids. While his purees are being consumed, he'd much rather eat whatever we're eating. And he eats chunks of food with no problem. So I'm trying to let him do that more often. He's officially no longer a vegetarian. He's had chicken and turkey now. And really liked both. That's mama's boy! He's also learned how to feed himself, which is hilarious. Sometimes he grabs something and then wraps his fingers around it and can't find it. But he won't loosen the grasp to find it, and discovers the stashed tid bid when he goes in for another one and gets distracted by the preexisting one. Cheese might be his favorite food. And Cheerios. Or maybe yogurt. His Gramma Po Po got him a sippy cup when we went for a visit. He mostly likes to use it in the car, probably because he doesn't have to tilt his head back as far.

He's added 3.5 more teeth for a grand total of 5.5. His top side teeth came in before the middle ones, so he looks like a vampire. The middle ones have been pretty painful coming in and we have lost a lot of sleep, until we upped his dosage of Tylenol right before bed. I'll be very happy when this .5 one finally decides to come all the way in!

He claps proudly for himself whenever he's done something awesome, which is all the time. And he gives high fives to anyone patient enough to ask a few times. He (sometimes) waves hello and good bye, usually after whoever asked in the first place has stopped caring. But it's still adorable to me.

One of the biggest changes this past month was thanks to Hurricane Irene. He now sleeps in his own room. I think it's a bigger change for me than for him. Those first few nights I slept so lightly thinking the monitor wouldn't work. It did. And so do his lungs if he's not happy. It was bound to happen, right?!

I finally figured out how to get him to not try to eat books when we read to him: lay down and hold the book up. He gets mesmerized by the pictures that way. He still loves to eat books. Any book. Particularly my library books with the plastic covers. They're so fascinating to him. He also likes to nibble on a good old edition of Martha Stewart Living. Hopefully he'll absorb some of the good things as well as the fiber.

That's our boy. Nine months old. I never imagined he'd be as wonderful and amazing as he is. He exceeds all expectations and we constantly tell each other, and him!, how crazy in love with him we are.