And Then There Were Seven: Nine

My little Grant is NINE MONTHS OLD! Nine months sounds like such a big age to me, and since he was born it has seemed like he would be SO BIG when he got there - but now that he's nine months, he's not so big. He's not crawling yet or pulling himself up, which is okay with me! It also makes him seem younger than nine months to me, so I can imagine that he's still only six months. Except that he can roll all over the living room, pull himself forward on his tummy using a stationery object to get towards a toy he wants, feed himself anything in front of him including tiny things, eat almost all the same things I'm eating, hold his own sippy cup and (almost) drink water from it and not just air, express his needs a little better (he whines when something gets taken away that he wants, when he needs help, and when he wants to do it himself), understand the word "drink", the signs "milk", "eat", "jump", and he's really getting the hang of helping me dress him. He's so sweet all the time. He makes funny sounds with his mouth, blowing air, using all kinds of consonant and vowel sounds, examining objects, picking through a bin of toys until he finds the one he's looking for - all kinds of things. He is such a good little guy. He is still breastfeeding, 2 or 3 times a day, but I'd like to wean him right at the year mark. He has already had his first few tries of cow's milk and he thought it was fine, although I think it confused him that I sign "milk" to him before each sip and then it's cold instead of warm, and from his sippy cup, which has always been water before! It's a mad mad mad mad world, I tell you.

Here are the stats from his appointment last Tuesday:

18 lbs. 2.5 oz. (15th percentile)

29 inches (67th percentile)

Head is 17.8 inches (41st percentile)

He is doing fine, just being long and skinny like always. He outgrows lots of pants and not so many shirts. I got him a very cute tuque with matching mittens at Superstore this week that is dark blue with little ears on it. It is VERY cute. He has already gotten used to it, thank goodness. I don't want his head to get cold when we're out.

He was getting up at night while we were on vacation and prior to that, but luckily we were able to let him cry himself back to sleep since we've been back from vacation (since our neighbors downstairs can't hear him) and within a couple nights he was back to sleeping through as he knew the crying wasn't going to get him picked up and nursed back to sleep. Last night he woke up and was especially distressed, and once in a while his diaper leaks in the night and he needs to get changed, but he mostly sleeps through the night. He's very easy to take places and tons of fun. He loves to stand and will stand as long as someone will help him balance. He loves to feed himself and try to use his sippy cup all by himself. We are trying to get him to clap and wave good bye, as well as use the signs he knows, but he would rather just flail his arms up and down, I guess. He's silly. I really want him to start signing! Oh well...