Nine Months

 New Developmental Milestones this Month: Andrew has spend the month perfecting his skills.  He crawls everywhere and crawls fast; he crawls into every room of our house, up and down the one step, up a flight of regular stairs, and specifically he crawls to what he wants.  He has also gotten very good at pulling himself up and standing at pretty much anything (the walls, doors, toys, couch, etc).  Cruising from one thing to the next is also a perfected skill.  He can make it from the front door, along the wall, baby gate, entertainment center, and chair all the way to his highchair and the dining room without sitting down.  While eating, much more ends up in his mouth than on the floor or Reese's mouth.  He can play a mean game of peek-a-boo with you too.

• Here are the new age-appropriate developmental things that he can do: share things (handing objects to someone else), wave (sometimes with his hand opening and closing, always at appropriate times, but never "on command") and understands a firm no (usually cries in response to it).  He is also showing very mild separation anxiety.
• Verbally, Andrew started "talking" a lot at the end of month eight.  Around Christmas, rare babbles turned into constant babbles and usually quite loud.  He's learned to yell and thinks it is pretty cool.  Mama and Dada are clear, sometimes directed at us, sometimes just indiscriminate.  He also has added due-due and ba-ba to ah-ma and ah-ba-ba from month eight. It isn't clear what these sounds mean yet.  He seems to understand that signs for eat and more, but has set to do them himself.
• Still just two teeth, which mommy is happy about.

Physical Growth this Month: Only one weight to go by and his official nine month appointment isn't for two more weeks.

• December 21: 19 lbs, 12 oz

Doctor's Trips:   We only went ONCE this month! Seriously, this is probably the best thing EVER!  You all read my sick post and many, many of you expressed concern, ideas, and encouragement and I am forever grateful.  Since that post and our last trip, we've watched prayers and antibiotics heal our baby!  For the first time in four months, he isn't coughing constantly.  He hasn't had a fever or running nose in two weeks.  Even better, he's back to sleeping through the night and was well enough for us to go to church (with him in the nursery) for the past two weeks! Hears to an 'emergency appointment' free 2012!

Things Andrew likes: A well baby is an even happier baby, Andrew really does likes everything. Other than when he falls over and bangs his head on the hardwood floor, he's happy to play with people, his toys, the wall, the couch, or anything else within his grasp.    The bath continues to be a favorite, along with his old and new toys.  Christmas brought big-boy toys for him to play with and he's loving them too.  He LOVES Aunt Melissa and the dog.

Things Andrew doesn't like: being blocked from what he wants (aka the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom, and Daddy's computer fan).  He doesn't actually throw any type of temper tantrum or even cry, but when we redirect him, he goes right back there again.  Needless to say, we have two baby gates and have learned to keep the bathroom door closed.

Sleeping: He sleeps through the night most of time time (8 pm-6 am).  If he does wake up, it is with screaming like he's scared or hurt.  He wants a snuggle and then we can lay him down with his blanket and pat him back to sleep.  The whole thing takes less than two minutes.  When mommy was on Christmas Break, Andrew also took 2-3 naps a day (usually for at least four hours).

Reese actually lets Andrew 'play' (aka hit and pull at) with her most days.

Andrew learned that 'say cheese' means smile over Christmas!

Eating: Still pretty much the same with bottles, four 8-9 oz bottles a day (32-36 oz), and "real food" for most of the month.  We transitioned last week to three meals a day, but it was pretty hard to get everything in during the morning before we get off to work and daycare.  We're still going to need to tweak the breakfast to make it work.  Andrew likes his food thicker so we have also started some of the third stage of baby purees, but we also mix his food with very thick oatmeal.  He eats 1 cup of oatmeal (with 2-3 oz of formula) and 4-8 oz of baby food at each meal.  For finger foods, we added Lil' Crunchies and WagonWheels to his Star/Puffs.  He loves the veggie flavor of the lil' crunchies and will pick those specifically to eat off his tray.  Wanting everything we're eating, he's also found that pickles and mandarin oranges are favorites. We start meats this week (as per pedi recommendations).

Diapers: Still in size 3s--we've used 256 diapers (1152 total in size 3).

Clothing: No change from month eight, Andrew is wearing all 6-9 month clothing with the exception of a few 12 month sleepers.