9-months

Today baby J is 9 months old. Happy Birthday, baby J! :)

Yesterday he had his check-up. He's surprisingly down in his percentiles (25% height & weight). I was surprised because he's wearing really big sizes and out-growing them so fast. Dr. M said she sees this drop at 9-mo in about 90% of her patients. She said they get mobile and don't eat enough. I didn't realize that veggies, fruits and cereals had more calories than formula and milk. So I had been encouraging more of the latter but need to switch it as he begins the homestretch towards the 1yr mark. Maybe it's not the homestretch but he's surely nearing or rounding third. We started giving him 2 more ounces of solid food at each meal yesterday and to my surprise he woofed it down. Hmmm. Guess the poor lil guy was hungry after all. He's gaining about a pound a month but maybe he'll gain more with the added food and jump back up to average. Oh how we love that 50th percentile!

He's still not babbling, well not the sounds the pros say are coming. There's no mamamama or bababababa or dadadadada let alone mama, baba or dada. He surely has a lot to say though in the sounds he has decided are cool and fun.

We've also found out we have a climber. He wants to climb everything and was recently caught standing on the stool next to his crib. Next he tried to use D as a ladder to climb onto the chair in his room later that same day. He's ready to explore new heights! All I foresee are a whole new crop of bumps and bruises on his noggin from the falls. We've finally moved past the falling from his learning to stand and cruise.

He's still teething. The front top teeth are slowly but surely coming down. It's been two months of off and on with those things and I really wish they'd just come down once and for all. We're pretty certain there are more on the horizon. I'm guessing late January or early February they'll appear. He's been super drooly which is normally about 2-months out from new teeth. The rash he'll has been getting seems to mark about 2-weeks out from the teeth breaking the skin. Weird but so far predictable. I'll keep everyone updated on these subtle clues.

He's ready for his first holiday season. This weekend is of course Winter Solstice. We're hoping to get a baby sitter so we can go out to dinner (though I got an email about a meditation event too - I just don't think I can sell D on it). Then we go to see family for Christmas but return for D's birthday and New Years. We'll also be celebrating "little Christmas" in January (the 6th I believe) as J will have way too many items to open all at once. We'll space them out a bit this year. We just haven't found a way to work Hanukkah into the mix. We like celebrating all the holidays, not because we give gifts for them all (we don't) but just to honor them all. We're not religiously tied to any of them so it's nice to spend time enjoying the non-secular meaning each brings to the world.

I've sort of gotten off the topic of J. I don't think I have many more updates. Though I am leaving out two small items I learned over the past couple weeks . . . .

1. Buy blueberry baby food because making it at home is ridiculously messy. Everything was blue. As D said, it looked like we killed Barney in the kitchen. I also learned that 1-2 cubes of blueberry mixed with other fruit or some cereal is plenty. Any more than two and again everything become blue, including baby J.
2. J loves Norah Jones or at least her voice and well maybe even more specifically her singing Come Away With Me. The other day the song came on and he stopped playing and just turned and stared at the radio. He'd go back to playing for a moment and she'd start the chorus again, and again he'd stop and stare her way, listening. D mentioned months ago he thought J liked this song. In early summer he noticed the song calmed J and would often put him right to sleep. It is a lovely song.

I've actually been gathering cds from the library like a crazy woman. I have Disney Classics which were an accidental reserve. I thought I was getting play songs but there songs from the movies. Some are good but most I've never heard of before - somehow they escaped my notice when I watched the movie(s). I also got some RockABye cds which are lullaby versions of rock songs (I reserved Coldplay and U2, the Beach Boys and for my own curiosity Nine Inch Nails and Green Day). I also got him some early rock and roll collections (1950s stuff and early 1960s - he loves Rock Around the Clock). Lastly I reserved the correct Disney cds - Children's Favorite Play songs. I hope J likes them!