Liam at 8 and 9 Months

It's been a while since I've posted.  Summer plans, fall preparations, and uncertainty about how to continue developing this blog all got in my way.  But, the time off was well spent, and allowed me to reflect and refocus.  So now it's catch up time!  We celebrated multiple milestones with Liam, who at nine months is practicing how to stand on his own, and showing his personality more and more each day.  We're pretty sure he'll be walking before his first birthday!

Growth & Appearance

Liam, you're looking more and more like a little boy each day.  You have 4 fully emerged teeth, and are working on your 5th and 6th teeth as we speak.  Your 5th tooth has been dramatic.  There was a lot of fussing, and very little sleeping last week.  But after a few days, you magically went back to your old self as that little tooth started popping through your upper gums.   

At your 9 month check-up, you weighed 18.7 lbs, were 29 inches long, with an 18 inch round head. 

Your hair is getting lighter, and your face is maturing. 

Eating

Your favorite foods right now are blueberries, sweet potatoes, and apple sauce.  I think you would eat an entire pint of blueberries if we let you.  You hate anything that is bland, which means avocados are out.  Bread is tolerable as long as I've spread hummus or something else on it.   I've been making you a lot of eggs, veggies, and cheese cooked in muffin tins.  I also make these little balls of chicken and quinoa with spices.  You like cheese and rice crackers.  Overall, you're a good eater.  Even if I do sometimes have to mix those chicken/quinoa balls with apple sauce so you'll be more inspired to try them.

We're still nursing quite a bit, but the doctor tells me that will start decreasing over the next few months.

Sleeping

Oh my gosh, you're MOSTLY sleeping through the night.  It's amazing.  On a normal day, you also take a 1-1.5 hour nap in the morning, and a 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon.  It's nice to have a predictable schedule that I can rely on, and it makes it much easier to plan and structure our day.  You go to bed between 7 and 7:30pm, and sometimes will sleep until 6:30am, sometimes wake up at 4 or 5am for a little snack or a snuggle.  I feed you, and then we all go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  For the most part, it's working.

Development

There is so much happening here!  As I mentioned above, you're standing on your own.  Your max is 15-20 seconds before you carefully sit down and take a brief rest.  But you're very good at standing while still playing with a toy, which I think says a lot for your balancing skills!

You also understand certain words.  You know when your daddy or I are asking for a kiss.  If you're not busy with something else, you'll lean in and plant one right on our lips.

And you've been practicing with your own sounds lately, repeating "ka, ka, ka" and "hot, hot, hot" over and over again.  You're not actually saying the word "hot", but your consonant focus on the letter "t" sounds like it. 

Favorites

You love everything that you're not supposed to have.  Today, I found you sitting on the dishwasher door that I left open, playing with the dirty dishes after I turned my back in the kitchen for 5 seconds.  Fabulous.  And then a few hours later, you ate a tissue (luckily, not a used tissue!)  We've done a pretty good job baby proofing, and I've got my eyes on you for the majority of the day.  Luckily we've had very few accidents.  But I know this will just get more challenging as you get older. Right now, I'm just grateful you're not walking yet!

You have your own drawer in the kitchen where you can play with all the tupperware and plastic kitchen utensils.  You like taking things out of that drawer and banging them on the floor.  

You do have a few favorite toys and books.  You love turning the page when we're reading a story, and we always let you.  I'll often find you staring at your picture books try to learn, and then flipping the book around to see what's on the next page.

You and I play a game together, where you shake your head back and forth and I mimic you.  You love this, and always laugh.

You like to take your toys and place them on the window sill.  And then you take them down again.

You love love love to go upside down, and recently started arching your head way back and flipping yourself over.  I hope you always enjoy looking at the world from a different angle.  It will serve you well in life. 

Nicknames

Nug-a-bug!

Little Bug