Ezra is 9 months today! The past month has been a lot of fun. He is babbling a lot, smiling and laughing more than ever, and really just observing and learning about the world around him. In the last month Ezra got his top two teeth (not a super fun part of the month), so now he has four. This afternoon Ezra had his 9-month well check and he is 18 lbs. (12th percentile) and 28 inches (50th percentile). He is on the scrawny side so it makes me laugh when people ask how old he is and when I tell them they comment about how big he is...and yes, that happens quite often. Here are some other things I want to remember about our sweet baby at 9 months old:
-He eats about 4 times a day...4 bottles (5 or 6 ounces each), and then a meal of anywhere from 3-7 cubes of food mixed with oatmeal or applesauce. The first three meals are together (bottle and food at the same time), and then in the late afternoon I stagger it to where he eats something right after his last nap and then he gets a bottle before bed. His favorite foods are applesauce, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Butternut squash and blueberries are okay. He also likes yogurt and cheese. He threw up the last time I gave him peas, but I will try it again. He will also tolerate green beans. For snacking he likes puffs (apple cinnamon are his favorite), yogurt melts, and mum-mums which he can feed himself until he throws it on the ground. We introduced a cup a few months ago and are still working on that. At this point he is really more interested in turning the cup upside down and investigating the bottom of it. He is also pretty good about picking up puffs or whatever with his fingers, but he usually throws them on the floor instead of trying to feed himself.
-He sleeps from about 6:30/7 at night to 7 in the morning. He woke up a lot at night this month, but we are getting back into the sleeping through the night thing. Two nights ago he fell asleep at 6:15 and didn't wake up until 6:45 the next morning. He usually takes 3 naps a day, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon and then a little catnap in the late afternoon. He used to only sleep for an hour per nap, but his first two naps are getting longer (most of the time).
-His favorite toys are his walker and his jumper. He LOVES walking all around the house and has figured out how to navigate to get anywhere he wants to go. We have started to have to put away the trash can in the laundry room because he goes right to it. Thankfully he can't get in the bathroom because the door is too narrow. Otherwise he would be getting into everything just like he tries to do in the kitchen.
-He isn't crawling yet, but he spends a LOT of time on his tummy especially in his crib. Everytime we go in his room to get him he is on his tummy pushing up with his hands. He has figured out how to spin himself around while he's on his tummy and this usually gets him to whatever he wants to get if it is close enough to begin with. He also likes to push off with his little toes. Yesterday he started getting on his knees some, so I imagine by 10 months I'll be reporting that we have a mobile baby on our hands. In some ways I am looking forward to that and in other quite obvious ways I am definitely not.
-He has started to have more of an opinion and show his dislike for certain things. For example, he has never liked to be held, but now that he is so interested in everything he always wants down. Also, he used to really like being on the changing table, and now almost every diaper/outfit change ends up with him being in tears, probably because he doesn't want to just lay there. As soon as we put him on the changing table he starts reaching behind him for something to play with, and I've started just handing him the aquaphor or tylenol to play with so he'll stay still long enough for me to get his diaper changed without him flipping over. I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better.
-He is really curious about everything around him. Already, even though he can't crawl, he is trying to grab at anything in reach. I've seen other parents hold their babies and be able to hold a church bulletin/magazine/other item with their baby just watching and sitting there nicely, but Ezra wants to grab it and play with it.
-These days he likes reading books and turning the pages himself. He does this really cute thing where when you turn the page, he leans his face way down to where it is touching the page, like he is really trying to look at it closely (or kiss whatever is on the page).
-He loves to scream when he is really happy and he is making more and more consonant noises. It's kind of funny because depending on where he is he will make a certain noise. On the changing table it's mostly "t" and "d" and in the high chair it's more "b". Weird.
Okay, I think that's it. Sorry for the long post, but I am behind on the baby book so this is an easier way for me to go back and look at what he was doing when I need to fill it in later.
While we were in Georgetown we managed to find a tiny little bluebonnet patch that was pretty much on its last legs, but since we don't really have bluebonnets in Lubbock I wanted to take advantage. As grabby as Ezra usually is when you put something in front of him, he is actually pretty timid when it's something new. So he just looked at the plants with curiosity, but he was too interested to really smile at the camera. Anyway, these are the shots I got. Wouldn't you know, as we were driving back today, I saw the most gorgeous fields of bluebonnets all over the side of the road. Oh well, better luck next year I guess.
