9 months old

Dear Everett,

Wow, you are nine months old! How did that happen?

Talking/Jabbering

You’ve been very vocal and testing just how loud you can be; specifically in the car and while Mommy is on the phone. Though you haven’t learned any new words this month, you understand quite a few (including sign language):
-Milk / Leche
-Diaper
-Book
-Up
-More
-Eat
-No

-Sit down

You also understand sentences, like:
-“Where’s kitty-kitty?” or “where’s Princey?” you look towards their usual places.
-You know what to do when we say, “high-five!”
-You smile and look at Mommy’s nose when she says, “Where’s Mommy’s nose?”
-You laugh and crawl away from Mommy, as fast as you can, when she says, “I’m going to get you!” Or “No!”

Crawling / Climbing / Walking

You are a speed crawler and you’re standing on your own, for well over a minute now (unless you’re tired). This past week, you learned how to lift your right knee and climb up on the little, yellow, plastic chair at Grammy and Grampy’s. Today, you even stood on it to reach for Grampy’s soda bottle. Stinker!

Sleep

This month you’ve had difficulty sleeping through the night. Bedtime is at 9:00 p.m. but you wake us at 3:00 a.m. for a bottle and diaper change; then again at 8:15 a.m. You’re also waking up earlier on weekends. Your Mama doesn’t appreciate the earlier wake-up time, since she cares/attends to you on those days that she doesn’t have to get up early for work.
Naps

Nap times are around 10:15 a.m. and 2:15 and typically are for an hour. Unfortunately, you’ve become a light sleeper so Grampy doesnt take naps with you anymore, otherwise, he'll wake you up with his snoring (and you'll be in a bad mood).

Poor Grampy.

Playtime

Your favorite toys this month are:

A push-behind shopping cart we got you for Valentines Day

and an “Elmo” airplane and dump truck from Grammy and Grampy.

Teething

You have one new tooth! Bottom right (3 total so far) and it looks like there is another tooth coming in bottom-left. You continue to have a hard time with teething; we’re giving you baby T.ylenol as needed to help soothe the pain. Recently, you’ve been chewing on everything; including books, link-a-doos, paper, leaves, sticks, furniture, Mommy’s fingers...
Meals

You went through a growth spurt this month; it seemed as if you were eating/drinking a lot more than usual and then it just stopped. There are some days where I wonder how you manage to have so much energy on so little food. We really saw a decrease in your appetite this month, which caused your Mommy to worry all month long. We’re guessing its because you graze throughout the day. This week, we’ve reduced the number of bottles you are getting, so that you are hungry at mealtimes.
You’re now getting a bottle (6-8 oz) every 6 hours plus:
Breakfast - bowl of oatmeal mixed with fruit, like apples or peaches
Lunch - A jar of vegetables (stage 2), plus something else like cottage cheese or a slice of cheese
Snack - Graham cracker, veggie puffs, fruit or vegetable.
Dinner - Jar of veggies and a fruit jar
Rarely will you finish a whole jar in one sitting. You’ve gotten pretty good with your pincher grasp. Hooray. AND…you’re officially not using a “sussy” (pacifier), any longer HOORAY! Your pediatrician suggested 6 months but it’s taken an additional 3 months.
Physical

According to our home scale, you weigh 20.5 pounds.
You wear 12 month clothes and still wear a size 3 diaper.
Your hair is a reddish-brown and has grown a lot this month; you even have a few curls in the back now. We think it’s time for your first haircut, but your Grampy, Grammy and aunt Tammy think we should let it grow until you have more curls. We’ll see. :)
Your eyes are still blue and we continue to get lots and lots of compliments about how beautiful your eyes are.

(Readers: click on picture for a close-up of Everett's gorgeous eyes). :)

One more thing…
You love other kids! You love to watch kids in restaurants, at the park and you especially love to play with your cousins Matthew and Jordan. It seems that you enjoy slobbering and smothering your older cousin, Jordan and you like to touch Matthew’s head. You’ll also attempt to pull Matthew's hair and gouge his eyes; i'm sure it's your way of showing him affection. Silly boy. Lately, you’ve become a sympathetic crier. When you hear a baby cry, you start crying with them. It makes your moms really sad.

Everett, being your parents gets more fun and more complex as every month passes. I still have those moments where I just can't quite believe that we actually have you. We are so blessed. You are helping both of us learn how to appreciate the present moment and not always leap into planning for the future. This is especially easy because, for the past nine months, each present moment has been an amazing and wonderful place to be.

We love you so very much and we are so proud of how you are growing and learning.