Nine Months Old!

Today The Bean is nine months old!

-I feel like The Bean's growth has slowed down a little bit, but just the other week Jen noticed that he's taller than his best friend who's always been bigger than him, so who knows!  We'll be taking him in for his nine month well-check soon, so I'll post updated weight and length and whatnot then.

-As predicted, his second tooth popped up shortly after his first one.  We now believe that he'll soon be getting a third tooth on the bottom right.  His teeth are a little crooked and mighty sharp!  He's broken the skin on my finger and Jen's boob.  The words, "No biting!" are often heard when Jen is nursing and Sophie the giraffe is kept nearby for him to chop on between suckling. (Note from Jen: Any advice for preventing the biting is encouraged!)

-Starting two days ago The Bean began drinking both water and formula from a bottle.  This is a serious breakthrough and does a lot to ease my stress about sending him to daycare in a few months.  I hope he continues to take bottles.

-He continues to be an excellent eater.  He has preferences, but we can usually blend things together and get him to eat stuff he may not eat if it weren't mixed.  New foods include kamut, banana, cheeses, olives, pumpkin, yogurt, oats, raisins, cranberries and probably others that I'm forgetting.  He's eating more finger foods and uses his little teeth to bite into things, chewing them up with his gums.

-He's exclusively in 6-12 month clothes now.  Some things are still huge on him, but we've come to discover that such is baby sizing.  (Not unlike women's sizing.)

-We were having some difficulty with night-waking for a while.  Many nights The Bean was getting up and nursing about three times.  It was getting pretty rough on Jen especially, but then, just this past week he slept 11+ hours two nights in a row.  We're hoping this trend continues.  Most nights he goes down around 6pm and stays in bed until about 7am. 

-Crawling is still The Bean's main mode of transportation, but he is also getting really good at pulling himself up on things and has started taking just a few steps along an object or from one object to another.

-His favourite toys these days are ones that light up and/or make noise.  He has a hand-me-down tractor with animals that he loves (especially the horse) and his v-tech car toy from his cousins is another favourite.

-He loves the sheepskin rug in his nursery.  After bath time in the evening we let him crawl around in his room and if it's not out already, he'll pull it out from under his crib and roll around on it.  He'll actually throw himself forward onto it, lie there for a second, and then roll back and forth.  He LOVES it when we wrap it all the way around him and will giggle.  It is adorable.  

-Jen and The Bean continue to go to swim class once a week.  He loves the water and has been praised by the swim teacher for his ability to "swim" underwater.

-He continues to do really well around people.  I was surprised this past weekend when we went to my brother's place for Thanksgiving. There were a ton of new people around and he smiled and was quite happy to let them hold him. 

-He is getting more and more expressive and interactive.  He gives the biggest smile when we go to get him up from his naps.  He crawls over to me as quick as he can and throws himself at us when he wants a cuddle or when we're "wrestling."  He is also quite vocal when he wants to be and is making a variety of sounds. 


We are so lucky that The Bean has such a happy baby.  He brings joy to our days!