9 Months (and 1 day)

Michael, I will have a lot to tell your pediatrician today. You have been a busy, busy little boy.

You crawl, you pull up on stuff, you cruise, and you climb.

You play “peek-a-boo” usually with your towel at bath time. You *love* bath time, and you *love* peek-a-boo. I love all the baby belly giggles.

You babble and make consonant noises (mostly “da”s and “ta”s), you blow raspberries, and you tongue-click at us when we do it do you. No “ma”s yet, though! Get on that.

You prefer finger foods to anything pureed, and you’d rather feed yourself (or stand up in your high chair) than let me feed you with a spoon.

You are starting separation anxiety/stranger danger, which makes leaving you with a babysitter super stressful. You are mama’s boy, and if I am in sight, you must be with me if not on me in some way.

You like to bang things and you like to explore. You will occupy yourself (read, “crawl around in search of things to open, bang, or put in your mouth”), and it’s fun to watch you.

You still have an incredibly pleasant personality. You are fairly easy going — or have been until this point. You’re starting to voice displeasure when I stop you from doing something or take a toy away from you.

But mostly you just cry when you are tired, and you *usually* sleep through the night. You will doze off on your own, no CIO for you! You went through some kind of sleep regression about two weeks ago when it seemed that you thought 1 a.m. was a dandy time to be awake and have a conversation with mommy. Mommy differed on that opinion, let me tell you.

You have eight teeth. Eight!

You look… different. Your face has changed, somehow, so it’s looking more boyish than babyish. I’m not quite ready for this development — this movement of yours into toddlerhood. I’m trying to brace myself.

In the meantime, I will take every drooly kiss you give me, every hug you squeeze around my neck with your little arms. I will take every time you light up when you see me, and I will always lift you into my arms when you come a-crawling. I will help you fall asleep in my arms with a bottle, and I will always love on you and love you very, very much.

xoxo,
Mommy