Nine months

Better late than never ;)

Precious Diesel

This week you turned nine months old. And you are truly becoming a little man. Your personality is developing so much, and it is a true joy to watch. But let me talk about the more boring stuff first…

At eight months you weighed just over eight kilos. You are slightly under-average weight for your age, but average height. So you are a little on the skinny side. Noone would think it, going by your yummy, chubby thighs though!! And I don’t know HOW you aren’t the size of a house considering how much you eat! You have 2.5 vita brits for breakfast, corn cakes or fruit for morning tea, scrambled eggs or a sandwich for lunch, then another snack, then you’ll have what we eat for dinner, and then often dessert! I’m glad that you love your food, and that you will eat anything (almost – you weren’t keen on baked beans). You had your first seafood this month, and loved that too.

You went down to two booby feeds a day shortly after you turned 8 months. Basically, I kept forgetting your middle feed, and you didn’t demand it, so we dropped it. So now you just have a feed when you first wake up, and one just before you go to bed. You seem to still want it and like it, but you do play around a lot, so I think you’re losing interest. You go to bed between 7 and 7.30pm after having a good play with daddy. He always gives you your bath. You love your baths even more now that you can sit (and stand!) up and play. You always sleep right through the night now, usually waking at about 6.30am. Then during the day you have a couple of naps. Sometimes they are long (about two hours), but mostly they are short!

The last week or so you started waking at 5.30am. And having really short naps. And being a little irritable. Then I discovered four sore, swollen lumps on your upper gum. You’re getting FOUR of your top teeth! By the look of it, the side ones are going to come through first, so you’ll be my little vampire boy for a while! I’m so lucky that you don’t get too nasty when you’re teething.

You play so well by yourself these days, especially in the morning. I can leave you among your toys, and you will quite happily and quietly play there while I go about getting ready. You’ve stopped banging everything, and your movements are so precise and purposeful. You know exactly what you want to do, and are so happy that your hands now do it for you! You can pick up the tiniest little things with ease. And generally they go in your mouth. You are my little human vacuum cleaner! Everything – cat fur, crumbs, pebbles, coins, slaters, onion skins, cat food – the lot goes in your mouth. I’ve given up on trying to stop you, and figure that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

You also play well with others! You love having other kids to play with, so love your swimming lessons, playgroup, and when we go visiting. You are not so rough as you used to be, although you still like to poke eyes. I know you’re trying to be affectionate, but you just need to find another way to do it!

You really enjoy being read to, which is great, because I love reading, and am determined that you will be a fluent reader by the time you’re at kinder. Nanna and Pa found all our old Golden Books, so we took some home, and read a few every day. You love to listen to our voices, look at the pictures, giggle, and help us turn the pages. And I love having you sit on my knee, quiet and still, just for a few minutes.

Your sense of fun is really developing. You love to peek at us over the arm of the couch, try to run away when we’re changing your nappy, and chase the cat. All the while giggling hysterically. I wish I could bottle the sound of your giggle. I’m sure it would cure all sorts of bad things.

Your crawling is, of course, very proficient now. You are really quite quick. You can walk around the whole lounge room by holding on to the furniture, and in the last week, have discovered how fun it is to walk with your little trolley. You control it really well – your balance is amazing. You walk along with stiff robot legs and a huge grin on your face. I fear that it won’t be too long before you can walk by yourself. You just look too little to be doing that!

You are getting more and more independent. You hold your cup and drink from it, you like to feed yourself finger food, you search out things to play with (often inappropriate things), and you always need to know what is going on.

I love having you by my side all day. I love to go to the shops with you as you hang out of the pram catching everyone’s eye. I love cuddles with you, and playing with you on the floor, watching tv with you, tickles with you, and chats with you. I am the luckiest mummy in the world. In fact, it was my first Mother’s Day this month (you very thoughtfully bought me a voucher for a massage). And I did feel like the most loved, luckiest mummy ever. Love you so much. xxx