Here are some highlights and tidbits from the last month...
Things West has learned:
We've got a walker on our hands! Well, he's taking steps at least. He took his first real steps on May 25 - he only took two but they were very steady. Since then he's just kept practicing and practicing and can walk 5-8 feet before falling. We'll try to post a video soon. (Update: see a couple of videos
here.)
Twice now this week he's stood up from the middle of the room without pulling up on anything. (Update: since I first wrote this on his 9 mo bday, he's done it a lot more!)
He shakes his head when we tell him no, even when we're not shaking our heads. He went through a stage when he loved shaking it all the time, but now it's usually only when we tell him no. I guess I did it often enough while telling him no and he caught on!
He can finally read books (sometimes) with me without just trying to put them in his mouth the whole time. He even turns the pages and points at things on the pages sometimes! Of course, he still just wants to eat them a lot of times.
West is getting better at waving. Often when we say hi and wave at him, he'll raise his hand up in the air. He doesn't actually wave it, but at least he raises it!
He can open drawers and cabinet doors.
He is 'talking' all the time, but we're still not sure if he knows who mama and dada are when he's babbling.
When he's into something or has something he knows he shouldn't and we see him, he will actually take off crawling in the other direction with it as fast as possible! Little stinker!
Things West loves:
He still loves his walker and has figured out how to scoot it around whatever he runs it into, so he can use it walk all over the house. It's so fun to watch him because he really seems like he prefers using it to walk to get where he wants to go over crawling. I can't say I blame him - bare knees on a hardwood floor... I'd want to walk, too!
He loves being outside, where he bear crawls in the grass (he apparently doesn't like his knees on the grass, so we try to put him in jeans but most days lately it's just too hot for that!), plays with the water hose, and tries eating the mulch (ugh, I wish he didn't find it so fascinating! I'm constantly snatching it out of his hands before he can get it to his mouth.). He's been in little kiddie pools twice last week - once with his cousins and once with our neighbors - and he loves it. We're planning on getting a little one for him soon. (Update: we got him one last weekend and he LOVES it!)
He still loves baths and can almost pull himself up and over to get into the tub! He's such a climber. Also, he's figured out how to flush the toilet, so of course now he wants to do it all the time when he's in there. Combine that with his affinity for unrolling the toilet paper and pulling trash out of the trash can, and you can understand why we still keep the bathroom doors closed at all times. :)
Things he loves that he
shouldn't love: He is obsessed with electronics - our phones, remote controls, computers, etc. He's always climbing up on the hearth so he can stand up and bang on the glass fireplace screen - I feel like all day I'm telling him no and pulling him down! For some reason he loves getting my hair brushes out of the drawer in the bathroom and chewing on the handles. He always wants in to the fridge and dishwasher - wherever he is when you open them, you know you only have about a few seconds before you have to close them!
We transitioned him to a 4 hour schedule/routine at the beginning of his ninth month and it is going great (meaning he eats every 4 hours during the day). He wakes up about 7, naps from 9:30-11ish and again from 1:30-3:30ish, and then goes to bed at about 8. I usually wake him up to nurse him before I go to bed at 11 or so, and he usually sleeps through the night from there. He does sometimes wake up and cry for just a second or two at 5 or 6, but puts himself back to sleep most times. On the three hour schedule he was on for so long I had to try to force an extra nap in there and he always fought it, and I had to wake him up from naps early to feed him, so this schedule is much more age appropriate. The only reason we had held off for so long was to keep an extra feeding in there for his weight, but we've been monitoring it every 2 weeks and he seems to have adjusted well to it.
As far as eating solids, there's not been much change since this post
here.
How West has grown:
He's in size 3 diapers. While I bet he could still squeeze into size 2 diapers, he was soaking through them within a couple hours so we made the step up. As far as clothing, it's tough to say since brands vary so much. For the most part, he's in 6-9 mo. Carters' 6 mo onesies still fit him but are getting a bit snug (mostly snug in length), and their 9 mo ones fit him but are baggy (they fit him in length but are big around his skinny waist).
He got his top two front teeth when he turned 8 months and he's working on the top two side ones (lateral incisors??) as he's turning 9 months. At least he's spacing them out for us!
He had his 9 mo check up today (which was why I held off on posting this) and he weighs 17 lbs 4 oz and is 27.25 in long (both of which are 10-25th percentile, though much closer to the 10th than 25th so I don't know why they don't just say 10th). I was a bit disappointed but his doctor was actually pleased with it. She was also really impressed with his development because his score was equivalent to a 13 mo old! The best part of this check up today? No shots! Yippee! :)
*See all of his monthly pictures here
