I have this little list of "things about Josh at 9 months," but the time for that post has long passed. Not to mention, most of the things that seemed pretty monumental a few weeks ago are so old news for this rapidly progressing baby.
Josh is taking a much greater interest in being a participant in our activities. He's no longer content observing and instead wants to be in the middle of the mix. More than once, we've had to use our ninja parenting reflexes to catch him as he dives out of our arms reaching for some unknown object.
Josh pushed his two bottom teeth through last month. I'm sure more are on the way.
My friend Shannon explains that baby's development goes in circles. They might work on language for a while, then suddenly start making great strides in fine motor, then rotate to gross motor or cognitive. Josh is 100% in the gross motor rotation! In the last two weeks he went from the "wounded soldier" dragging one arm along the ground while wiggling across the floor, to the "army man" with both hands pulling and both legs kicking, to taking his first crawling paces on Tuesday. At the same time, he's working on pulling up to standing, has started inching along furniture (only to the right!) and balanced on his own for several seconds this week.
All this work has come with an awful lot of frustrated vocalization, as he is not happy to be left on the floor, but we're being persistent because we know he's going to be SO MUCH HAPPIER when his efforts lead to real movement.
Josh has also figured out clapping - which brings him immense joy. He'll do a very tentative High-5, waves good-bye to the kids leaving daycare, and charmed grandma with his arms overhead "cheer" last week. We need to remember how much babies this age love repetition and keep working on these little skills.
Then the big questions: Eating and Sleeping
Neither are fantastic, but both are improving. Josh is legitimately eating meals these days. He's getting hearty purees and lots of crackers. He's a big fan of squash, sweet potato, and avocado. For the life of me, I can't figure out why he will devour goldfish crackers with no problem, but has trouble with easy fruits like pears and peaches. We're making progress and I think the scale was a whole pound bigger tonight than it was a month ago.
At the same time, we've decided to abandon the bottle and work instead on the sippy cup. It just wasn't worth the battle for our wonderful daycare teachers, and Josh would rather skip feedings than drink milk from a bottle. While he doesn't drink as much from the cup (yet!), Stephanie says Josh has been soooo much happier this week. At the same time, Josh is losing interest in nursing (too many other things to see!). Rather than work through it, we're going to start slowly weaning, since Scott and I have a week-long kid-less vacation next month. Hopefully his sippy cup skills will rapidly improve, so he can maintain the level of liquid calories.
Sleeping? Urgh. We have good and bad nights. We moved Josh from the co-sleeper into a full-sized pack-n-play, which helps because he now has room to roll over. This week, we're determined to disassemble the crib in Owen's room, so it can be moved into the guest room for Josh. Owen was in the crib on day 2 and Josh will get there at 10 months!
Josh has hit a mommy stage. Thankfully, he's happy with other people as long as I'm not around, but the minute he notices me in the room, he's making his preference known. I can't complain though - do you see this precious dimple?!
Current Favorites: Standing, clapping, the bath, balls!
Current Tortures: Being left alone, diaper changes
Current Nickname courtesy of Owen: Josh-a-bee
