Nine months is the big achievement in my world, because now he's been out as long as he was in, and we're making serious progress now in growing up.
So here's the skinny him:
I waited until about six or seven months old before I finally taught him how to sleep. One morning, after weeks of fretting about him not napping (I've heard of babies like this, I don't approve in my personal life!), wondering about sleep training him, it hit me: I'm the mom. Who do you think is coming to teach him this? It's your job. Do it! Three days of crying through naps later, I had a boy who could put himself to sleep. It's a miracle.
He managed to be even worse at nursing that Kiddo (who was pretty bad). So as I watched him go from super chunky, to regular sized, to long and lean (which to my pediatrician's credit, she never freaked out about), I thought, maybe I should wean him. So around eight months (just like Kiddo) we made the switch. Formula is so expensive. Not stressing out on a daily basis about whether my child is starving is so worth it. He was a lazy nurser, which meant limited milk (from me). Now it is plentiful (from the bottle), but often still not wanted.
He loves both his parents equally, which is a first. He gets sad when his dad leaves, and so excited when he comes home. He loves to play a game where he snuggles one of us, then falls into the others one's arms, where he snuggles a moment, then moves back to the first. Sweet.
When he sucks his thumb, with his finger crooked around his nose. Except when he's truly distressed (hunger or fatigue), then he sucks his thumb with one hand, and places the other over his eyes, as if to block out the world. When I see him doing this while he's scooting around on the floor I know he needs to go to bed, right away.
He can now scoot all over the house, and his belly shows it. He is so dirty by the end of the day. My favorite is to watch him scoot down the hardwood floor in the hall. He's makes serious time, and looks like a little boat as he rocks along on his big belly. In the last week or so he has finally learned to crawl on all fours, but chooses not to do it much.
What he does choose to do is pull himself up on to his knees, and find another set of places he can reach. Tables that used to be safe places for non-baby approved items are no longer.
He has never loved baby food (and literally shudders at the taste of vegetables), but finally started eating some. Except now, he prefers finger food. So, in another evidence of "I won't eat unless it works for me" he is subsistence eating baby food, only putting up with it when he is seriously hungry. I don't know about this boy.
He is well loved by his sisters, and loves them too. You know what else he loves? The TV. He thinks it is fantastic, and can think of nothing more exciting that watching it turn on, and characters come to life for about three minutes. Then he has places to explore and things to put in his mouth, and he in on his way.
Early on, in case you forgot, he started skinny too.
