9 Months Old

Baby Noah is 9 months old! It has been another very exciting month. He is now fully mobile, crawling and climbing everywhere. He's still working on pulling himself up, but he's getting there. I usually sit him on our bed to take photos at the end of every month, but he wasn't really interested in sitting still this time, and in the end crawled right off of the bed. He slid off the covers and landed on me, and I guess he thought that was fun because he kept trying to do it every time I put him back on the bed. It's also increasingly difficult to change his diaper and change his clothing. If he isn't distracted by someone or something, he wants to roll over and crawl off the changing table. I was so excited when he made that first move forward, but now I wish he would just stay still. We have to keep a much closer eye on him now because he always goes for the most dangerous thing he sees: plastic bags, cords, electric sockets, etc. Whatever is dangerous, he finds it, and heads in that direction. It's so fun.

Noah has his two front bottom teeth now, and I think one of the top ones is emerging soon. He doesn't seem too bothered by the teething, which I'm thankful for. He started eating more "solid" things that he needed to "chew" a month or so ago, but he's getting better at putting food in his mouth, chewing it, then swallowing. He's still loving the Cheerios, and I recently started giving him some watermelon, cantaloupe, pear, and waffles. I try to let him to feed himself, but for a Cheerio, he typically will pick it up, look at it for a little bit, lick it, bite it in half, wave the other half around for a bit, lick the other half again, before finally eating the whole thing. There is just no way I'm sitting around waiting for him to eat one Cheerio a minute. So I let him have his fun, but I also just put the majority of it into his mouth for him. He also had some soup with rice for the first time this past weekend and he seemed to really enjoy that. It's kind of exciting having him eat more "real" food!

Although Noah seems to enjoy eating a variety of foods, his weight percentile dropped to the 45th percentile this month. :( We went for his 9 month check-up today and he's still in the 80th percentile for height and 60th percentile for head circumference, but it seems that he's getting kind of skinny. The doctor didn't seem too concerned about it, and I guess at some point it isn't such a great thing to be in the upper percentiles for weight, but 9 months seems a bit early to me?

Noah's sleeping continues to be pretty good, but he's had a lot of disruptions this past month with our trips to New York, Annapolis, and Boston. He's been a real trooper though, so we're pretty fortunate. This weekend we're heading to NY again, so I'm going to try to stick to a fairly strict nap schedule for the next few days to get him well-rested. So far, day 1 of strict napping has gone fairly well. Crossing my fingers for a good week!

The last piece of news is that I decided to go back to work, so I'll be rejoining the workforce at the end of August and Noah will be going to daycare, right after he turns one (what a terrible birthday present, huh?). It will be sad to not get to spend the entire day with my baby, but I'll be working part-time so I'll still be able to spend time with him during the week, beyond just putting him to bed. Besides, he won't really be much of a baby anymore, and I think it'll be good for him to hang out with other kids and not be in our apt most of the day. I was also getting a little crazy, staying home all the time, so I think this arrangement will be best for everyone involved. :)