Dear Liam,
Today you are 9 months old. This month you learned to master the new things you first learned to do last month. I feel as thought your personality really started to shine through this month. You love, absolutely love, being out and about…i am not quite sure how your Dad and I ended up with a social butterfly (maybe it is some of Aunt Kerri in you) but you love being around people and always make friends with those waiting in line behind us, those in an elevator with us, and every cashier. If one was to look up with “hammin’ it up” means in the dictionary (well more like urban dictionary for that phrase) your picture would be right there, you are the epitome of a ham and love attention.
I am pretty certain that with the amount of energy and complete lack of fear you have you are destine to be the next Travis Pastrana. You are a wild and crazy kid, that is for sure. You were standing in your pack and play yesterday holding onto the top and placing on foot flat against the side while jumping off the other trying to stand on the side. Then proceeded to not cruise along the side but run…then took a spiraling fall, got up, stood up, went on your tippy toes to peak over at me and hysterically laugh. You have no fear to dive head first off the couch. I will hold your legs as you put your hands on the floor and then “wheel barrel walk” until i put your legs down and your off.
*You love to climb on toys to be taller*
We are convinced that if you do not turn out to be the next X Games dare devil you will be a dentist because you love teeth. You can spend a long time touching, looking and inspecting our teeth. When we fake bite your fingers you laugh so hard and stick your hand unsurely back in until we do it again and you start laughing.
You love your toys and love to play. Your favorite toys this month were your little people train, anything that spins (wheels, balls, etc..you LOVE to spin things), your little fisher price train, and the cube coffee table to stand and play at. You still love your jumper and will stay in there and watch a whole Sid the Science Kid (your favorite show this month). I read a few days ago that children are not suppose to be able to jump off the ground with both feet until they were two years old…your Dad laughed out loud when i told him that…i guess we have a jumping protegee on our hands. You new favorite jumping game is to put your hands on the arm of the couch and jump. One of your favorite things to do is empty your toy boxes. Your favorite songs this month are “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘round the Mountain” and “Someone's in the kitchen with Liam”.
You pretty much stand the majority of the day. You have gotten so good at pulling yourself up and cruising along the fence and furniture. You can even pull up on flat surfaces now. FINALLY, within the last week or so you have learned to get down from the standing position. When you are not standing you are crawling to your next destination and although you can sit yourself up you never do, if you want to be stationary and play you will kneel.
You don’t have much interest at all in holding onto our hands to walk, you know crawling is a whole lot faster but you will walk to us if we hold your hand while you are standing and have you walk towards us. You even know how to step up, as in, if you are walking to me you will step up onto my lap one foot at a time. When you are standing and playing you can often see a look come across your face that you want to let go and walk to your next destination. You have let go a few times but lose your balance and grab back on fast. Many times you don’t hold on to what you are standing at but will lean against it with your stomach or side for support.
You started showing signs of separation anxiety from me this month which truth be told makes me feel pretty good. Most days while i am cooking dinner you will disregard Daddy and toys and standing holding onto your gate and cry and cry and cry. If i come over and pick you up you are the happiest guy. We also snuggle until you fall asleep for naps and bedtime. Our snuggle time is my favorite part of the day because to see you relaxed and content is a rarity since you are constantly on the go.
This month we experimented with letting you cry it out at night to help with you sleeping troubles and it worked amazingly well. It only took a few nights and since then you have been sleeping so much better and are so much happier after getting a good nights sleep. You typically go to bed around 8:30 and wake up between 6:30 and 7. You take two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, some days it will be three cat naps instead of two longer ones.
You love to eat but more so love to snack. I am so happy to say that you will try anything and for the most part like everything. You are a graham cracker, yogurt melt and veggie stick addict! Those are by far your favorite things to eat and you have become very good at feeding yourself your snacks. You typically have four 6 ounce bottles and one or two 4 ounce bottles a day and four jars of stage two baby food a day. For the last week i have been having your hold you bottles all by yourself and you are doing really well.
You love to give your stuffed animals hugs. You tackle them and then nuzzle your head in. You head butt in order to give big open mouth kisses. This month you have really started to love blankets and your mini blankie. You hold on so tight and curl up with your blanket to go to sleep. Your mini blankie we take with us whenever we are out to help you nap.
You still have just the two bottom teeth. You are wearing 9 or 12 month clothes and 12 month jammies…no more footie jammies for you, you have official graduated to shorts and tee shirt PJs. We moved you up to a size 4 diaper after a few too many leaks. Since you now fit into a size 4 we were able to get some overnight diapers to help you go 12 hours, they have been wonderful.
You weight 21 pounds and are 29 inches long . You passed your well baby exam with flying colors!
Love you,
Mama
PS. Next month you should totally learn to say “mama'”…just sayin’
Look at how you’ve grown…
