Wow! nine months. On the outside longer than inside, which is truly spectacular to me. This month brought one major change which is mobility! The last monthly update was September 16 and on September 18 we went to the Child Lab for Caleb’s first day in the movement study which is crawling and later walking down paths and through tunnels. That was the first week he was able to army crawl across a room multiple times without complete exhaustion. And that day was pretty exhausting. Over the past two months the army crawl has been perfected. Over the last couple of weeks there has been some rocking on hands and knees and maybe a couple of real crawls, but then a drop to belly for speed. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he skips true crawling altogether. As of two weeks ago pulling up to stand has been a key feature. And last week I found him sitting up in bed crying in the middle of the night as he’s figuring out how to go from prone to sitting in his sleep and can’t quite figure it out while awake. There is no cruising yet and any steps taken while holding my hands are pretty forced (by me) and uncertain. I’m in no rush for walking though – except that it will make the playground much easier.
These last two months have brought out a love for the playground and the swings. We’ve done a few slides, and are finding that he doesn’t like the roughhousing and being thrown around nearly as much as Simon did. Maybe a more timid child? Babbling is all the time and the laughter melts my heart.
Caleb loves to eat and having a child who will eat a whole banana in one sitting blows my mind continuously. Simon still won’t eat a whole banana at one time. He’ll eat pretty much anything and likes both veggies and fruits. Caleb also shows a preference for whole foods over purees. There is a constant discussion with daycare that I don’t care how much he eats (they only do jarred food before 12 months) or if he eats at all as long as he takes his 10 oz of pumped milk. Despite eating all the food he’s a skinny squirt and about a pound smaller than Simon at the same age. So the calories from the pumped milk are important. I was sending 12 oz to daycare, but now I’m starting to freeze the extra 2 oz so I can maybe stop pumping a few weeks before 12 months. We are nursing 4-6 times a day. And unfortunately a lot overnight over the last month. I don’t know how long we’ll go past a year. I want to go until two, but also not…
Sleep was awesome before all the crawling starting. Now we are up at least two times a night and usually 3-5. About once a week I see Every. Single. Hour. over night. I’m blaming the motor stuff and hoping that maybe it’s also teeth as we have none yet. It’s not awful (ok it is awful, but I’m trying for optimism) but I look forward to eating and waking during the day and sleeping at night. A lot.
The other big happening, and it’s related to mobility, is that Caleb is not full on into Simon’s things. Because of course big brother is the most amazing thing and I need whatever he is doing right now. Simon does not thing this is so awesome. The behavior problems that didn’t really happen last winter are showing up now as I predicted. We are working on sharing and distracting and “I don’t care what he just did YOU DO NOT hit/bite/kick/sit on your brother!” But there are glimpses of brotherly love and the hint that they will play well together some of the time someday soonish.
We are in the awesome stretch of baby to toddler-dom. I think I might be crazy for planning on a Christmas tree.
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Stats:
15 pounds 15 ounces, 27 inches tall
6-12 month or 9 month clothes, size 2 diapers when in disposables