9 Months

Jake had his 9 month birthday last weekend. I truly cannot believe in just 3 months he'll be one already. I was just looking back at the pictures on my iPhoto account, finally ready to order some (I mean, he's only been with us for 9 months, I guess we could put up some pictures of him), and looking at those early first photos of him left me a little sad. He is so much fun these days, but I do miss those early days of snuggling him nonstop. This first photo shows a tiny glimpse of what he's like these days.

Yep, he's very silly. His personality is definitely starting to come out, and I'm wondering if we will have another Drew on our hands. By that, I mean that Jake is starting to have his own ideas about what he wants and when he wants it. He was trying to crawl into the shower yesterday to get to the drain cover (yuck), and Zach grabbed him and moved him to the carpet. The second Zach put him down, Jake turned and bee-lined it right back to the shower. He also is doing the old arching-his-back trick when I'm holding him and he wants to get down. It's really fun. And it happens often, because he just wants to be down in the action, participating, rather than watching from Mom's arms.

Jake basically does regular crawling 98% of the time, but every now and then he throws in an inch or two of army-crawling for old time's sake. He pulls up on everything he can. He loves to pull up to standing at the piano and plink around on a few keys. Lately he also thinks it's fun to pull up and work on the computer.

Tonight while I was making dinner, emptying the dishwasher, and trying to help Zach with his homework (all before Zach's football practice- sheesh!), Drew and Jake were playing independently. I turned around, and there was Jake, standing on the open dishwasher door, holding onto the top rack and checking things out. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I was in a hurry to get him down, so I just didn't take the time. We were really lucky in that neither Zach nor Drew were big climbers, so I feel a little worried about our odds of going 3 for 3 on that.

Jake continues to get more and more interested in his brothers. He loves to get in on the wrestling that occurs quite frequently, and thankfully, they're pretty careful about how rough they are with him. I have also seen him crawl over to both Zach and Drew in the past week and attempt to pull up on their legs, so he definitely feels a connection with them. I think with Zach being at school so much now, Drew and Jake are forming a closer bond than they had before, and that's nice to see.

At this point Jake is making the transition from baby food to finger foods. He likes bananas quite a bit and really seems to like grilled chicken. He also is a big fan of carbs, so he enjoys little Gerber Puffs, Cheerios, bread, waffles, and mini-Goldfish crackers. I've also given him steamed broccoli & carrots, peas, green beans, black beans, corn, asparagus, peaches, and kiwi. Tonight I pureed some strawberries to mix into some whole milk yogurt for breakfast, and I think he'll like that. He definitely likes to feed himself, but he's also been quite naughty lately about throwing food onto the floor. Little stinker.

Jake definitely has become a sleeper I can't complain about. He goes to bed between 7:00 and 7:15 most nights and is up between 6:30 and 6:45 most mornings, though once in a blue moon he'll sleep until 7:00. He naps around 8:45/9:00 for an hour and a half or so and again around 1:15/1:30 for another hour and a half or so.

Let's see, what else do I want to remember about Jake at 9 months? Oh, he seems to sort of dance when music with a good beat comes on, and I think he's starting to catch on to So Big! Hopefully one of these days I'll get a video of it, but we're still working on it. He loves to be outside and wants to be in the action whenever possible. I'm pretty sure that once this kid can walk, he'll go straight to running, just so he can keep up with those big brothers.

We go to the doctor in a couple of days, so I'll post his stats then. Now it's time for bed!