Watch Me Grow: 9 Months

Well, it's official.  Carter has now been on the outside just as long as he's been on the inside.  And he all of a sudden seems very grown up and far less dependent on me, which is both good and a little sad.

I can no longer get him to sit IN the chair.  So now he stands NEXT to the chair for pictures.

Here's what's new:

Stats:

• Carter weighs 19lb 11oz.  (I finally had him weighed!)  I would have guessed him for heavier.  At least he feels heavier when I'm holding him all the time.
• He's wearing all 12 month clothes now.  His shorts are a little long on him and make him look extra "stumpy" but he's cute!
• Carter now has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 on the bottom.

Eating

• Carter is sitting down with us and eating solids at every meal.  He's been doing really well at eating finger foods - cooked veggies, fresh fruit, cereals, etc.  So most of the time he just eats some of what we're eating, but other times I'll warm up some baby food I have made up in the freezer.  His favorite thing to eat for breakfast is oatmeal.  This morning I mixed in some applesauce and a dash of cinnamon and he thought that was pretty awesome!
• Favorite Foods: Oatmeal, squash, carrots, green beans, dry cereal, eggs, grapes
• Not-so favorite foods: applesauce, bananas (what kid doesn't like bananas??)
• Carter is still breastfeeding but not quite as often.  Sometimes when he gets crabby I realize it's been over 4 hours since he last nursed.  Nursing has also been a bit more challenging since Carter now has 7 teeth, but all in all he's doing well.

Sleeping:

• Those of you who have been keeping up with these posts will know that sleep has never come easy for this child.  The crying, and screaming and not sleeping was wearing us all down.  But now?  Now, you would never know that Carter had any sleep issues at all.  He goes down for naps and bedtime like a champ.  No screaming.  No crying.  Just sleeping.  Wonderful, beautiful sleeping!
• I usually nurse Carter on our bed before naps and bedtime.  Most times he falls asleep while nursing, but lately he's still been awake after he unlatches.  So in a crazy experiment a week ago, I tried putting him in his crib to see if he would, you know, just fall asleep.  (I'm delusional, right?)  I rubbed his back and sang him our bedtime prayer, kissed him goodnight and left.  The first time I did this he cried.  For a minute.  No joke.  It was a whole minute and then he was sleeping.  Amazing!  And now when I do this, he usually just lays in his bed and jabbers and coos until he falls asleep.  I'm not entirely sure this is my baby.  I mean, do you remember just 4 months ago???  But I'm not complaining.  Oh, no.  This new sleeping thing, my friends, is wonderful.
• Carter usually just takes one nap each day around 1pm, which is conveniently at the same time Brooks takes a nap :)  If we're home and he's bored he may take a morning nap and then a later afternoon nap.  But usually in the morning we're busy out and about so he stays awake until early afternoon.  Then he'll nap for about 2-3 hours.
• Bedtime is around 8pm.  He'll sleep a good 5-7 hours, eat and go back to sleep.  He may wake up one more time to eat, sometimes not.  Then he's usually awake for the day between 7 and 8am.

New Discoveries:

• Finger Food.  We started giving Carter some (very small) finger foods this month.  And he LOVES them.  It took him a while to figure out how to get them to his mouth, but he loves to feed himself.  In fact, he loves to eat so much that one day I found him under Brooks' chair at the table eating the crumbs off the floor.  Guess I need to sweep more often.

I told Brooks he needed to share his cereal with Carter and this is what I walked into.  That was one happy baby!

• Sitting in the bath.  Carter's been taking baths with Brooks for a while, but we've always set the baby tub in the big tub.  But since he is so very mobile, it was no longer containing him.  He sits very well, so we decided to take out the baby tub and just let him sit in there.  And he was happy.  He loved to splash in the water and play with the toys.  For about two minutes.  Then he started crawling all over the tub, over Brooks, pulling himself up on the side of the slippery tub, trying to chew on the faucet, pulling the plug.  Bath time is so much fun for him.  Not fun for us.  I'm in a constant state of "don't let the baby drown" panic as he's crawling everywhere. So needless to say, bath times are now very short for him.  Get in, play for two minutes, wash up and get out.
• The window.  We have a few really low windows and they're just the right height for Carter to stand and look out.  I find him here often watching the world go by.

• The Spray Park.  This last weekend we all went to the Pioneer spray park here in Sioux Falls.  Brooks loves to play in the water and given Carter's love of bath time, we figured he would too.  We were right.  He was fairly overwhelmed by it all and didn't smile much, but he loved splashing in the water and trying to "catch" the water sprays. 

New Abilities: (there were a lot of big ones this month!)

• Crawling!  Carter is now crawling on his hands and knees.  And he's everywhere!  I find him in the bathroom, under the table eating crumbs, in the dishwasher.  He is a busy, busy boy!
• Standing.  Shortly after last month's post, Carter mastered the ability to pull himself to standing.  And he does it often.  And recently he's even started to walk along the furniture.  Oh, this kid keeps me on my toes.



Yes, that's a fork he's holding and yes, I took it away.  (after I took a picture of course!)

• Climbing.  I'm sure this goes without saying, but with all this crawling and standing, Carter has learned how to climb... on Brooks' bed, in the dishwasher and recently up the stairs. One day he was in the living room playing while I was in the kitchen and when I came to check on him, he was on the fourth step up.  Time to get the baby gate!
• Signing!  A few weeks ago, we started using sign language with Carter.  We've used the words "eat", "more", "nurse", and "all done".  I wasn't really expecting him to sign back, but I thought we could start and eventually he would pick it up.  Then about a week ago, he had eaten all the snack on his tray and I saw him clapping.  I figured he was just clapping in celebration, but when I saw the frustrated look on his face I realized he was actually signing "more"!  So I gave him more snack and he was thrilled!  So was I :)  What a little smarty pants!!

• Making us laugh.  We've always tried making Carter laugh, especially Brooks, will silly faces, noises, etc.  But this month Carter has figured out the game and has started acting "silly" to make us laugh.  And it works!  He'll shake his head back and then look to us to wait for us to laugh.  And when we do, he shakes his head even more.  Or he's started just laughing at Brooks, for no good reason, just to get him to laugh.  And of course Brooks starts laughing which causes Carter to laugh harder and around and around it goes.  I don't think there's any sweeter sound than listening to my boys laugh.
• Clapping.  I think this may have happened a while ago, but Carter has started clapping.  Unfortunately, it also looks like his sign for "more" so I have to decipher which one it is, but it's really cute either way.

clapping!