Luke - 9 Months

Luke - 9 Months
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

I'm a week late, but Luke is officially 9 months old. This picture was from this weekend, so you are seeing a new skill that he didn't quite have at 9 months. Phyical milestones include crawling on hands and knees now, although he's a bit faster on his belly, so he'll switch between hands and knees and army crawling depending on what he wants. He has also learned to pull himself up. At 9-months exactly he had only figured out how to get to his knees, but over this weekend he learned to get all the way to his feet, demonstrated first when we walked in to see him standing in his crib! Now he does it constantly and has even taken a couple of sideways steps (cruising!). Also, tonight, he transferred from the coffee table to the couch via my leg. His other new thing is splashing in the bathtub. He LOVES it. I actually took some video tonight that I'll have to upload later of both kids in the bath.

His personality is still great. He's extremely happy and smiley, although we are getting a taste of his frustration cries when he can't get to something fast enough or wants me when I'm making dinner, etc.

Still just have the two teeth. Not sure when the next ones will be in.

Other stats, at his 9-month check-up on the 9th, he weighed in at 24 1/2 pounds (down from 96 to 93rd percentile) and was 29 1/4 inches long (80th percentile). So still a big boy, but not quite off the charts anymore.

Here are the milestones he's met according to "What to Expect the First Year," The Ninth Month:

...should be able to:
- work to get a toy out of reach
- look for dropped object

...will probably be able to:
- pull up to a standing position from sitting
- get into a sitting position from stomach (I think he could if he tried, but I've never actually seen him do it)
- object if you try to take a toy away
- stand holding onto someone or something
- pick up tiny object with any part of thump and finger
- say mama or dada indiscriminately (he says dada, but not mama)
- play peekaboo (he doesn't initate it, but loves it when we do it)

...may possibly be able to:
- play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye (clap hands only)
- walk holding onto furniture (cruise) - got this one at 9 months 1 week
- understand word "no" (but not always obey it) - Not sure, he will look at you when you say no, but not sure if he knows what it means, although if he paid enough attention to Grace, he should!

...may even be able to:
- "play ball" (roll ball back to you) - He LOVES balls
- pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefringer