9 Months

Eli loves his Grandpa Paul

Eli is 9 months old and growing up so quickly! I think he's really starting to look more like a toddler and less like a little baby. Developmentally he's doing great with everything except for gross motor skills -- he's still not really interested in crawling. I guess in some ways this is a blessing since it gives us more time to finish baby proofing the house... He only started sitting really well around 7.5 months, so it's not surprising that he's not ready to crawl yet.

Ooh, sand is so cool...

He's very talkative these days and can make quite a few different sounds. His favorites are "dada," "guh," "nyanya," and "ayaya." We're not sure how much context there is yet though. His favorite silly sound is clucking with his tongue.






He usually loves mealtimes and will eat just about anything. I make most of his food and freeze it. So far he has tried the following foods:

Mmm, cheerios!

• Apples
• Avacado
• Pears
• Peaches
• Prunes
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Papaya
• Watermelon
• Sweet Potato
• Yams
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Peas
• Zucchini
• Summer squash
• Butternut squash
• Red Bell Pepper
• Eggplant & Tahini*
• Green Beans
• Potato
• Black Beans
• Red Lentils
• Chicken
• Organic cheerios
• Multigrain hot cereal
• Rice
• Pesto Pasta

(*He may or may not be allergic to the eggplant with tahini as he developed hives after eating it for the 4th time. We will try it again once we have some Benadryl on hand)

I <3 bathtime

He's getting pretty good at eating chunkier foods and can pick up cheerios and feed them to himself (and Cairo) with ease. He has 4 teeth (two on the bottom and two on the top) and is a drooling machine. Thankfully the excessive reflux he has had since birth has finally eased up. He still spits up sometimes, but it's significantly less. He puts everything in his mouth and bites/chews on anything he can... including mommy's shoulder (ow)!

His favorite time of day is bathtime. He loooooves the water and it's the only place where he's really motivated to move around. I usually take a bath with him so he can really enjoy the water and practice rolling, standing, walking, etc. He gets VERY excited about the faucet and handles and loves to hang onto the side of the tub while sucking on the faucet handle.

Just hangin' out

Overall, we are doing really well and enjoying every minute we get to spend with our sweet little boy. So long as he is well rested, Eli is happy, easygoing, and full of smiles.

We had a great first mother's day this past weekend. Chad bought me a fancy Blendtech blender since I'm constantly cursing out our old blenders while making baby food (seriously, this shouldn't be so hard!). It was pretty amazing to get to celebrate a holiday that had been such a sad reminder of my fertility challenges the past few years. I'm so thankful for my precious baby and for having so many supportive family & friends. =)










9 Month Stats
Age: 9 months, 10 days
Weight: 18 lbs (11th %)
Height: 28.8 inches (64%)
Head Circ: 43.8 cm (11th %)
Teeth: 4
 

<3