Happy 9 months Caleb!

Today my baby is 9 months old.  

He is so sweet and his personality is coming out more and more daily.  

I'm loving my time at home with him and I'm looking forward to the next stage of doing some more focused learning activities.

At 9 months, Caleb is...

Size: Caleb weighs 21 pounds, 12 ounces meaning we're almost out of our infant car seat...the max is 22lbs!  We went today for his 9 month check-up to a new doctor and he is in the 70th percentile for weight and at 29.5 inches in the 85th percentile of height.  Caleb is wearing mostly 9 month and 6-12 month clothes.  A lot of the 6 month clothes are too small.  

"I'm excited!"

Also could be "All done!"

Or maybe his own version of waving.  

I'm doing some signing with him - all done, eat, please, cat, and more.  And he does use the all done sign at the end of his meal.  

Likes: Caleb loves eating, crawling, putting everything in his mouth, and pulling up on every possible surface, even his own little friends!  He loves the cats and laughs at them and "talks" to them when they walk into the room.  His favorite toys right now are any type of ball, big or small, and the real golf club Ben has given him.  

Dislikes: Not getting his way, not eating when he wants to eat, sitting in the bathtub.  He wants to pull up to standing or to his knees in the bathtub, but it just isn't safe.  I'm not quite sure how to convey to him the danger of it and he doesn't understand "no" yet, or at least he's not responding to it in this context.  So for now, we just end the bath after countless times of making him sit.  

Working on/Milestones: Caleb is pretty much a pro at pulling up now to any surface, wall, leg, table, chair, etc.  The pediatrician said today he looked like he was close to walking. (Yikes!)

And he's pretty good at getting back down now - not near as many dramatic crashes ending in crying.  

I guess the next milestone is standing and then (Eek!) walking.  

Took a little break to sit and relax.  He's got his mama's fair skin.

Also, this month, he got his first two teeth!  He definitely had a week or two of not so great sleeping/naps but overall, it wasn't the horrible ordeal I expected.  

Most of the photo shoot was spent wrestling this guy into the chair and then acting crazy enough for him to look at me while I took a picture.  

Sleeping: Before Christmas, Caleb was sleeping through the night beautifully.  

Then our two week trip and his sleeping was all over the place.  

It was a little bit of a transition back home but he is now sleeping through the night again 

(thank goodness!).  

He wakes up for like 5 minutes here and there but goes back to sleep on his own.  

The pediatrician today told me to try my best not to feed him at night anymore because it just reinforces the night waking.  

Ugh...not fun.

He still goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up around 7, sometimes a little earlier, sometimes later. 

He takes 2 naps most days...a morning one around 9 and an afternoon nap around 1:30 or 2.  

They each last anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on the day and what we've had going on.   

I'm much more careful about staying home for naps now.  Just as much for me as for him...I hate missing my hour break time at home!  

This part of the photos was NOT easy!  He did not want to lay down flat and just wanted to play.

Golf Club!

Daddy!

Eating: Caleb is nursing 4-5 times a day now depending on how early he wakes up and what our day is like.  

He's eating 3 meals.

For breakfast, he has yogurt mixed with pureed fruit, maybe some toast, and some scrambled egg yolks.

Lunch is usually some sort of fruit and veggie puree.

Dinner is usually a bigger meal and mostly table food - I try to do some sort of meat, chicken or ground turkey, peas or mixed veggies, and maybe some fruit and cheese.  

I love seeing him try new foods and enjoy them.  I gave him some grapefruit this week and I'm so excited to say that he loves it!  Its by far my favorite fruit - I think I had 2-3 grapefruits every week I was pregnant.  

We're going to have a little golfer walking around before we know it.

Love you buddy!