And Then There Were 4: 9 months!

Taylor is 9 months old today! To celebrate, we went to the doctor. :) Thankfully no shots this time, just the measuring, listening, and looking in the eyes and ears and stuff. He is now 2ft 3.8in and weights 17 lb 15.6 oz (so close to 18 lbs!). He's about 12th percentile for weight and 30-ish percentile for height. He dropped in his weight percentile, but the doctor said that was fine since he's becoming more active and just burning more calories. I asked about his hands, which are still really red and sore because he sucks/chews on them all the time. She said just Aquaphor (which we've been doing religiously) and hydrocortisone (which I'm scared to put on if it is going to end up in his mouth). She also suggested putting gloves on his hands at night to keep the moisture in, but when I've tried that before the night didn't go so well because he couldn't grab his pacifier when he woke up. Other than that is was a pretty uneventful visit.

Hanging out looking cute

"So, what is he up to these days?" you ask. Well, after figuring out getting up on all fours at 8 months, he had perfected crawling...backwards. He would occasionally try to go forward, but would face plant. We were sure he could do it, but he just stopped trying. He figured out how to crawl backward or do what I called "cartwheels" (would roll from sitting to up on his hands and feet in the downward dog yoga pose to sitting again) to where he wanted to go. Then a little over a week ago I put some of his favorite "treats", Gerber sweet potato puff finger foods, across the room on the floor. Low and behold, Taylor started to crawl. It was like he didn't even know what was happening. He was just trying to get to his puffs! The rest is history. He figured out he can do it, and now he's crawling everywhere. Time to baby proof! He's also working on pulling himself up on things. He gets so excited when he gets up and can look around at the view from way up there.

Climbing up

So proud of himself

Risky business

Getting around

Gearing up to knock down the tower

Taylor is still a big fan of eating. Along with all his pureed stuff, he is liking his crunchy "treats", which help him practice his pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger), and he is starting to try some proteins. He seems to like his tofu so far, and next up is hard boiled egg yolk and yogurt. And speaking of eating, I think Taylor is working on his top middle teeth. The last week he has been waking up multiple times in the middle of the night, which is odd for him because he's been sleeping through the night for many months now. I think it is going to be a sleepless month coming up.

My favorite thing that Taylor does now is give kisses. I'll say, "Taylor, can mommy have a kiss?", and he will come at me with his mouth wide open. :) He always smiles and laughs after he gives a kiss, which is cute. The other day when Jason came home, Taylor grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled him in for a big wet one! I wished I'd had a camera to catch the moment because it was so cute! Eventually we'll have to teach him to use just his lips to kiss. :)

Taylor attacking Jason with a kiss

He is really getting in to reading now as well. He likes to turn the pages, which forces me to speed read because he wants to turn them so fast! I've given up on reading exactly what is on the page but just point things out like a dog or the tree, whatever I can get in before he gets to the next page. Jason has started reading to him in the bathtub, which Taylor likes because he can listen while he's swimming around.