9 months (last Friday)

Still behind... Atticus turned 9 months on Friday (as my friend Eleanor put it, he's now been out as long as he was in). I've been looking back over his older baby photos a lot lately. It really is amazing how much changes so quickly.

He now weighs 22 pounds (just 1 pound up from three months ago), putting him in the 75th percentile. The nurse measured him at 30 1/4 inches, but I and the pediatrician strongly suspect she made a blunder. There's no way he grew just 1/2 an inch these past three months. I'll have to try to measure him on my own soon. If she's right, he's in the 95th percentile for height. His head measured 47 cm, the 90th percentile.

What's new lately:

• He's preoccupied with standing and sitting, back and forth like that again and again, as well as cruising from object to object. He drives me nuts during bath time. His sitting from a standing position has become quite smooth and controlled, but as we all know, bath tubs can be slippery.
• A sixth tooth appeared in the last week (I'm not sure when exactly). This one's on bottom, so that brings us to three on top, three on bottom. The third teeth on top and bottom are both on the right side of his mouth.
• He's learning how to high five.
• He's learning how to eat finger foods. I was a little skeptical about giving him those puffed rice thingies, but I have to admit they are way easier for him to handle than slippery bananas and apples, etc. He's loving feeding himself now.
• He had yogurt for the first time, and barley. He loves the yogurt (the tart plain kind with no sugar). He's undecided about the barley. I suspect it's the texture. I'll have to grind it more finely next time.
• He's now eating three meals a day, as well as a snack some days. He's always hungry, it seems like.
• He's consistently been sleeping the entire night, except when he's ill or not feeling well.
• Now that he's an expert crawler, he's quite the handful at mom and baby group. I had to chase him around the room much of Saturday, which kind of takes the mom part out of mom and baby group (it's as much for me, if not more so, as it is for him).
  
• He's so excited to see us when we've been gone. I've noticed that with Chris for months now--that Atticus jumps up and down in my arms and flaps his arms like a bird to see him when he comes home. He gets pretty excited when I pick him up from daycare--grinning and giggling. I guess that's not new exactly, but it's lovely and notable nonetheless.