Jack turned 9 months old this week! He’s getting to be SUCH a big boy. He weighs almost 21 pounds now, and is 28 inches long, which is in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. He seems to have length growth spurts that catapult him up to the 75th percentile, then he slows down again and doesn’t grow for several weeks. I maintain that he’s going to be tall like his daddy, though.

Ahh, what all has happened since I last posted around this time in December? Let’s see… He has pretty much mastered sitting at this point, as would be expected:

The unsupported sitter

We trust him enough to let him sit in the cart at the grocery store, and in the high chairs at restaurants, both of which he did for the first time this month. He was SO proud of himself, too— he loved it!

Riding in the grocery cart for the first time!

Next up is learning how to crawl, which I expect him to start doing in the coming month or so.

Working on crawling... ALMOST!

Right now he’s getting up on all fours and hesitantly rocking back and forth, the precursor to crawling. One big burst forward and I think he’ll have it!

We’re doing everything we can to encourage him, by showing him what to do by moving his knees forward; crawling in front of him ourselves; getting in front of him on the floor and calling for him to come to us. He gets so excited that he collapses his knees and rolls over before he gets too far, though.

He is becoming quite skilled at rolling around from front to back and back to front (and twisting) to get where he wants to go. He can pretty much cross half the living room by rolling, and he does so frequently.

He’s also eating about 4 – 4 oz. tubs of solids every day now, too. He’s loved pretty much everything I’ve put in front of him except for green beans, sweet peas, or any kind of meat, like chicken. We are on attempt number 4 with the green stuff and attempt number 2 with the meat. So far, no go. (Read that it takes up to 10 times, so will keep trying.)

He loves bananas, but for some reason doesn’t tolerate them well (usually vomits after). He may have a weird allergy, so we’ve removed bananas from his diet for a couple of months and will try again later.

He loves all other fruits, though: apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, peaches, plums, prunes, and many combinations therein. He does NOT like mangoes, oddly enough. He also loves carrots, squash and sweet potatoes.

Mowing down on some carrots, yum!

Cute photo of Jack with a prune-based Fu Man Chu!

He DEVOURS yogurt, which I’ve given to him two or three times. And bread crumbs. Wouldn’t have the slightest idea where he gets his love for all things bread. Certainly not from his carboholic daddy! Heh…

Yeah, toast!

Let’s see.. what else? We upgraded him from eating on the table in his Bumbo to a big boy high chair on the 17th. It keeps him from twisting and scooting around on the table, and bending over, too. He seems to enjoy it.

Cutie in his new high chair!

He also received a new car seat on the same day. He had developed a really strong aversion—okay, it would be more accurate to call it a RAGING HATRED—towards his infant car seat for the past month or two. Not sure why, but we think it’s because it reclines too much, and he wants to sit upright at all times so he can see what’s going on. Every time we put him in that thing he’d scream bloody murder. We had 9 lbs left in his Chicco, but we went ahead and bought him a convertible toddler seat with several adjustments so it can sit more upright. He likes it a LOT better.

We, however, do not. It’s big and bulky and too heavy to carry in and out, so it’s a permanent fixture in the car. It doesn’t have a carrying bar over the top of it like the infant seat, so I can’t drape blankets over it to keep the sun out of his face. His head also slumps forward when he falls asleep, too, and none of the tricks I’ve tried so far keep his head back. It’s QUITE annoying. BUT… he likes it, and that’s really all that matters. Especially considering how much we drive around. The previous carseat was making him (and therefore us) VERY.CRANKY and limiting our travels.

He’s growing so big, and so fast. It’s really hard to believe this little guy was only barely 3 lbs. less than 9 months ago. I never would have been able to imagine him at this size, with so much energy and personality. He is SUCH a happy little guy… always smiling. Sometimes he’ll look down and see Cheeto and start giggling. Something about Cheeto’s face cracks him up.

It’s been really fun figuring out what tickles his funny bone. He screeches and makes little dinosaur noises, and then cracks up at himself and giggles like crazy. Just today we caught him with the camcorder laughing his little butt off at his daddy, who was ripping newspapers in half right in front of him. That is quite the sight— can’t wait for Brian to cut that video and upload it for everyone.

Other firsts… he’s recently outgrown the use of his sleeping swaddler. He prefers sleeping with his hands up or near his face (always has), so it kind of always pissed him off to have his hands forced down in the swaddler. However, with jerky arm movements waking him up every few minutes, it had to be done. Now he’s big enough where he doesn’t do that anymore, and he can soothe himself back to sleep if his arms do move.

And while he hasn’t slept a single night in his posh little crib (ughhhhhhh!), we’re working on transitioning him to it. Hopefully this weekend (or sooner). He’s a light sleeper (just like his momma), so it’s time to be in his own room. I’m hoping he will sleep more soundly without a hacking dog and snoring parents. Here he is at least SITTING in it for the first time:

1/26: Yay, crib!

Funny, because now that he is over 20 lbs, he completely bypassed the “infant side” of the mattress! Bwahaha! We have to flip it to the toddler side and drop it down. Snicker.

I think it’s going to be harder on me not having him in the room than it will be for him. I bet he prefers it! I’m trying SO HARD to learn how to let go and let him fly on his own. It’s hard, though… ’specially for parents of former preemies! I’ll constantly have to work at not being so overprotective of him. But he’s progressing so fast, he’s not going to give his mommy a choice!

PS – TONS of new photos added to the gallery, including a new 9 month old gallery.  *shaking head in disbelief*