9 Months Old, Wow!

9 Months sounds so much older than 8 Months! I also said this about 7 months compared to 6 months. I guess really it depends on what he has done that month and he has done so much!

Weight : 19 pounds
Height : 27.5 inches

Dr. said that he is in the 25th percentile, so he's gone down a lot. He wasn't concerned because they expect to see this as babies get more mobile. So for all Jared's family that thinks he's chubby, here's proof he isn't! haha.

Ryan is becoming more and more himself. He shows what he wants and doesn't want and his personality is coming out a lot. Here are some of the things he does.

He knows who I am and if I've been out of his sight awhile, he lights up when he sees me. Not only is he excited, but he reaches for me without me reaching for him first. Sometimes if I have him and he's cranky and Jared picks him up, he will start screaming and crying! It makes Jared feel horrible, and I just laugh. He is with me all day long, of course he wants me. Although, that doesn't mean he doesn't love his dad too.

In the mornings he will usually sleep with me after eating the first time. I feed him again when he wakes up, and if Jared is still in bed with us, he instantly reaches out to him after he's done eating. He loves patting him and climbing all over him. Ryan has started playing with our eyes, nose, lips, and ears. He grabs them and examines them. We try to keep his nails short so he can do it pain-free. When he does this, I tell him what he's playing with. A few days ago he got my mouth open and was playing with my teeth. He had a lot of fun with that!

Ryan likes to copy what we are doing. He will copy raspberries, clicking his tongue, saying "Ta" and "Dad". He also will give kisses! All I have to do is do kissing noises and then he will lean his head down. Sometimes I kiss his open mouth, sometimes his nose or his forehead, but he still knows what he is doing and it is so cute! He is also trying to clap. He can't quite get putting his hands together at the same time, so he will put one hand down on the other and go back and forth. He's getting there though! He also signed milk for the first time today. I am not sure if he knew it was milk, but he was opening his hand and closing it and it was right after he ate. When I saw him doing it, I quickly tried to give him what he wanted. He didn't seem interested, but it's a step to signing!

Ryan is doing great with his eating. He doesn't really like to be fed so I try to give him pieces of stuff. Usually for breakfast he has toast and a fruit. For lunch he has a biter biscuit and beans, cheese, graham crackers, noodles or bread or whatever I am eating. Dinner is the same as lunch except with vegetables. He is doing much better at putting food in his mouth. I still find a ton of food on his chair when I lift him up, but I know some of it gets into his mouth. He can also drink from a sippy cup himself. I only give him water, and he loves it.

He is becoming more and more adventurous. He climbs up on everything! Our Christmas tree was up for 1 week before he pulled it down. The look on his face was great! I turned right as he was pulling and yelled his name. It landed on his legs so some of the branches must have hit his face. He started crying just a little bit and I ran and got him. I totally didn't think about getting a picture. I wish I had! He likes to pull himself up to the TV and play with the buttons. He is opening drawers and doors and pulling things out. He started walking along furniture about 3 weeks ago. Our couches are a lot lower than my mom's, so I think that might have something to do with it. Yesterday, he took his first step towards me! I don't want him walking any time soon, but it was really cute. He can stand for awhile if he doesn't know that he is standing. If he is standing leaning on the couch and I give him a toy or something, he will grab it with both hands and be standing and then he slowly sits down. He has a box full of toys and he crawls up to it and pulls all his toys out. I love seeing him leaning down into the box and all I can see is his butt and legs. It's so cute! (In one of the pictures you can see Ryan looking at me through the reflection in the TV. Cute!)

Ryan is loving having his own bathroom. He gets to take baths in the big tub and is so good at it. The tub has a slip-free bottom, so he hasn't fallen once. He climbs up on everything. I have a bunch of toys in the bathtub, but he only wants to play with the shower pull thing on the faucet. He likes to pull himself up in the bathtub and then drop down creating splashes. Jared doesn't really like to give baths for this reason! One funny story about the bathroom is that a few days ago I was on the computer and letting Ryan play and explore the upstairs. I thought I had closed the bathroom until it got really quiet and I knew Ryan was up to something. I ran out and saw the bathroom was open, the toilet seat was up, and there was Ryan playing in the toilet! Ah!! I freaked and grabbed him and scrubbed his hands. The reason I was so freaked out was because our toilets suck and get clogged ALL the time. I asked Jared to unclog it the night before and he forgot so the toilet was really gross and Ryan was playing in it! Another one of those missed picture moments, but there was no way I was going to let him keep playing in THAT! Such a curious boy!! My dad says you can definitely tell he's a boy since he was playing the toilet. He might be right.

Ryan also started climbing stairs. He can climb our whole staircase pretty quickly. I've been working with him on going down, but he isn't getting it yet. Because of this, we HAVE to have our gate up. It also keeps Sassy from going upstairs. He can also push this little car and walk with it. he does awesome and loves it! He is trying to climb up everything now that he can climb stairs. He was "helping" me put the dishes in the dishwasher and next thing I know he climbed into it and sat there looking up at me. It was so funny!

Another thing that Ryan has been doing this month (especially since we moved into our new place) is following Sassy around. He will seriously follow her all over the living room and kitchen and she is mostly the reason he likes to go upstairs. She is usually at the top taunting him. Sassy has been really nice though. He pulls her tail and hair and once he sat on her, and she just tries to run away. Even with the treatment she gets from him, she isn't too scared of him. She stays around being part of the family. It's cool to see that normally she is so afraid of children and she is starting to not mind Ryan TOO much. He also has started carrying toys with him. He will do this with his pacifier too. He is a busy body so he doesn't stay in one place too much, but a favorite toy follows him everywhere. I find toys in the weirdest places lately. I am sure this is only the beginning.

He still has a little bit of separation anxiety. He doesn't cry too much, only when there is a large group of people and he isn't being held by me or Jared. He has been reaching for us if he feels uncomfortable. He still loves to stare at people, although now he doesn't do it while smiling as much. He smiles a lot at church and LOVES standing on the pew watching the people behind us. There is a baby in our ward that is 1 day older than him. They have a great time playing in Relief Society.
Ryan has been pretty sick on his 9 month birthday. Not REALLY sick, but just has a cold and had a fever last night. He is really congested and it makes him sound so cute! It's sad that he has it, but when he's fussing or just babbling, my heart melts even more than before. We bought a humidifier for his room and he seems to be getting better. This is the 2nd time that he has been so sick he's miserable. The first night we let him sleep most the night with us. It's so hard to do on a full-size bed, but as a parent, you do what you gotta do. Love is the best medicine, right?

Happy 9 Months, Ryan! We love you so much! We love the little boy you are and the little person you are becoming!


Here are some pictures we took today. He's in his PJ's because he's sick. Since I wasn't really trying to take good pictures, I didn't try too hard on the editing. I hope you enjoy them anyway!


Here are a few videos as well.