My sweet Winston is nine months old. He weighs 22 lbs 4.5 oz (90th percentile) and is 29.5 inches long (94th percentile). He can wave hello, sign for “milk,” give kisses on request, and scoot around wherever he wants to go.
He can crawl, but still prefers to get around on his belly, which he can do much quicker. He will do a proper crawl for a few paces, then drop his belly and scoot the rest of the way. He is totally mobile now, but is still quite happy to sit on the playmat and explore toys. He isn’t into everything yet, which makes my job a bit easier, but that could change any day. He has figured out how fun it is to pull the books off of the bookshelves though.
He is a very observant boy and loves to stare intently at strangers, which gets him a lot of smiles and hellos, which he meets with even more intent stares. I can’t remember if staring is a normal baby trait, but people comment on the directness of his stare a lot (including his doctor), so it seems worth it to mention it.
He loves eating and his favorite food is anything bread based, including homemade pizza crust, peas, black beans, and pears. He almost always feeds himself, unless I’m eating oatmeal or yogurt, in which case I give him little bites off of my spoon (which I can never manage to do fast enough, in his opinion).
He is really sweet and happy all the time. He can be a bit clingy and prefers to be worn or carried most of the time (and hates when any member of his family walks out of his sight), but other than the only time he fusses at all is if he is tired. When he was a newborn my mom called him Win Poppins because he was such an easy baby that he was practically perfect in anyway. I’d say he’s just about back to Win Poppins status these days. At this phase, he is very easy to look after and simply delightful to be around, with his big gapped-tooth smile and sparkly blue eyes.
He loves to swing on the swings at the park and always laughs when he watches his sister run around. He favors the toys he knows she likes the most, her Elsa doll with its fascinating blond hair and her baby dolls with their chewable hands and feet, but he is also developing that typical little boy fondness for everything with wheels. He loves to sit and push the doll stroller back and forth, and will roll a little tractor toy from our farm set around the wood floor and scoot along after it. He also loves our bead maze cube with it’s spinning blocks and beads and doors to open and shut.
Nine months is always a bit of a bittersweet milestone, I think. Nine months in, versus nine months out. These first nine months of his life have seemed to go by so fast for me. Instead of thinking back though, I find myself thinking forward to what life will be like in another nine months when he is a year and a half. He will be playing at the park, trying to keep up with his sister, and probably starting to really talk. He will be a full fledged toddler, throwing unintelligible tantrums and telling me “no!” at every turn. There is so much to look forward to, but there is so little of his babyhood left now. Just a few short months. I’m going to do my best to savor them, because the last two nine month intervals of my life have passed at breakneck speed. I don’t want to blink, because I know if I do then my little baby scooting hilariously across the floor on his belly will be toddling into my arms, then if I blink again he will be running away from me with a defiant chuckle, and if I blink a third time he will heading off to school.
Say little Win, for just a bit longer.
35 weeks
36 weeks
37 weeks
38 weeks
39 weeks
