Month 9!!

This post is a little late...but better late than never!

Each month with Gavin gets better and better. This month we'll start off with his "stats" . We had his 9 month well baby visit last week and he weighed in at 22 pounds, 5 ounces and 29.5 inches, meaning he's almost in the 90th percentile for both. He had quite the growth spurt since his 6 month check up, but he is doing great.

He sure loves his food and it's been fun introducing even more things into his meal time repertoire. His initial inclination with new foods is a mix of skepticism and a sour face but he warms up quickly to most things. This month we added in more puffs which, as they sound, are little grain puffs that are made with grain, fruits, and veggies. He is able to pick them up between his pointer finger and thumb and feed himself. It's so cute and impressive to see him reach that milestone. We have also introduced more whole foods, like shredded cheese, cottage cheese (which he absolutely hated and even gagged a bit on--I can't blame the kiddo, I hate it too), bits of bananas, and bits of whole grain bread. We also tried yogurt and barley. We have found a baby food brand we love, Earth's Best, which is what most of the food he eats is. We love it because it's all certified organic, and I feel a lot better feeding him the best ingredients we can find. It's also caused me to try and buy more organic food myself whenever I can. We also have a local farmer's market in Eagan Tom goes to every week, so Gavin will have lots of yummy food for the summer.

Other new and fun things for Gavin this month include lots of rolling around. He's not a big fan of rolling, but this month he gets very proud and excited when he does it. We even walked into his room one morning and he had flipped from his back to his tummy in his crib for the first time. He continues to swivel and scoot back on his tummy too. No crawling just yet, but he does love to stand, so we help him support himself against the couch quite often.

This months we welcomed warmer weather so we got Gavin a kiddy pool for our backyard and he had a blast splish splashing away in it! He also adores his daily bath time and splashes so much occasionally he gives us a bath too with his splashes. I wonder what he'll be like when he's older because he is the kickiest little baby I know. Maybe he'll be a runner like his mama or a biker like his daddy :). We have also enjoyed time swinging together in our hammock in our backyard. Gavin also waved "hi" to someone at daycare when they said hi to him. He just loves people so it's fun to see how curious and interested he is in people. He also now babbles "ba-ba" and "ga-ga". We can't wait to start hearing the "ma-ma" and "da-da"s too! His new favorite song this month is "The Wheels on the Bus" and he gets a huge grin and giggles whenever I sing it. Not surprisingly (because of his daddy's musical gifts), Gavin seems to love music. At bedtime if he's fussy, I'll sing songs to him and he calms right down. Tom also let's him pound on the keys to our piano and plays him piano pieces when he's in his jumperoo.

Also after many months of us thinking that Gavin was getting a tooth, he actually got his first one this month! It is on the lower part of his mouth on the left side and we can see that its next door neighbor is close to coming out too. Unfortunately with the tooth has come some expected pain which has made him cranky, which makes us sad for him. So we give him lots of chew toys and most of the time that helps a lot.

This month Gavin also tool his first trip riding in the front seat of a shopping cart at Byerly's while we shopped. He loved being up in the action where he could see everyone. We have also been gradually transitioning to 2 naps a day. Those 2 naps range from 1 to 2 hours normally and then you get an average of 11 hours of sleep a night, going to bed around 6:30 and waking up between 5:30 to 6:00. Speaking of bedtime, Gavin has also shown us a number of times that he can fall asleep all by himself at night which we are very happy about, as is daycare!

That about wraps up this month. It has been full of joys like every other month and we are so happy and proud of our little guy!