Saturday, November 6, 2010

Joshua Watch: Nine Months

Oh, man, has this been an active and mobile month!  Here's the one and only tiger shot I got with Joshua during his nine-month "photo shoot":


I got this shot in the split second he was on his back after David tickled him to wear him out just a little, right after David stepped out of the frame and right before Joshua rolled over to tackle his tiger and then crawled as fast as he could out of the room... Whew!  I make no promises about having a tiger comparison photo for next month...

But yeah, this month has been huge in terms of developmental milestones!  At the beginning of the month (at 8 months and 1.5 weeks), Joshua pulled himself up to stand for the very first time.  He was crawling around on the daybed in his nursery, reached up for the railing, and pulled himself up to stand.  We were so excited!  Shortly thereafter, his new favorite game became standing on the daybed and slapping at the alphabet cards we have on the wall next to the bed.  He laughs especially at W is for Wolf (so silly that a wolf would ride a bicycle!) and X is for Xanthos (silly card makers had to dig into ancient mythology to come up with an animal for X!).

Within another week and a half (at 8 months and 3 weeks), Joshua took his first hesitant steps while clinging to the coffee table in our living room.  We now have a cruiser!  He doesn't do it very often -- he's clearly a goal-oriented little guy, and won't just cruise for cruising's sake.  But he will take a couple steps if it will take him from the couch to the coffee table... especially if there are coasters or books on the table for him to pull off.  :)  We've basically repurposed our wooden coasters as toys for him.  They're apparently much more fascinating than the pile of baby toys he's been given so far!

He's incredibly fast at crawling these days.  And he loves following us around and exploring the entire apartment!  We've had some success at training him not to go certain places -- when he starts heading in the direction of the kitchen or the bathroom, we'll sternly say his name and tell him to turn around.  I think he's puzzled any time my voice drops anywhere out of the silly and fun high register I usually use with him, so he'll stop short when I use a lower register to say his name, and then turn around to try to figure out what's going on.  We've been mostly successful in teaching him not to play with the cords to our laptops and the books on our lower shelves, which is encouraging!

And in other news, Joshua is now a full-fledged babbler!  The floodgates opened midway through the month, when he all of a sudden just started a steady stream of babbling while crawling.  He would lock onto a target across the room (usually the coasters or the desktop CPU), start crawling towards his objective, and so very earnestly babble along the way -- "DA RA RA ba ba ba gee gee GEE GEE!!"  It's so incredibly cute.  And then he started babbling "mamamamama," which he promptly figured out how to shorten to "mama... mama..."  Our doctor says we can count that as his first word, so that's been written up in Joshua's baby book.  :)  And I suppose it's possible that he's thinking of me and/or looking for me, right?

Joshua clearly understands at least a few words, too.  We've trained him to know to lift up his arms to be picked up when we say "up!"  And a few days ago, after I said "up" and picked him up, he looked at me and said "up!"  Granted, it was more of an "aahhp" kind of sound, but I think he was imitating me and trying to say the word properly.  So exciting!

Oh!  And we've got baby stats for him this month, from his nine-month appointment!  As of 10/27, Joshua weighed 18 pounds, 12 ounces, was 28-3/4" tall, and has a 17-3/4" head circumference.  So he's about 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.  Dr. N. was pleased with his growth, so I'm not going to worry about him not weighing as much as some of his 5- or 6-month-old friends (ahem, Evan and Phil)!  He's also cut his top two teeth, which are totally changing the look of his smile again... He looks more and more like a little boy than a baby every day!

Speaking of looks... I know most of you just want the Joshua photos.  :)  So here you go!  Our attempts at a nine-month photo shoot...


Target acquired...
 

Mission accomplished
 

Pulling up, standing to survey the possibilities on the daybed, and reaching for the pillow while still standing
 

Standing and smiling -- apologies for the baby handprints on the mirror!

It may be more exhausting taking care of our very mobile and curious little boy, but it sure is a ton of fun!!  We love you, Joshua, and can't wait to see what new milestones are on the horizon for you!

4 comments:

Amber said...

ohmyGOSH stina, he's sooo big! and lol at the coasters, luke does the exact same thing! i'm considering patenting a coaster baby toy, lol. he carries it around (along with my hair brush) like trophies. i love all the pictures, he's just too cute!

Emily said...

This is hilarious. He and Evan are basically the same size - Evan was 20.2 at his 6 month and 28.5 inches. His weight has WAAAAAAAY slowed down. He's only in the 85th percentile now. (Hah.) If only we lived close enough to get them together again! I am loving watching him develop from afar (and I use these posts as my own milestones for what to expect, so I TOTALLY appreciate them for that as well!). LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Glinda said...

How funny that he is so much longer than that blanket that used to dwarf him...WOW!

Tamara said...

What a cutie!