Car ride

Doc has a tendency to get rowdy with his books. He likes to pull off a stack from the bottom shelf then will pick one to give a good working over. He can open and close and bend and sit on a book for as long as I'll let him. His favorite is still Oliver Finds His Way, which we've had memorized for months.

Big kid

Each night before bed Doc and I brush our teeth. As soon as we walk into the bathroom he starts getting ready to spit. He likes to rinse his toothbrush and lean over the sink to spit. I sing him the song that Star sings on the Sprout Goodnight Show.

He's getting too heavy for me to hold all of the time now, which is sad since he is more snuggly than ever. He enjoys being held and relaxing while watching an evening show with nighttime snacks. Even more sad and frustrating, though, is that he seems to have weened himself. I'm actually embarrassed to admit this because I feel at fault for it. While getting his last tooth, he refused to nurse and now is just not interested. He's almost ten months but is still my baby and I now have to deal with getting middle of the night bottles instead of being able to nurse him back to sleep while I am still half asleep. I was hoping it was a nursing strike (something I didn't know even existed), but it seems that he has just quit. I'm trying to be ok with this but it seems that no mom can go without feeling some guilt every day of their life. The alternate side of this is that he eats like a big kid. He feeds himself little bits of fruits and vegetables, mac & cheese, grilled turkey sandwiches... Isn't that kind of unusual for a ten month old baby?

Doc is talking all the time now. He regularly repeats mamama, rarara, eeeeee, and will often scream dadada in the middle of the night. He understands most everything we (Doc and I) talk about: what not to play with, when it's time for lunch, when it's time to brush our teeth, bounce, tap, open, close, on, off, up. Every day is so exciting.

P.S. Dada has a new job and we're all excited. We get to see him every night before bed now.

9 month check-up

Doc was 21 lbs 12 oz and 29 inches today. He's walking everywhere with support of the furniture. I was pretty excited last week when he started babbling "mamamamamama" over and over and sometimes at quite appropriate times (early in the morning when he wants out of his crib). He likes to play games and will often instigate. He likes to be chased so will start crawling away and screaming then stop to look over his shoulder to make sure I'm following. Greg showed him how to use a stool to get up onto our ottoman. Now Doc will push his car (diaper box with blankets and pillow) up to something he wants to be taller against and use the fluff for extra height. He crawled all the way up our huge stairs without help (my heart was still racing).

He is quite the chow hound when given foods he enjoys. Lately he's been eating cheesy eggs, grapefruit, large curd cottage cheese, and any kind of yogurt (he really likes Fage). Most baby food he completely rejects unless bribed with baby cheetos. He will still eat the tart fruits, like mango and apricot, mixed with cereal once I sneak in the first bite and he realizes that he likes it.

Everyday there are so many changes. You can see him learning; pondering new things, debating new actions. He understands so much now. You can speak an entire string of words to him and see that he is thinking about how to respond. He's growing so fast. I always try to take full advantage of the baby he is right now because I know it won't last much longer.

Cleaning and babyproofing

These boxes hold a power strip and extra cord length to keep things nice and tidy. Especially nice for babies that like to pull power cords from plugs. Now someone needs to create a wall plug cover that keeps cords in place.