9 months old

On the 20th of this month, JJ turned 9 months old (yes, I'm behind on my blogging...don't remind me). We took him to his pediatrician and he weighed in at 19lbs 13 oz. He was 27 inches long. She felt he was a little behind on his motor skills so she recommended OT and PT for him. She was mostly noticing that his hands are still closed (and should be open), he doesn't sit up from a laying position and that he didn't try to scoot or reach for an object that was in front of him. I'm going to wait a bit and see because this weekend, he was really active. I think he's just taking his time with things. I find that I'm a bit more relaxed about when he does things vs when Christian did things. I find that it's mostly because I don't have any other babies his age to compare him to (whereas with CMan, there were 3 other babies born around his same time that always did everything before he did).

He doesn't crawl yet, but I think that's coming soon because as I said, this past weekend he was Mr. Antsinmypants. I put him down and he lunged himself towards any object that grabbed his attention. Unfortunately that meant he came close to face planting more often than not. He then ended up on his belly and he totally hates that. When I try to help him lift his knees, he tries to stand up instead. Maybe he'll skip the crawling and go straight to standing.

I'm also teaching him to sit up from a lying position by pushing off with his little arms. Even though, he's my second child, I think he's got first child syndrome. Mommy carries him too much and babies him too much, so he doesn't get the chance to learn new locomotion skills.

As far as his eating goes, he still hates baby food. He has started eating some finger foods now though. At meal time, we sit him in his high chair to "eat" with the rest of the family. We put little puffs on his tray and he picks them up (pincer grasp!) and puts them in his mouth. At first he would drop most of them, but this weekend, he really became a pro at it. If I'm eating something soft that he can eat, I give him some of that too. Either he picks it up off the tray or takes it from my finger. So far he's had noodles, potatoes, papaya, yobaby yogurt, rice and zucchini. I'm hoping that if we keep this up, each day he will eat a little bit more. Maybe we can skip the baby food and go straight to solids.