Moving on to all things centered around Jack's 9th month of life. I am finding it hard to believe that 18 months ago we found out about this little bundle and now...he's here and what a ball of silliness he is! And a
STATS: JACK ROBERT THOMAS - 9 MONTHS
HEIGHT: 30" (+ about an inch from last month - 90th percentile)
HEAD: 46.5 cm
yes folks, our boy is suuuuper looooong and lean. Truth be told, I was concerned that he's too skinny since he has yet to hit the 20lb mark which I was certain he had, but our doctor is not worried in the least little bit. In fact, she said she is more than pleased with how he is and would rather him be this way. Music to Mommy's ears! I was still AMAZED at how little he weighs because the kid eats. all. the. time. SERIOUSLY. She says high metabolism accompanied with him being so active means we have one lean mean, feisty machine!
CLOTHES: mostly 9 months, some 6-9 months
DIAPERS: Huggies, Size 3
SLEEP: Ever since Jack was so frequently sick during month 8 (read HERE), he has been waking at least once a night or hard to get down or a little of both. I was going in and rocking him if he'd wake up at some random time in the middle of the night, but I realized he needed nothing but just some Mommy snuggles and needed to learn to put himself back to sleep. Thus, I stopped doing that and just let him cry it out and now he does not wake up in the middle of the night anymore. GOOOOOO ME!
Now, onto the early nighttime waking (between 8 and 11PM). Once I get little Toots down, he will wake up soon thereafter and cry FOREVER. Again, I was going in and rocking him and sometimes it would take FOREVER because the kid was literally screaming and crying crocodile tears. I decided this was no good and I could not continue doing this because I DO NOT want to be rocking him to sleep when he's 16 years old, so we're now on CIO. The first night, it suuuuuuuuuucked. He is a stubborn stinker and there were tears for about an hour. Yes, Jack cried too. Ha, no lie...it was sooooo tough and it was a battle of the wills and I've learned that I. HAVE. TO. BE. TOUGHER. The second night, it was about 45 min. (no easier) and the third night, it was only about 5! I am also trying to not rock him to sleep either and giving him a bottle and then just putting him straight to bed. The first night I did that, he let out this HUUUUUGE yelp trying to get me back in, but NOPE, this Mommy is tough...and guess what? He was a huuuuuuge faker and went right to sleep. BUT WHEW, this past month, our little buddy has been bucking the system and weeeellll, that just will not do! No siree, Bob! I think we're getting back to good, though. Thank goodness!
TEETH: Jackbaby got his very first one and we think the one right next to it is on its way in too!
PERSONALITY: two words: temper tantrums. Holy moly, this kid is starting them and while they are quite mild and easily deterred...where in the world did these come from and are they starting too young?!? He does it when he wants something or gets told, "No". Or at diaper changes when he's "busy" (in his own element) or especially after bath time. We're back to hating lotion time. Don't get me wrong, we have NOT lost our sweet boy, he is still such a little love and snugglebug and wants to be around people all the time. He would almost rather play with people than with all those toys pictured up there. Random temper tantrums aside, he is still very mild-mannered and seems to have the sunniest disposition on life. He is literally always smiling. Always. And absolutely everything is funny to him and worth a smile which I love! I do not want that to EVER change! We are blessed with such a sweetie. People are always commenting on how he is the happiest thing they've ever seen or met and of course, I love that too! Jack LOVES being out and about! He is so. so. good and we can literally take him anywhere. He sits in the front of a cart when shopping and in a high chair when out to eat and he sits and entertains himself and flirts with the ladies around us. He LOVES hearing himself talk and will babble, coo, and ramble on and on and on and on and on and on and so on. It's often quite hilarious to hear him talk to himself and his toys. With all that being said, however, I do not know if it's the age or what, but he has become quite clingy to Mommy here lately. Especially since I've been home with him for 2 weeks over Christmas break...he typically now doesn't want me out of his sight...even when B gets home. I'm not sure if he's scared I'm leaving or what...but it's just kinda come on here recently. Is this normal????
EATING/ FOOD: Jack gets about 6-7oz. of formula every 3-4 hours. In between each of these bottle servings, he gets his real food, so he's basically eating in some capacity about every 1.5 hours. He gets cereal with a full serving of fresh fruit in the morning; a meat mixture and a full serving of fresh veggies midday; and an extra veggie or fruit in the afternoon/ evening. He holds his own bottle to drink, but we are still working with the sippy cup. He also LOVES puffs and will try absolutely ANYTHING from the table (he LOVES bread, potatoes, and other soft foods). He really has such an interest in trying anything and everything someone may be enjoying around him as he just feels he needs it too...which is a great thing, but can be a bit scary as well! The only issue is that we are still having quite a deal of trouble in getting him to pick up foods off his tray and give them to himself. Take Puffs for instance...he loves them...could probably eat the entire container in one sitting, but only if I put them in his mouth...if I put it in my hand, he'll pick it up, but it rarely makes it in the mouth, so we have some work to do there. I made the mistake of giving him some little bits of cheese today and then he had a tummy ache. Kid loves some ice cream though, whoops. B says I'm creating a fat kid but he is still significantly underweight compared to peers of the same age, so I think we're gonna be okay here. Plus, I only EVER let him have the most minuscule taste at each time. I had it when I was young and so did B and we both grew up much smaller than others our age.
Doctor says we've got to start phasing out the bottle and formula and moving to just cups and sippy cups with whole and/ or 2% milk. He needs to be off the bottle by his 1 year bday...wowza!
UNDERSTANDING: This is a new area because well, it's become obvious that Jack is now starting to understand things around him and what we say. My favorite? Kisses! MY CHILD GIVES KISSES!!!! Of course, they are open mouthed and hardly resemble anything you or I would consider a kiss, but they're his version and they're precious and he'll do it on command or even without asking. In church on Christmas Eve, he literally moved my face so he could plant one on me. I about melted right there. Sweetie. He does it all the time and it is so sweet!
His Papaw taught him this chest pump thing where he pats his hand twice on his chest and then gives "deuces". Well, Jack now does it all. the. time. It's hilarious! Jack knows his favorite button on his "Scout" dog. I guess since he sleeps to bedtime music every night, he finds "Scout's" bedtime music soothing and pushes that button all. the. time. As soon as it goes off? He'll press it again. It's like he likes soothing background music for his day and this is his theme songs or something? Random, but funny...that's our boy! He also beelines it for anything he knows he's not supposed to have like cell phones, laptops, or remotes and will look at you and wait for you to say, "No." When you do, he usually moves away or will stare at you until you move him away. When it's a bath night, I take off his clothes and he will crawl straight to the bathroom to meet Daddy for his bath and stand at the tub and wait until it's time to get in (and yes, he takes a bath like a big boy now...no seat, no support, no anything...and boys loves him some bathtime. He is splishing and splashing, swimming and flapping - L.O.V.E.S. it!).
If I tell him to come here? HE COMES. If I put a camera in front of his face or he sees the flash, HE STOPS, POSES, AND SMILES! Love, love, loooooove that one...ha! He responds to his name, will look around when he hears a familiar voice, reaches for me, hears the garage door open and waits for Daddy to walk in, waits on me outside of the bathroom, makes a "surprised" or "oooooo" face in appropriate situations, and is quickly figuring out so many other things such as GIVING A HIGH FIVE and WAVING! I almost forgot, when he awakes, he'll put his face right up in the camera. Stinker! We had to mount it up higher AND tape down the cord because little buddy had some serious plans of his own for it. The other day, he woke up and just started waving at the camera and door because he seemed to know that's where we'd be seeing him. See what I mean? He gets it. It's insane...like, we have a real person up in here. Whoa. Like seriously...whoa.
the next 3 pics are "the face" I've been referring to... and I assure you, people CANNOT get enough of it when you see it in person. It is priceless.
ACTIVITIES/ NEW THINGS: Jackbaby stands and plays with almost everything. Like I said before, he is starting to wave and give high-fives. He also has a cute, funky little clap where he gets his hands together over his chest...it's pretty funny. Jack loves playing with balls and boy. can. throw. Holy moly...he is his Daddy's child! He also loves laptops so he got two (baby versions) for Christmas. He LOVES things that make noise and will do the noises REPEATEDLY. So much so that we've already replaced batteries...from Christmas. I guess this is our come uppins for giving the loudest, most annoying toys possible at every possible opening to our nieces and nephews. Awesome. We had it coming. Toots was crawling and standing last month, but now he's climbing and slowly getting his balance. We do have a bit of concern with his balance. His left foot turns completely in towards his right leg when he stands. It's something my brother, sister, and mother had and now it seems that our Toots man has it too. Boo. But our doctor, doesn't seem too terribly concerned and has instructed us to put him in actual shoes to help in turning the foot back out.
On other notes, boy LOVES to snuggle. Over break, he slept/ snuggled with me in some capacity every single day and I loved and cherished every single second. If he got up at his usual 7a.m., B would get him and put him in bed with me and then we'd sleep until at least 8 or 8:30. He also is now making this "surprised" face in reaction to new things or things he likes...or just in random. It is hilarious, but it's now almost replacing his big gummy grin that we all know and love. It is just so funny though! Our doc actually said she feels he is a bit advanced with his facial expressions, responses to people, and mimicking which again, is music to any parent's ears! Like I mentioned last month, he is literally into everything. It's only gotten worse since last month and I forsee it getting even more worse in the upcoming months. He can play by himself though and I love that about him...but he also has to be where you are. If I'm in the kitchen, he's in the kitchen. Don't even get me started on what remains of all of our Christmas cards. Boy absolutely DESTROYED them to put it mildly.
FAVORITE TOYS: "Leo" his lion (has to have it everywhere with him); his barnyard he got for Christmas (HUGE hit!); Tigger Bounce (dances to Kris Kross's "Jump Jump"); "Monk" his monkey...it's seriously chewed up and slobbered on like a dog toy...gross; "Owl Baby"; balls; his Daddy
WHAT'S COMING UP ON OUR SCHEDULE:
Mommy's Birthday (Jan. 6th)
Cuzzie Spencer's Birthday (Jan. 12th)
Cuzzie Spencer's Birthday (Jan. 12th)
MLK Jr. Day off with Mommy and Daddy! (Jan. 21st)
Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd)
...and, we have to start weaning him off his bottle and just onto cups/ sippy cups and whole or 2% milk before his first birthday...um, whoa! Crazy! We are obviously nervous as to how we can do this, but excited as well!
...and, we have to start weaning him off his bottle and just onto cups/ sippy cups and whole or 2% milk before his first birthday...um, whoa! Crazy! We are obviously nervous as to how we can do this, but excited as well!
OTHER PICS:
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| FIRST TIME FEELING SNOW...he was none too impressed. |
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| practicing snow angels! |
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