9 months

Dearest Grayson,

I just got an email from a service I subscribe to that tracks milestones and baby's developments and it just said 9 months and two weeks in the email title, so I figured I better get on your monthly post before your 9th month flies by.  We are knee deep in the Christmas season and it is hard to believe that this time last year I was still pregnant with you!  It really seems like you have fit into our family so seamlessly that I can not imagine you not being here.

You are getting so big.  I took you on Friday for your nine month check-up, and you are in the 60th percentile for height and the 40th percentile for weight.  You are 28 and 3/4 inches long and you weigh 19 lbs 15.4 ounces.  You have slowed down in your weight gain some, but you are still wearing clothes this holiday season that your big brother wore when he was 15 to 16 months old.  You still wear a size 4 diaper and fit nicely into your 12 month pajamas.

You are eating baby food and we have started integrating table food into your diet over the past two or 3 weeks.  I can tell that you are a little more finicky then Perron was, but you still we pretty much eat whatever I put in front of you.  You love french toast sticks for breakfast, are pretty keen on lunchmeat, and will go through some yougurt melts like it is nobody's business.  We will continue to increase the amount of table foods that you are eating and will slowly start moving you off baby food. 

You are cutting your four top teeth all at one time.  Poor baby!  The two side teeth have already broken through the gums, but the two middle teeth are just bulging underneath the gums and haven't come through yet.  It looks very painful and if you bite down on something wrong or something hits your gums you just cry and cry.

You are quite the mobile little thing.  You can officially crawl a real crawl for a few steps, but you much prefer to drag yourself around "zombie" style as we call it.  You lay on your tummy and use one of your arms to pull yourself while your feet push behind you.  It really is an effective form of transportation and there have been many times we have heard you shrieking and laughing as you are dragging yourself down the hallway out of the playroom.  We have also caught you trying to eat trash out of the laundry room trash can.  Probably a signal that the baby gates need to go up.

You have also started pulling up  on things.  We learned this the hard way one morning after you woke up from morning nap.  You somehow manage to pull yourself up in your crib and then proceeded to fall out head first onto the hardwoods.  Needless to say, there was a lot of crying on both of our parts and your crib was lowered down as low as it could go.

I know that I say this every month, but you really are the sweetest, happiest baby.  Your aunt sarah called you a "trick" baby over Thanksgiving and that term has definitely stuck.  A trick baby is a baby that is so good that it would trick you into having a hundred more because you would think they were so easy.  It really is true.  You have the sweetest spirit and are always ready to share a smile and a giggle with anyone who will look your way.  You bring joy to the lives of everyone who knows you.

So as we celebrate your first Christmas season with us, we look forward to a lifetime of more memories.  We have truly been blessed!

Love

Mommy and Daddy