9 Months Old... The Stats

Milo had his nine-month check-up on Friday. Here are the official stats.

• Weight: 17 lbs., 1 oz. (5th percentile)
• Length: 27 in. (20th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 13 3/4 in. (50th percentile)*

*I'm not so sure about this one... at his six-month check-up, his head measured 17 1/2 inches.

At nine months, Milo is a funny, sweet, silly little boy.

At nine months, Milo is a good eater and will sometimes just keep shoveling food in his mouth until we take the food away. He still doesn't like peas, though. Also not a fan of pureed zucchini and summer squash. And, surprisingly, he doesn't care for applesauce.

At nine months, Milo is transitioning to eating mostly table foods. He's into turkey/vegetable soup, pasta, carrots, butternut squash, mango, peaches, banana, yogurt, ground beef, buttered rolls, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, hard-boiled and scrambled egg yolk, pizza crust, chicken, broccoli-cheese soup, potato-cheese soup, and, I'm sure, much much more.

At nine months, Milo is getting really good at picking up food and getting it all the way to his mouth. His pincer grasp is improving all the time.

At nine months, in spite of being a great eater, Milo is not gaining enough weight and has dropped a lot on the growth charts. We're weighing the options in terms of how to fatten him up, from adding butter to all his veggies to feeding him cheese and meat, to supplementing with formula. (More on this topic to come.)

At nine months, Milo continues to babble. He gets sort of stuck on a single sound and repeats it over and over. This month, it was first "da da da" (to my dismay, he would not say "mama") and now it is a raspberry sort of sound, where he blows his spit all over everything.

At nine months, Milo explores his world. He is a fast crawler now, and goes after anything he sees that looks appealing.

At nine months, Milo pulls up to standing on just about anything. He uses his mouth to help him pull up, too. Picture a baby sucking on the edge of the coffee table, his little butt sticking out behind him as he tries to twist himself into an upright position. Pretty cute.

At nine months, Milo is over Sophie the Giraffe.

At nine months, Milo is over his little pink lotion bottle.

At nine months, Milo has started grabbing onto the framed prints that hang on the wall above the changing table. Not good.

At nine months, Milo twists and turns during diaper changes. Did you know that it is difficult to snap a diaper onto a baby who is on his hands and knees?

At nine months, Milo is still addicted to his pacifier. I'm already dreading the day we have to take that one away.

At nine months, Milo STILL has no teeth. And I STILL can't believe it. There was a tooth! I saw it! But somehow it just went away. Hmmm.

At nine months, Milo walks and walks, if he's holding on to someone's hands. He has pretty good balance. I predict his first solo steps are—nope. Not going to make any predictions (see: teeth).

At nine months, Milo has stood unassisted for a couple of seconds at a time. I think he falls when he realizes he isn't holding on to anything.

At nine months, Milo does not cruise around the furniture. He just pulls himself up and stands there. Sometimes he bounces, but no sideways movement.

At nine months, Milo has been in the world longer than he was in my belly.

At nine months, Milo pokes at my face and taps my nose and grabs onto my mouth when he's nursing. He'll pause from nursing, look up at me, smile, and start trying to reach into my mouth. I nibble his fingers and tickle his side and he giggles. It's our little game.

At nine months, Milo does not like to be set down when we get home in the evenings. He cries and cries until he's picked up again.

At nine months, Milo enjoys the lights on the Christmas tree. He also likes watching the Little Mermaid ornament that plays music and spins around.

At nine months, Milo is fascinated by this little tabletop Christmas tree decoration that spins, lights up, and plays "Oh Christmas Tree" or "Carol of the Bells" when you push the button. He stares at it, then slaps his hand on the table when it stops, indicating that he would like to hear it again, please.

At nine months, Milo sticks his hand in his mouth when he smiles and giggles. It's too bad; we rarely see his full smile.

At nine months, Milo throws his head back—to check out the ceiling, when he laughs, when he is unhappy—doesn't really matter. The boy just likes to stretch out his neck, I guess.

At nine months, Milo has such a sweet little voice. I just want to bottle it up and take a whiff whenever I'm having a bad day.

At nine months, Milo has big, beautiful blue eyes.

At nine months, we still can't really tell what color Milo's hair is. I thought it was darkening up, but just a couple days ago it looked really light in the sun. I don't think it's red at all anymore.

At nine months, Milo lights up when he sees me. That is the happy face I will lock into my memory and picture forever. It's pure joy and it makes me feel so good.

At nine months, I love LOVE snuggling with my baby. Milo is a great snuggler, too. When he's tired, he just collapses into me and rests his head on my shoulder.

At nine months, Milo loves bouncing. Jumping up and down while holding him? Guaranteed smiles.

At nine months, Milo still struggles with napping at daycare. If he sleeps an hour there, it's a triumph. Frustrating, because he often takes a two-hour nap on the weekends.

At nine months, I've gotten more baby snot on my clothes than I care to think about. Milo still has a constant cold and snotty nose. We spray saline up his nose after almost every diaper change.

At nine months, Milo has a diaper rash that comes and goes and comes and goes (but never really goes away all together). If anyone has tips, we'd love to hear them. But believe me, we've already tried just about everything.

At nine months, Milo has had two more ear infections and two more antibiotics. He'll be getting tubes in two days. More on this in another post.

At nine months, Milo rarely sleeps through the night. I can't tell if he wakes up and cries because his ears hurt or because he knows we'll come in and hang out for a bit.

At nine months, I'm exhausted all the time. I've never had such dark circles under my eyes before, and I don't find it very becoming.

At nine months, I have lost all the baby weight and then some. Thirteen pounds to go to get to my goal weight.

At nine months, Andrew is an amazing dad. Milo loves him and loves playing with him.

At nine months, we are finally settling into our roles in our little family of three. Andrew is the bather and dishwasher; I am the feeder and diaper washer; Milo is the smiler, the pooper, the cryer, the open-mouth kisser, and the light of our lives.