9 Months Old

Okay, so Emmett turned 9 months old a couple of weeks ago, but at least I'm trying. We took him to his doctor's appointment the day after his birthday and Emmett weighs 18lbs 10oz and he was 28 inches long. So he remains in the 20th percentile for weight and has increased to the 41st percentile for length. His head size is what makes us laugh. Our teeny tiny little boy has a head circumference of 18.3in, which puts him in the 83rd percentile for head size! He looks a lot like a bobble-head doll, which makes us laugh quite a lot.

Emmett still hasn't figured out a good solid crawl yet but gets around everywhere he needs to go with his army scoot. He takes it pretty slow most of the time to lull you into a falls sense of security. Then when your back is turned and he sees something he really wants, he's off like a shot. One of his favorite activities is crawling to the edge of the carpet, picking off fraying pieces of thread, and trying to it it. His next favorite activity is chasing Mom and Dad around and climbing into our laps. We are great "Big Toys" I think. He also loves playing in our bed and laughs and laughs whenever he gets a chance to crawl and roll around on it. Emmett has a hard time pulling himself up on things, but once he gets a little help he stays standing forever. He's a little too timid to try moving his feet though since losing his balance can be quite scary for him, even if Mom and Dad catch him.

His vocabulary consists of dada, rara, baba, grrr, and pppbt. On March 3rd Emmett started to say "Mama". The first time he said it I was home alone with him and he just started to whisper it over and over and then got louder. I practically cried it sounded so cute hearing "Mama" in his sweet little voice! Now he says it all the time. I still love it! Don't ask me what day he started saying "Dada" for the first time because I don't remember. It wasn't nearly as monumental. :)

We refuse to spend 69 cents on every can of baby food, so Emmett only eats what we puree for him. He enjoys carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, pears, apple sauce, butternut squash, and a wide variety of cereals. Cheerios and graham crackers are also a favorite dish. We haven't yet introduced meats because I'm less confident in making baby food with meat and I know it will take longer, which is very inconvenient for someone as lazy as I am. One nice thing is that Emmett can feed himself his bottle without our help now. Casey is good at encouraging his independence and always lets Emmett hold the bottle and lay on the floor by himself. I'm not quite ready to admit that my baby is getting so big yet, so I always insist on holding Emmett and feeding him myself. We'll see how much longer he'll tolerate my interference.

Church is at 1pm which is a struggle for us since it is during what is normally the most important nap of Emmett's day. By the time we get home, feed him, and put him to bed we're either dealing with a fussy, grunting, angry baby or a zombie. The zombie is kind of cute in a pitiful sort of way.

One great thing about having a little boy is the chance to dress him in embarrassingly cute outfits that say goofy things like "#1 with the Ladies". Hopefully he doesn't hold it too much against me when he's older.

We also love playing with lids on the kitchen floor while I cook. When Emmett gets tired of playing on his own, he scoots over to where I'm standing, grabs my pant leg with both hands, and starts trying to climb up me. It's the cutest thing in the world!

I think we've mentioned before that Emmett loves bath time. Here's a video to prove it. I'm a bit of a negligent mother because the wash cloth guarding his privacy falls off a couple of times, but I tried to hurry and put it back in place as quickly as possible! If we had editing software I could cut the racey scenes, but as it is, just cover your eyes.