It's March 17th....

Calvin celebrated by tipping one back....

Officially 9 months

Calvin can now be officially nine months, as we just got the pictures back from our nine month professional sitting.  We think they went pretty well, although Calvin was a little hesitant to smile for them after we waited nearly an hour past our sitting time and well into his cranky time before we even got called into the the camera room.  The rest of the multitude of shots can be viewed in his 9 month photo shoot album.

Eating the outdoors

Calvin had his nine month pediatrician appointment this morning and the consensus is that all is well.  Better than well, actually.  The pediatrician said that he is well ahead of the game on physical development, and his verbal development is right on track (no more worrying for his parents, then).  He measured over 28 inches, putting him in the 50th percentile for height (a good place to be) and weighed in at a healthy 19 pounds, which puts him in the 35th percentile for weight (the doctor thought this was probably due to how extremely active he is all day every day!), and his head circumference fell in the 75th percentile.  We got the go-ahead for lots of new foods, the first of which will be cheese - yay!

Then this afternoon we were blessed with such a beautiful spring day that Cortney and Calvin just couldn't stand to spend it indoors, so instead they took a long walk, followed by some driveway playtime.  Calvin was really too young to truly enjoy outdoor playtime the last time that it was warm, so this was really like an introduction to him, and, as usual, he took it very seriously.  It wasn't long before he made it very clear that he intended to eat as much of the outdoors as possible, but his mother made that goal very difficult (no, Calvin, we don't eat rocks).  Eating or not, however, he was more than a little disappointed about having to go inside for a real lunch (until he saw the banana, that is).

To Calvin, who is nine months old today!

Nine months old, what a milestone for you!  You are three quarters of the way through your first year, and your parents are feeling like the time is just slipping away.  You successfully tried a couple of new things this past month, including swimming lessons (our favorite day of the week!) and eating more finger foods.  But the past month seems to have been more about mental advancements than physical ones.  You started mimicking our motions about two weeks ago, something that you had not previously tried.  This new interest has led to a whole host of separate advancements, the wave being our favorite:  you have two different kinds of waves, the first being where you look carefully at our waving hand and then turn your palm towards yourself and open and close the fingers very slowly, and the second being where you flap your whole arm up and down quite rapidly and watch us get excited and giggle.  A few times this past month you have also tried mimicking the sign language motion for dog that we have been using, but you still refuse to use sign language to communicate "more" while eating (we figure that you just take your eating too seriously).  Our favorite new skill, however, is your babbling.  You now love to string non--coherent speech sounds together, making delightful soliloquies for us to enjoy, and you have your own brand of singing, as well. 

This really has been our favorite age so far.  You have become so much more interactive, both with us and with your environment.  You no longer need help to get the things you want, but you have been very good about listening to us when we tell you there are things you can't have.  Soon after you turned eight months old we got you your first car in the form of a walking/riding car toy and you love to walk around the house pushing it in front of you.  You pull yourself up and cruise around the house with very little assistance now, even walking while just touching the wall to steady yourself, and you are now able to stand for nearly a minute at a time without any assistance at all.  You laugh a lot more frequently, enjoying most of all when your dad drops things while you watch (as in when he pretends to juggle).  And our favorite new physical development by far has been your new love of cuddling.  Although this age has brought with it some true signs of separation and stranger anxieties, it has also brought signs of attachment to your parents and we love it when you pull on our pant legs or reach out towards us, looking to be picked up and cuddled, and we love it when, after we lift you up for a hug, you reciprocate by placing a big, wet kiss on our cheeks, and laying your head on our shoulders while wrapping your arms around us.  Yes, this is by far our favorite age yet.

Be careful what you ask for...

you just might get it.  It was just last week that we were beginning to worry a bit about Calvin's speech development, or actually the lack thereof.  Our concern stemmed from the fact that most other babies his age, even other baby boys, had begun to mimic speech sounds, saying things like dada and mama, even if they were not attached to any specific meaning, and Calvin had not yet decided to enter this stage of "babbling."  Of course, only one day after we expressed this concern to others Calvin decided to start babbling, and babble he did!  He didn't just step into this new phase, he bolted into it!  He now cruises around the house saying "dadadada" and "yayayaya," and other such thought provoking things.  An increasing number of times he has said "da da" when Jon has picked him up, or when he is crawling towards Jon.  His favorite time to talk, however, is while music is playing, either in the car or on the stereo, and we think at these times he considers himself to be singing.  We love it.