Mr A is 9 months old!

Oh how we love this child! He is The Center of our little E Universe - and it was so apparent the the other day when a neighbor stopped in to ask a quick question; Mr A did something right then that the E members standing around thought was sooooooo-oh cute and as we laugh at him, we looked to our neighbor for her approving laughter too. We're so silly. For now, it's okay - we're enjoying this last little E & every little thing he does!

Yesterday, he turned 9 months old - time has flown by so quickly!! It's always such a relief to me when a baby first completes 6 months and then 9 months of age. In a sociology class I took one semester, I remember asking the professor why some people didn't bother naming their newborns until they were a year old. (I naively thought it was because some people just didn't consider a baby a real entity until it was one year old.) She patiently answered my question that the reason was because most babies in third world countries don't make it to their first birthday - due to illness or other factors associated with their living conditions - and so to reach that marker of 12 months, the naming of the child makes the "title" of a name all the more meaningful. Oh! We are just so blessed to live where there are immunizations readily available, clean water with a twist of the wrist, safety behind locked doors, etc. So very blessed!

Anyway, at this 9 month marker, Mr A weighs in at 19 pounds, 9 oz. (the 35th percentile), is 28 1/2 inches in height (60th percentile) and his head is 18 3/4 inches around (the 90th percentile. Big headed people run in our family - on both sides. Baseball hats look so cool on everyone else in the world but hurt our heads to wear 'em. Now we know for sure he's ours!)

He's a fun little man: he loves noise and his favorite thing to do now is to make noise by kicking his feet against a wall, his crib, the floor - and even better still, he kicks his feet to make noise while turning himself 'round and 'round and 'round. He's his own little side show! He also loves to be heard - and you/we must acknowledge him when he yells ... otherwise, he'll just keep on yellin'. He loves his newfound freedom because he finally learned to army crawl (this week, actually) and the first place he heads is always the stairs - we really have a lot of baby-proofing to do. The pediatrician said he can now eat any and all pureed food and some table foods - only after they've been mashed up by a fork. (I just let him talk; no use being reprimanded for having been feeding Mr A table food for the last two months because he would not, would not, would not eat another bite of baby food.) And, the doctor reminds me, always watch him and keep him on the floor ... and baby-proof all cupboards. Yup, we've know. He heads for the kitchen pantry and cupboards too. Did we mention measuring cups, spatulas, lids and stirring spoons on the floor is cute at our house? Be sure to laugh approvingly when you visit us.