Various Updates

At G's 9 month well-check appointment, he was:
weight: 21 pounds 12 ounces (70%)
height: 29 1/4 inches (80%)
head circ: 47 cm (90%)

Topic 1: Mobility
Gabriel is crawling very well now. He can get into anything he wants to. He pulled all the DVDs off Grammaw's shelves. He's pulling up onto his knees really well now, too. And today, while holding onto mama, he managed to stand up. I'm not sure he could have done it without the little bit of help I gave him, but I imagine he'll do that on his own soon.

Topic 2: Family Outings
We took Gabriel to the park last Saturday to help celebrate his cousin Blake's birthday. He loves being outside, so this was a good day for him. He also got to try out the swings!

Topic 3: Ears
This little monkey has been fairly plagued by ear infections. He has been on 5 rounds of antibiotics since November. So, today we met with an ENT to discuss what we should do about it. The doctor could see some fluid in each ear, and a hearing exam confirmed that the fluid is preventing his ear drums from vibrating quite as well as they should. He has some very minor hearing loss from that. That in itself is not too concerning, so we are not pursuing PE tubes immediately. We settled on a moderate approach of checking his ears again in a month to see if his body naturally resolves the fluid in his ears. We're also keeping in mind that we are coming out of cold season, so hopefully his likelihood of ear infection is decreasing. If he still has the fluid in a month or so or if he gets another ear infection in the next two months, we will most likely choose to be more aggressive and have surgery to put in tubes. I just want him to stop getting these back to back to back infections that we can't seem to get rid of. Whatever that takes.

Crawling!

He did it!

Crawling, Day 1

Crawling, Day 2

Crawling, Day 3

It's a whole new world. For baby. For mom and dad. For the cats.

Nine Month Letter

Dear Gabriel,

You are 9. Months. Old. !!!!

I truly thought you were trying to make your mama into a big liar this month. I kept saying you were going to be crawling any day now…any day now…any day now…and you kept getting up on your hands and knees, and rocking back and forth, and reaching for something in front of you, and then sitting back up. Last Friday your dad and I were watching you do this over and over again when I turned to him and said, “I know it will open up a whole new set of problems, but I want him [Gabriel] to crawl SO BAD.” And then within half an hour, you did it.

You finally figured out how to put your little gears into forward…and now you are getting into everything imaginable. Seriously. It’s a whole new world for you now, and you want to put your hands (and your mouth) on all of it.

You’re also working on ‘g’ and ‘k’ sounds when you babble. You’ve had ‘m’ and ‘d’ and ‘n’ and ‘b’ for a little while. You repeat ma-ma-ma, da-da-da, na-na-na, and ba-ba-ba all the time. None of your sounds seem to have meaning yet, but we’re trying to get you to associate mama and dada with your parents.

These developmental milestones are accompanied, unfortunately, by yet another ear infection. You were given your fifth round of antibiotics last week, and when those weren’t cutting it, you got antibiotic shots in your little thighs. We’re calling the ENT on Monday to make an appointment to talk about PE tubes. I hate that you keep getting sick!

I started trying to introduce a few finger foods to you, but you aren’t very keen on the textures right now. I tried some beans, a banana, some peaches, and some pears. You make an ugly face and spit it right back out. I found out today that you like wheat bread a lot, though. So…we’ll start from there.

No new teeth...still just the bottom two. Your hair grows fast, though. You’ve had three haircuts in your short nine months. The most recent one was at a children’s hair cut place. A professional cut! I really should learn to do it myself since after only a week and a half your hair is already starting to grow over your ears. Good grief.

We’ll get official height and weight measurements at your well check this coming week, but I know you’re at least 21 pounds now. You’re wearing 12-month clothes very well and will probably outgrow them sooner than I want you to.

You’re my amazing little boy.

I love you,

mama

Camera found!

The camera was located under Grammaw's guest room bed. Somebody (me) let it roll under there last time we stayed the night. Whoops.

In the meantime, Monkey got his first pair of soft-soled shoes. They are, of course, monkeys. He's not walking, but he spends time in the jumper or the walker on the sidewalk...and it was starting to tear up his socks.

We also got our first haircut at a kids' cut place. He was looking pretty shaggy.

But now he's extra handsome.

The woman who cut his hair had a hard time believing he was on his third haircut and only 8 months old. I told her he was born with enough hair for an adult. And also, please take care of his hair helmet.

She did a great job. :)

Sitting Strong

Gabriel has been able to roll over for a while now. He's been sitting up unassisted for a good while as well. In the past couple of weeks he's been getting better at moving from sitting up to a lying down position. But then he would be stuck on his belly or his back and be stuck. But! In the past week or so he has figured out how to get back into a sitting position from being on his belly! This has led to fewer fits and more enjoyable play times.

I mentioned to Justin last night that we probably ought to lower the mattress in the crib because G was figuring out how to sit up. If he were to sit up in his crib, he might start to pull up and that would lead to the potential for toppling out onto the floor. Then I went to get G out of bed this morning, and there he was sitting up. Better lower that mattress tonight!!

There has been a lack of photo posts lately because our camera is MIA. The search party is lazy, so we'll see what they can turn up.

Update: Here's a picture taken on my phone.

Eight Month Letter

Dear Gabriel,

You are now 8 months old!!!! How the time has flown!

You are such a big boy now. You’re sitting up by yourself with no problem. You can reach pretty far to get a toy and then sit yourself back upright. Sometimes you lean over far enough to flip yourself onto your tummy. Then you can get up on your hands and knees and rock a bit. It won’t be long ‘til your crawling! For now, you get on your tummy, raise up on your hands, and push yourself backward. You managed to scoot yourself from your play area in the living room all they way around the couch to the DVD shelves. Backward.

You’ve figured out that raising your hands up above your head indicates that you want to be picked up. So you do that frequently. But you’re getting better at playing by yourself. You are interested in all the toys that are available to you. You pick them up and bang them around and put them in your mouth. Everything goes in your mouth.

Part of the reason you chew on everything is that you’re getting teeth! You have two teeth on the bottom now. It’s so cute when you smile and show them to me. Though most of them time when I try to get a look, you stick your tongue out to cover them up.

You’re now able to pick up puff snacks and put them in your mouth. Sometimes they land on the floor, but you get most of them in your mouth by yourself. We’ve also started working on using a sippy cup. You seem to understand which part goes in your mouth, but you still haven’t figured out the importance of gravity in getting the liquid into your mouth.

We are unfortunately treating another ear infection. This is the fourth round of antibiotics you’ve been on for your ears. Your doctor is counting this as the second or third infection since they’ve been so close together lately that it’s considered an unresolved occurrence instead of a new occurrence. I would not be surprised if we’re eventually talking about PE tubes. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I don’t know if it’s related to your being sick, but you’ve slept 11 hours straight for the past few nights. I would love, love, love if that was your new normal. It makes for a much happier mama when she gets a good chunk of sleep. Not to mention the fact that you are still not consistent about your daytime naps. You sometimes take a morning nap, but not very often. And you take an afternoon nap about half the time. I don’t know how a child your age is getting by without a consistent afternoon nap. And you are a serious Mr. Cranky when you don’t nap. I wish you would figure out that naps are a very good thing.

At least your night-time sleep is solid. When we put you in your bed, you immediately flip over onto your tummy and settle in. Sometimes you fuss for a minute or so. Sometimes you babble to yourself for a bit. But you are asleep quickly. I always go in and check on you before I go to bed. I stand over your crib and watch you sleeping. I place my hand on your back to feel your breathing. And I marvel at the miracle I’m so blessed to have.

I love you so much,

mama

Splish Splash

This is my little cutie, sitting up by himself in the bathtub.