Month 9 - Recap

Oh my sweet, funny little Bear,
You are now dual-toothed and impressively mobile.  You've fully adopted the Sliding-On-Your-Tummy Method, deciding that the ol' Hands-And-Knees approach is passe.  Your method is a mixture of an Army Crawl and a I'll-Ignore-My-Left-Leg-So-I'll-Just-Use-My-Right-Knee-and-Right-Toes-To-Help-Propel-Me-Along.  You like to get up on your hands and knees and you'll sometimes crawl a few steps like that, but you always end up flopping down on your belly and continuing on your merry way.  You're a kneeling rockstar and you can also pull yourself up to a standing position.  How is it that you, my tiny little bear, are already pulling yourself up?  I swear I was JUST writing your birth story.  Which I now have to go reread ...

I think you're going to be a climber.  A mischevious little climber.

You still roll your feet.  You did this when you were itsy bitsy and you still do it now.  When you sit someplace where you can dangle your feet, you roll your feet around and around at the ankle.  It's really funny.  It's also an excellent Good Mood Detector.  The faster you roll your feet, the happier you are.

I'm enormously impressed with your pincer grasp.  It seems like the first time I put some Puffs in front of you (three or four months ago), you immediately knew what to do.  It only took you two or three times before you figured out how to pick them up and successfully deposit them into your mouth.  You're a Smith boy, and Smith boys love their groceries, so it only makes sense that you would be an excellent food picker-upper.

Hey, you know what's annoying?  How you rip off your bib every single time you eat.  Every.  Single.  Stinkin'.  Time.  [Seriously, Bib Manufacturers, is it possible to make a bib that's Velcro can withstand a 9-month-old tugging on it?]  Daddy finally suggested that I safety pin the ends of the bib together.  And I did.  And while that stops you from ripping it off, it does NOT stop you from turning your bib over and upside down and sideways and whatever else way you can think of to make a mess.  You also like to drop food on the floor.  See, I had a girl first.  And she wasn't messy.  When I put a bib on her, she kept it on.  She didn't like to get messy.  She rarely dropped food on the floor on purpose.  But you?  YOU?  You're a yuck bucket.  A messy, messy yuck bucket.  A cute yuck bucket, sure, but a messy, messy yuck bucket nonetheless.

Speaking of the girl, you ADORE her.  You couldn't think of anything more fun than playing with her.  She's a great sport and does really well at bringing you toys to play with.  And she lets you play with most of her toys (I firmly believe that she should have one or two special things that are just hers and she shouldn't have to share.  I'll have the same rule with you - you get to pick one or two toys that you don't have to share.  However, those toys shouldn't be paraded around the other one to make them jealous.  You have to play with those toys in your room.)  Anywho.  You get so excited when she bounds into the kitchen in the morning, squealing "Good MORNING, Charlie Bear!  Did you have a good sleep?  Didja?  DIDJA?!!" And you two giggle at each other while you're eating.  It's slightly aggravating as meal times take forEVER now, but it's also ridiculously adorable.  I love that you two are so amused by each other.

You hate baths just like your sister.  That can't be a coincidence, right?  I must be a bad bather.  I'm thinking of hiring someone to take over Smithkid baths.  Because really, this is just ridiculous.  You have a cute yellow duck and the water is the right temperature.  I'm using water and not hydrochloric acid.  Your washcloth is nice and soft - not made out of glass shards.  All of these are ingredients for a good bath, right?  Negative, Ghost Rider.  You scream the whole time.  And the acoustics in the bathroom make your screeches sound even more terrible.  I've got the speed of a NASCAR pit crew come bath time.  Get in, get out, be done.  Because munching on freshly-bathed baby cheeks is way more fun than listening to you regale me with how much you hate baths.

You're still not the best sleeper.  You're definitely better than you were (Mr. IMustGetUpFiveTimesEveryNightWhenI'mSixMonthsOld), but I hope you continue to get even better.  You tend to, um, evacuate your bowels at the most inopportune times (like 5am), and you appear to be extremely sensitive to sitting in your own filth.  Makes sense, sure.  But so does evacuating your bowels when the sun's up.  Silly head.

You're jabbering a lot lately.  You love to say "dadadadadadadadadadadada" and you always seem enormously impressed with yourself when you're done.  I'll have to look back through Natalie's recaps to see when she said "Dada" on purpose - I think she was close to your age.  I wonder what you'll call Natalie.  "Natalie" seems like a big feat for a munchkin.  Maybe "Na" or "Nat".  As long as you call her something nice, and as long as you refer to me as "Dearest Mother, Fairest Lady, and Best Cook in All the Land", you'll be A-OK.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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• Wallenda Books Major Tightrope Walk