Benjamin at 9 months

This morning Benjamin slept solidly from just before 6:00 until 8:45, which meant that I did, too, which was only slightly problematic because everyone else did, too, and Rachel's bus came and left without her (at 8:10) and the school bell was due to ring at 9:00.

Andrew ended up driving her to school and she was only a tiny bit late.

Then Benjamin took a nap! And I did, too.

We slept until the early afternoon, when it was time to get ready for his doctor appointment. The 9-month check up is such a lame appointment. They measured him, the doctor looked at him, he got floride on his two little teeth, and we were sent on our way (with a book).

This boy is closing in on 17 lbs! I could hardly believe the scale—16 lbs and 15.3 oz! That's the 9th percentile for his age. So he's basically huge. Except when it comes to height. He's only 66 cm (or 25.98 inches (we're really exact at this clinic)), which is still off the charts low (so definitely in the 0th percentile). His head is shrinking a bit...or at least not growing as fast as it used to be. It's 44.5 cm (33rd percentile).

He's a bit behind on some developmental milestones, though right on target for others.

He doesn't crawl or pull up on furniture yet, but he's good at bearing weight on his legs and he can make his way just about anywhere he wants to be. He can even roll his way through doorways—he's got good aim for someone who travels in such a dizzying manner.

I've even caught him scooting...on his back. He just lays on his back and pushes himself with his legs, going wherever his head is pointing. It's kind of funny to watch and he's only done it a couple of times.

He can shake, bang, and throw objects. Check and double check. We're all about shaking, banging, and throwing over here.

He doesn't exactly feed himself finger foods...because he doesn't exactly eat very much. But he can do the pincher grasp and does occasionally drink from a cup. Our doctor would like us to start him on a multi-vitamin, with iron, and I'm not sure how I feel about this. She doesn't think he's getting a varied enough diet. I feel like he's doing just fine and if he wanted to eat more solids, he would. He's totally happy nursing at the table and doesn't often request more than that. He eats something other than breast milk almost every day. She doesn't think he's getting enough protein, but I think he's fine—I never really fed the girls any meat until they could chew, anyway. And doesn't breast milk have protein in it? Mine's lik 50% cream so I'm pretty sure he's getting enough calories...and according to the paper a serving size for him is only half to one tablespoon so I'm sure he's getting at least one (maybe two) servings of "other" stuff when he does eat other stuff. I'm not too worried about his diet.

He's got full-fledged stranger anxiety, and prefers his mommy to anyone else. But there are some things that can pull his attention away from me. For example, at church on Sunday I was roaming the halls doing primary stuff and Andrew was roaming the halls doing fussy baby stuff and we happened to meet, which was detrimental to us both. I just continued walking beside Andrew and Benjamin until we were nearing the drinking fountain and as soon as I said, "Oh, do you want a drink?" he stopped reaching for me and started hunting for the drinking fountain. He loves the drinking fountain.

He doesn't say any actual words and his babbling is rather limited but no one seems to be too concerned about this. He says ah and oo and bah and pah and clicks his tongue. I've heard him cry out "ma" once or twice but it's not something he consistently says. He fake coughs. He makes weird cackling noises. And sometimes he'll do gah or lahs.

We're still waiting for any waving or clapping to occur and for him to initiate games of peek-a-boo.

He will, unclench his fists and let me help him clap his own hands. And he loves to clap his hands against mine. He thinks peek-a-boo is hilarious but we've only played it with a blanket, not hands. He loves "Here's a little bumble bee," "This Little Piggy," "Peas Porridge," "Round and Round the Garden," and "Pat a Cake," as well as "The Grand Ol' Duke of York," "Ride a Cock Horse," "If You're Happy and You Know it," "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," and a plethora of other game songs.

He responds to his own name...and many variations thereof: Ben, Benny, Benji, Benja-boy, Baby, Bubba.

Under the section about how to help my baby develop milestones on time, it gives several suggestions, such as reading aloud, reciting nursery rhymes, naming objects consistently, avoiding "baby talk" (they suggest that now?) and, my favourite bullet point, one word: Sleep.

I'm pretty sure that was meant to be the heading for the next section because the next several bullet points talk about sleep...like encouraging children to sleep in their own beds. But I think before we encourage our child to sleep in his own bed we'll encourage him to sleep at all. Own bed? Sheesh.

So, I think he's doing well. Or at least well enough, considering he's allowed to be a couple of months behind developmentally.