Baby James: Nine Months

My darling boy,

You are nine months old little man, and weigh about 18 pounds.  We've just put you into your 6-9 month wardrobe as you're a wee thing for your age.  You're sporting two bottom teeth now, the second one having arrived quickly after your first a month ago but no sign of your next ones yet.

On Christmas Eve you made your first forays into belly creeping.  Motivated by Christmas presents, the next morning you properly dialed in the skill and were well and truly mobile, and surprisingly quick.  The disadvantages to this development were immediately clear, as you make a beeline directly for anything we'd rather you not have.  You are particularly fond of your sister's puzzles, or pretty much any of her toys, and anything to do with fire preparation for the woodstove.  There are certain of Katherine's toys, age-appropriate to you, which your sister would rather not surrender to your care. There's a particular shape sorting bus that is high on your target list - much to her chagrin.  But if I give it to you on the sly when she's not around, you could not be less interested.  Funnily, one of your own toys - an activity cube - happened to get tucked away behind a basket, and when you found this on an exploratory mission of the sitting room you thought it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't get enough of it.  However, if I leave it out for you to play with, your opinion is that its mere availability clearly indicates a sub-par plaything.

Speaking of opinions, boy do you have them.  You let us have it if I'm giving you the wrong food, taking away a contraband plaything, not getting you latched to nurse fast enough.  When you get mad, you blow raspberries as your face turns red, which is kinda funny so forgive us for laughing.  You hate being left alone and howl and whine to make sure we know about it.  But, capricious little thing that you are, as soon as we say hello or pick you up, you are all charming grins.  You flirt and play coy, smiling widely and then burying your face in your hands or a shoulder.  You seem to get bored easily, but when we are out and about you are generally an angel, happily taking it all in, content for hours on my back in the carrier.

You still don't sleep anything like through the night, generally waking several times.  But you nap wonderfully, which your sister never did at this age.  Sometimes we nap together and your smile when you wake and discover me next to you is just about the most heart-melting thing I've ever seen.  Then you try to rip my chin off and this is not so endearing.

There are moments, which are becoming more frequent, when you explore your world with determination, or you emit delightful babbling sounds - currently bah-bah-bah-bah, gah-guh-gah-guh, or the one that makes me smile the most, goya-goya-goya-goya from behind your soother.  These are the moments that pass too soon, consigned too quickly to mere memories and, if I'm lucky, as an instance captured in a photo or video so I can easily look back and remember just how adorable you were as a baby.

I love you with all my heart,
Mummy