Kellan is 9 Months!

Kellan turned 9 months on Friday, July 20 and we went to the doctor yesterday for his 9 month vaccinations :( I hate when he has to get shots but the good news is that we did get accurate measurements and its always a relief to get the confirmation that we have a healthy baby!

Height: 29 3/4 inches long

Weight: 22 pounds

Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches

A few more statistics for this month:

Sleeping: Kellan's bed time is still 8:30-9 pm. Actually the truth is that we aim for 8:30 but it usually ends up being closer to 9 before he is in his crib.  He typically will wake once between 3-4 a.m., nurses, and then sleeps until 7:30 am.  He nurses again and usually falls back to sleep until between 8:30 and 9:30.

Kellan is much better with his sleeping during the night and he rarely wakes up other than once to nurse.  He has even slept completely through the night a time or two.  We are continuing with the feed-wake-sleep schedule and he usually needs a nap after being awake for 2 hours in the morning and 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the afternoon.  By that time nothing makes him happy and he starts rubbing his eyes.  He is such a good napper and even took regular naps while we were on vacation.

Eating: Kellan has still only had the food I make for him. He continues to be a great eater and eats three times a day. Around 9:00-9:30 he has a finger food "snack".   He can feed himself homemade pear gummies, cut up avocado, banana, cooked carrot, papaya, and canteloupe pieces.  Around 12:00 he has lunch which is when I introduce a new food for 4 days in a row (this is in case he has an allergic reaction or upset stomach I can trace it back to the new food) and a fruit or vegetable that he has had before or yogurt. Around 5:30-6:00 he has dinner which always includes a meat and either a fruit or a vegetable. In addition to the foods he's already had, now he's also tried pork, yogurt, peaches, apples, blueberries, and cherries.  He loves all of them.

Oh blueberries are SO good!

Drinking: Kellan is exclusively breastfed and nurses about 5 times a day (once during the night, when he wakes up in the morning, after his morning nap, after his afternoon nap, and then before bed). He is pretty good at drinking out of a sippy cup but he mostly likes to play with it, chew on the spout, and bang it on the table!  He only gets the sippy cups during meals.

Clothes: Kellan can still wear a few 9 month clothes but is almost exclusively wearing 12 months.  This size fits him well right now.  Especially when he wears little polos and shorts...he looks like such a little boy instead of a baby :(  We are using up the last of our size 3 diapers before we move into wearing size 4 all the time (he wears a 4 to bed to prevent leaking).

Milestones:

1. Kellan is trying so hard to get up on all fours and crawl (he still scoots everywhere but hasn't been formally crawling).  He gets up and rocks back and forth.  He is now able to push himself back up into a sitting position from laying on his tummy. 

2. He loves to "talk" and da da is his favorite phrase.  I think I've heard a ma ma in there somewhere but not consistently.  For now its mostly a lot of babble with a lot of da-da, da-dee, and hey.  He doesn't say hey at appropriate times so I don't think he knows what he's saying. 

3. Kellan finally got his bottom two teeth while we were on vacation.  One day we looked and there were two little white lines breaking though the gums!  I'm thinking this could also be the reason that he is sleeping better at night.

4.  Kellan is starting to cry when I go into another room and he can't see me.  He has never done that before so I'm hoping this is a phase.  Now that he is scooting, as soon as I walk out of the room he gets mad and fussy and follows me.

5.  He is into everything still but now he has started pulling his walker up to the kitchen cabinets.  He opens and closes the cabinet doors and drawers.  When he manages to get the door open (he has to manuever the front of his walker in order to do this) he pulls out whatever he can get his hands on.  He has also started noticing a big plant that we have in the corner on the other side of our fireplace.  He likes to roll up to it and pull on the leaves.

6.  Kellan still loves tags, his Jesus Loves Me bunny, his brush, and books.  When we are away from home and I pull any of those out of the diaper bag his eyes light up!  Michael has introduced him to a set of soft baseballs and he even can play a baby version of catch!  We got him a musical light up table but he can't stand well enough yet to play with it so I took the legs off so he can sit and play.  We also bought him a zebra that he can eventually ride or push.  Right now when you put him on it he pulls his legs up and puts his feet on the wheels and wants to be pushed!

Playing "catch" with daddy

7.  I have been really bad about teaching Kellan sign language but somehow he has learned to clap.  The week we were on vacation he just started clapping out of the blue and now if you say "clap your hands" he smacks his little hands together with a big grin.  I really want to get back on track with making several signs part of our daily routine.

8.  Whenever music plays Kellan starts making a string of babbling noises.  We are convinced that he is trying to sing.

9.  Kellan went on his first flight on June 30th and he was a wonderful traveler!  He slept most of the way there and almost the entire flight back.

10.  He visited his 3rd state, Florida.  We live in Virginia and we have visited my family in North Carolina lots of times.