Isaac at 9 months

Isaac is 9 months old, and this month we have seen even more of his personality emerge. He can be so determined when he sets his mind to something. Crawling is now done in hyper-mode, because he can no longer do anything slowly - unless of course you really want him to go fast and then he seems to move in reverse!

He was given a clean bill of health at his 9-month check up. He's 31.5 inches tall and weighs 24 lbs 4 oz. He's actually on the chart at the 95th percentile - instead of somewhere above the chart as he's been in the past.

Two new teeth made their appearance this month - one on top and one on bottom, which is very odd but adorable, so we'll go with it. Even with only two teeth he has been eating more finger foods. I think he likes being able to have some control over his environment (I have absolutely no idea where he gets that). Rice puffs and green beans are his favorite, but we've also tried scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, and bananas. The problem with most finger foods is that they still need to be rather soft, and though he doesn't mind the texture in his mouth, he hates it on his fingers. Apparently I have a child who doesn't want to get his hands dirty. So, we've started using the toddler spoon instead of fingers for those really sticky things and he likes that much better.

His new found mobility has changed the way he plays, and it is so funny to watch him. He loves to pull up on toys and furniture and he's started to take a few steps around the tables. Our entire living room now seems like his personal obstacle course. He crawls over, under and around everything. He has a three-section play wall upstairs and he loves standing up, hiding behind it, and crawling through each section. He also enjoys walking with his push toy. There are days when he never tires of it, so we do what feels like a million laps around the house. Now that he's learning to walk with something for balance he tries to use everything like a push toy - like his infant seat, toy basket, a box, or the laundry basket. He has also started using every toy like a car - pushing it back and forth on the floor. It's so cute to watch him try to move Michael's huge shoes that way!

Even toys that he liked before have become more enjoyable for him as he begins to understand that he can do more than bang things together and put them in his mouth, though he still does a fair bit of both. The way he plays the piano now is really quite musical most of the time. Instead of just banging on the keys he's starting to rock his hands in a rhythmic way as though trying to mimic the actions he sees us making. He loves his little playhouse, and knows how to turn the "radio" on so that it will sing songs to him. He also loves ringing the doorbell and listening to the sound and watching the light go on; I have some pictures of him crawling through the door just to ring the bell.

Last month we were working on waving and other signs. He's got waving down - and now uses it to mean everything - hello/goodbye, more, hungry, all done, tired, etc. Every time we try to get him to sign, he waves. I shouldn't complain; at least he's trying to communicate! I think so many things will be better once we can establish a higher level of communication.

Now that he's mastered going up the stairs, we've been working with him on how to go down. He's making progress, but I thing the language barrier gets in the way. If only the boy understood English!

We finally had to set up a computer just for Isaac. Michael and I aren't able to do anything computer-related if Isaac is around because he is so fascinated by what we are doing that he wants to "help". So, we got out an old laptop and installed some baby/toddler software for him. He loves it! He knows where to go when he wants to play with his computer, and we don't have to worry about his trying to climb onto the chair, desk, etc while we're using ours. Now if we could just convince him to leave the mouse on the desk instead of trying to chew on it...

Sometimes he surprises me though. We put up the Christmas tree and decorations last weekend. I was afraid that it might be a constant fight to get him to stay away from the tree, but after telling him no a few times he seemed to get the idea. He's still curious and we still have to remind him occasionally, but for the most part, he just wants to look at it. This morning I looked over to see him waving at the tree. I'm not sure if he was saying "Hello", "Goodbye", or "How are ya?", but he looked happy, so we'll just leave it at that and hope that his curiosity doesn't get the better of him while the tree continues to invade his space for the next month!

Overall, it's been another great month, and after looking back at all of the notes (mostly his accomplishments noted on Facebook) I can't believe how many new things he's started doing.