9m

Height: 30" - 90%
Weight: 20# - 20%

It's official: you're tall and thin. You had a really good check up today. No shots, but they took blood to check for anemia (typical for all 9-month olds). Our biggest challenge with you now is food. You have little patience for eating, especially being spoon fed. You'd much rather crawl around on the floor and play. We're finding you eat more when you can feed yourself, so we're feeding you more table foods. It's really messy, but we're hoping you'll begin eating more during the day so we can finally cut out your nighttime feedings.

This was a big month for you: you started crawling on all fours, you got your first two teeth (and Dr. Patil says you've got a couple more ready to poke through soon), you started eating finger foods, moved into a forward-facing car seat and you've become much more vocal. Can't decipher any words yet, but you make some funny screeches and growls. We're supposed to work on vocabulary with you so you'll, hopefully, be able to say "mama" and "dada" by your first birthday (can't believe that's just three months away).

You and your sister have become such good friends now that you're doing more fun things. The two of you actually play together. You want to be near her as much as possible, and you're constantly studying her. She's really fond of you, too, these days. She'll bring you toys and take away things that she knows you shouldn't have. You two have a really sweet relationship, and I really hope it continues.

I'm so happy you still have red hair. I was afraid that it might turn blond, but the red seems to be here to stay. You're very much a boy. You love balls and cars. You're actually really good at playing catch. We'll roll the ball back and forth several times a day. It's funny how you use your whole body to roll the ball back to me. Your daddy bought you your first Matchbox cars a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if they were intended for you or him.

You're growing up so fast. We're trying to savor each day because they seem to fly by.