beanstalk: 9 Months Old!

May 15, 2011

If I had to pick one word to describe Jack during his 9th month of life, it would be this: BUSY. Busy playing, busy eating, busy getting into all sorts of trouble.

Major milestones this month include crawling and pulling himself up to standing. What started as a scoot on his tummy quickly morphed into a scoot/crawl combo. There was a short period of time where he would crawl to go short distances, then start scooting if he needed to travel far. But it only took him a few days to realized that crawling was actually much faster if he did it properly, so now he has completely ditched the army scoot and happily and noisily crawls everywhere. His little hands smack down on the floor with such determination while his knees slide back and forth like a bike rider pedaling in too low a gear. I have to admit, I miss the cute scoot, but his crawl is fun to watch, too.

Learning to pull himself up to standing on his own couldn't have come soon enough for Jack. He pulls himself up on furniture, boxes, cabinets, walls, and anything else he can reach like a dog marks his territory on fire hydrants, trees, lampposts and the like. He even pulls himself up fearlessly on objects that roll or otherwise move when leaned on. Walking is not far off! Sitting back down was a bit of a challenge at first... it started as a rather crude "plop" onto his diaper-padded bottom. But within only a few days, he started easing himself down much more gently. We still get the occasional slip, thump or all-out bail, but I guess that's to be expected when he's constantly reaching, climbing, turning and just plain letting go of whatever it is he's holding onto. I have videos of the action, but due to technical difficulties and the fact that I'm too tired to figure it out right now, check back later for those.

Jack's intellectual development also seems to be making strides. Jesse and I are both a little relieved to see that Jack now enjoys books for more than just their flavor.