9 Months

On Saturday, Ethan celebrated his 9 month birthday...whoa, where did the last 3/4 of a year go? I feel like we were just doing our daily hospital routine; wondering when we were ever going to be able to bring our little boy home.

Ethan continues to be the light of our lives, making us laugh out loud on a daily basis, and just reminding us of how innocent life can be. He is such a happy boy with the sweetest disposition, but has definitely developed a little, sometimes devilish, personality the past couple of months. He loves to be a part of every conversation and still thinks he is a lot bigger than he really is!

Speaking of size, we had our 9 month check up today with Dr. Lynch and Ethan's stats are as follows, 16 lbs. 11 oz. and just under 27 inches long. For a nine month old that puts him in the 5th percentile for both so he is still really small, but doing great developmentally. He has been sitting up on his own for about a month now and had just recently figured out how to get from a sitting position to his belly. While he is not crawling yet, he is definitely mobile and has figured out how to scoot all over on his belly and is just starting to get up on his knees.

He loves the jumparoo and his Fuzzy Hugbug from Auntie Kristi and Uncle Ben. He thinks Elmo is pretty great and can't sleep without his 2 lovies (thanks, Anne and Gina) or his pac, which he insists on putting in his mouth himself. Singing and music bring a great big smile to his face and he has recently discovered "So Big" and waving, although we are pretty sure he has no idea he is doing either.

We are having a few issues with Ethan taking a bottle so Dr. Lynch recommended switching formula to a premade liquid instead of powder. Hopefully this will help us get more than a couple ounces down at a time. I am not quite convinced it is the formula because he seems very uninterested in the bottle after about 2 minutes, but has not quite mastered a sippy cup. Other than the formula, Ethan loves to eat and continues to enjoy trying new foods. While he mostly eats only baby food we have tried avocado, Cheerios, grapes, Goldfish, bananas, cantaloupe, mashed potatoes, black beans, graham crackers, and pasta and Dr. Lynch gave us the go ahead today to try "table" food on a daily basis.

We are so excited about what the next couple of months hold for Ethan, including crawling, walking and celebrating his first birthday. We absolutely love him to death and feel so blessed to have such a sweet little boy!

P.S. I have a few catch up posts to do so be on the look out for those over the next couple of days. I promise not to let another week go by before another posts is published!