Samuel: 9 months

9 months!  A Pierce resident on the outside for as long as he was on the inside.  Sigh, time is flying.

Two teeth finally popped through this month!  He's got his two middle bottom teeth, and he likes to use them.  He's starting to figure out how to chew food (instead of just slurping - ha), but also bites while nursing.  Trying to stop that before he gets top teeth too... ouch!  Speaking of nursing...

Nursing continues to go well and he still seems so happy to do it, which just amazes me.  I worry about my supply a lot of the time (all of the time), but he seems fat and happy and still interested (James self-weaned completely at 7 months because it just wasn't worth the effort for such little milk).  We saw Dr. Z yesterday, and Sam weighed in at 18lbs (31st%, up from 24th at 6 months!). He's nursing 4-5x/day, plus 3 meals of solids (still mostly purees - he has gagged and vomited when I give him things like chunks of avocado or banana, much less cheerios or small torn pieces of bread).  We've tried a little fine motor practice of self-feeding, and he loves to play with the food, but he doesn't put it in his mouth.  Maybe I need to have him practice when he's really hungry.

The other big milestone this month was mobility!  He has been rolling around quite a bit for a month or so (like, across the room to get a toy), but he started army crawling about a week ago!  He can go pretty fast across the room when he's mad and wants to get to me.  He's a strong little dude!  No signs of pulling up yet, but he is strong and can easily hold on and support his weight when I stand him up at the coffee table.



His favorite thing, hands down, is his brother.  He loves to watch James and laugh with him (and James LOVES to make Samuel laugh).  Sam enjoys it when James sings "Wheels on the Bus" to him, and laughs at the wipers going "swish swish swish."  After nap time, Sam usually hangs out with James in James' crib for a few minutes while I put laundry away.  Sweet brothers.  Though, don't be fooled - James also beats up on Sam and pushes him over a lot, and says he likes it when Sam bonks his head :(  But I'm sure he's got his day coming... I have a feeling Samuel will be bigger than James!



Samuel also enjoys playing in the bathtub and our little back yard pool (below is the pool at Mema and P\paw's house).  He loves to splash and, of course, watch James :)



He's our sweetest, snuggly baby and it is so fun to watch him grow and develop in this season!