9 months

9 months as of March 26, 2014

Height - 29.25 inches (75th percentile)

Weight - 18 lbs 14 oz (25th percentile)

Head Circumference - 45cm (75th percentile)

Clothes: You are outgrowing most of your 6-9 month clothes, but still fit into some of the longer made tops. Your sweatpants have to be 12 month, but shorts are 6 month. You fit comfortably in 9-12 and 12 months clothes and I foresee you wearing this size through spring and into early summer. You'll be able to wear your 9 month footless 2 piece pj's for a while longer (because there are no feet to constrict length), but you do have some 12 month pj's that you wear... Nanny has had to take the pants in because you're so skinny. You're still in size 3 diapers.

Sleep: You sleep from 7:00pm-7:00/7:15am and nap from 9:00-10:30/11am and 1:00-2:00/2:30pm. Your first nap is always your longest. We had to lower your crib about 2 weeks ago because your daddy walked in on you standing up, holding onto your crib railing with a big ol' smile on your face. You liked it a little too much, and down your crib mattress went, that very day. Now you are always pulling up and standing... it's too cute!

Health: Back on Dec 19th we walked into Cranial Tech in Orange, CA and walked out with you in your cranial band. Flash forward to March 7th -- Great news in our world -- We had your "graduation" appointment at Cranial Tech... They compared your before and after images with us and explained all of your progress. We asked if you could wear your band for a little longer, just to get the most out of it, so our clinician (Esther) shaved your doc band a bit and gave us strict instructions in that the absolute final day you can be in it in March 21st. It's hard to believe that you wore your cranial band for 3 looooong months, which is 1/3 of your life. I have missed kissing your sweet forehead and cuddling with you without getting hit in the face with your band, but it was all worth it and you were as happy as could be throughout the entire process *Switching gears* You have quite the immune system, little buddy! Dad came down with a cold the 2nd week of March and I caught it from him about 1 week later. We both felt pretty bad, but took Zicam the entire time. You didn't even get a sniffle or a runny nose, let alone the cold we both had. I'm still not quite sure how a cold was in our home for 2 weeks, and you, my child who's never been sick, didn't catch it. Since you've been born, my goal was to get you though your 1st year of life without getting sick in any way... we're 9 months in without any sicknesses -- that immune system of yours is so strong!

Diet: You still get 4 bottles/day and eat 3 meals/day. You're on Similac Sensitive (Sams Club brand). You take 3 5-6 oz. bottles throughout the day (7:30am, 11:00am and 3:00pm) and 1 8 oz. bottle as your last bottle at 6:30/6:45pm. You eat rice or oatmeal cereal at 8:10am. I make all of your baby food out of organic vegetables and fruits and have made sweet potato, green bean, peas, carrot, squash, red apple, fugi apple, banana and pear thus far. You have gone through Stage 1, 2 and 3 baby foods and love everything! You eat lunch at 12:10pm (a green veggie, an orange veggie and a fruit or two) and dinner at around 5:00pm (meat or stage 3). On the day you turned 9 months old you ate cottage cheese, American cheese, turkey, canned peaches and black olives -- you loved it all! On this same day we were given the go at your 9 month doctors appointment to start you on a sippy cup, so you're now down to 2 bottles - the first (6 oz.) and last of the day (8 oz.) - and take a sippy cup filled with 4 oz. of formula at 11:00am and 3:00pm.We also regularly give you snacks of Puffs, Cheerios and yogurt melts -- you've completely mastered the art of hand to mouth aka feeding yourself. You love yogurt too!

 Baby Gear Love: Toys toys toys, Britax b-ready stroller, Fisher Price space saver, Tiny Love play mat, Aden + Anais lovie, Itzy Ritzy shopping cart cover, baseball bat and ball, rocking green frog

Likes: smiling, talking, sucking fingers, playing with Cali, baby food, food, going on walks, playing with all of your toys, sitting up, crawling, books that play music, hangers

Dislikes: boredom, Nose Frida, dirty diaper, cutting teeth

Crying: You still aren't a major crier, but you definitely have your moments. You mainly cry or whine when you can't see one of us (and think you're alone in a room), when you fall while exploring (crawling, trying to stand) and when you get 'stuck' in the standing position (leaning up against the couch or your activity table) but are too afraid to sit down (you don't know how to sit down from a standing position yet). You've mastered the art of the fake cry and I call you El Fake-o Trace-o! When you cry it only lasts until Dad or I remedy the situation, which usually takes just a few seconds.

Milestones: You are 100% mobile and I think your "peg-leg crawling" might be the most cute thing I've ever seen! The kitchen drawers and the door stops seem to be your favorite things to crawl to and play with and you always seem to find your way to Cali's dog food bowl. We've had to baby proof - baby gate at top of stairs, outlet covers and some kitchen cupboard locks. You are quite the little explorer! You pull up on everything - the couch, the ottoman, your activity table, your jumper,  your crib, the toy bins and our bar stools. You're very good at standing while holding onto these things and although there was a learning curve, you can now sit down from standing beautifully. Every once in a while you get too scared to sit and your knees start quivering and you look at me like "Mama, heeeeelp" so this is my cue to sweep you off your feet and give you lots of kisses, of course. Your attention span isn't short, but you definitely can't play in the same room with the same 20 toys all day. You insist on mixing it up, which I love! We take walks... you love to be in your stroller and you are definitely happiest when you're outside. We do spend some of our day upstairs in the empty bonus room where you can crawl all over the place and a decent portion of our day is spent in what will eventually be your playroom, but most of our day is spent in the family room. You and Cali have become best buds and tease each other back and forth relentlessly. Although you can really only see your bottom 2 teeth, your top 2 teeth have come nearly all of the way down and have the cutest little gap between them.

Dear Trace,
You are on the move and are loving every second of exploration. Your peg-legged crawl makes me laugh, and watching you pull up on things brings continuous smiles to my face. Your mouth has now bled twice from falling, but you recover fast and go about your day as if you never hurt yourself. The hardwood floors are your favorite. You crawl off of our family room rug and onto the wood floors, pushing and scooting toys with you. These toys are then flicked, tossed or pushed away from you... you crawl to them... flick, toss or push away... crawl to them... etc. This little "game" entertains you so much. You want to know what else entertains you? Oh, you know, just the same thing that Cali loves to play with -- the door stop! We have several door stops in our house and I'm pretty sure that both you and Cali have found them all and have flung them back and forth and watched them vibrate. You actually flung one so hard that you broke it off the wall. And this was welcomed by daddy and I because boy does it drive us nuts and this is one less door stop we have to listen to :)

Scenes from the past month!