Letters From Min: Dear Bo, You're 9 months old!

9 months old! How is that even possible?

Here's what you're up to:

You wear 6-9 month clothes and a Size 3 diaper.
You weigh 20 pounds 5 ounces (50th percentile), are 27 3/4 inches long (50th percentile), and your head circumference is 18.5 inches (75th percentile).
You are a still a scheduled little boy, and Momma loves it! Same schedule as the previous month: wake between 7:30-8, bottle, bananas for breakfast, 2 or 2.5 hour nap around 10am, bottle when wake up, along with a fruit and green veggie, 1.5-2 hour nap around 2:30pm, bottle when wake, fruit and orange veggie around 6pm, bath between 7:45-8pm followed by bottle and bedtime routine.
You're a good eater. You ate Stage 2 food this month, but I just bought some Stage 3 this weekend, and you loved it, too. You are eating combination foods now (apple blueberries, pear pineapple, etc.) You tried green beans again this weekend, and you seemed to hold them down. I'm going to see how you handle carrots now, too. Hopefully, they'll agree with you as well. You've grown to like fresh foods we puree for you: bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and zucchini. But mostly... you LOVE puffs. You open your mouth so wide when you eat; you love food!
You take four 6 ounce bottles a day. We're going to see how you handle some breast milk this month. I can hardly believe that we have only 3 months left of formula, then we're on to milk (Lord willing). I pray you've grown out of this milk allergy. You squirm and twist when you take a bottle; you definitely don't just lay there and take it anymore. You're very active.
The sippy cup is really clicking with you these days! You love to drink water out of it, and I can't get enough of your chubby hands wrapped around the handles.
You love your swing and bouncer, and you enjoy looking at books while we read to you. Your favorite toys right now are your sock monkey jack in the box (you love the red handle!) and your stackable rings. We introduced you to the music table the Browns passed down to you, and you like it, too.

We packed up your stroller frame, so you've officially graduated to your umbrella stroller. You love being able to kick and look out. We also packed up your tub, and you're just sitting up in the big tub now. The amount of "stuff" you require is decreasing, and it's nice to downsize.
You babble and squeal a ton! You like to crinkle up your nose, grin, and breathe in and out really fast. You like to bounce when we hold you and squirm and turn about. You're never still.
You aren't crawling yet, but you roll into position and rock up and down on the floor. You roll everywhere. You love to roll to the tile and push yourself backwards. I can no longer sit you on my bed while I get ready in the mornings so I put you on the floor with some toys. I hear you yelling for me and usually find that you've rolled under the bed and gotten stuck.

You go down to sleep so easily now. I still rock and sing a couple of songs, but you prefer to just lay in your bed and go down by yourself. You rarely will just lie on me while I rock and sing. You twist and turn and play with my face and giggle when you get your fingers in my mouth. I miss you laying your head on my shoulder while I rock, but I'm grateful you are happy to lay down in your crib and put yourself to sleep. You might wake up in the middle of the night once a week, but you put yourself back to sleep without crying (or there's just a minute or two of whimpering at most). I never thought we'd get here. I still pray/beg for good sleep for you before you go down at night and thank the Lord for your good rest when I wake up. You've come so far, and I'm determined to not take it for granted.
We have the same bedtime routine: Daddy reads a book while I rock and feed you, we say prayers, and then I sing a few songs and put you down in bed. We used to read Good Night Moon every night, but now we've worked a few new books into our routine: I Love You Goodnight, Daddy Kisses, and I Love You More.
You have two teeth on the bottom.

You got your first diaper rash this month, and it was AWFUL. I'm grateful we went this long without a bad diaper rash!
You still love Scout. When you get out of bed in the morning, you look for her and smile and kick when you see her.
You still love your paci. My plan has been to take it away from you at 1 year; I can't imagine though.
This has been a wonderful month (really a wonderful 3 months). You have the biggest smiles, the cutest giggles, and are an easy baby. We really can't get enough of you. Every cheesy thing our friends/family told us about becoming parents is 100% true. We are over the moon for you. While the first 6 months was a nightmare we couldn't wake from, these last 3 months have been the dream we couldn't imagine. I can't believe you'll be 1 year old in just 3 short months. I waited so long for you, it was so difficult to get you here, and I don't plan on having that many babies so I just want to freeze you in this baby state interminably, but at the same time I see you growing and discovering and know that watching you develop and mature will be just as rewarding as this stage is.