Ethan at Nine Months

Ethan is getting cuter and cuter each month...just ask any of his relatives!  It's getting hard to remember what he was like as a little newborn.  We have pictures as our desktop backdrop that scroll and it's amazing to see what a difference nine months makes!  He is definitely not that little bitty baby anymore!

Ethan has finally mastered forward motion.  Strangely enough he still isn't crawling and still doesn't like being on his tummy, but it gets him from point A to point B so he suffers through it!  His "army crawl" is rather lopsided, though, since he will pull with his left arm and then push with his right leg rocking back and forth as he moves.  This has gotten him in trouble on more than one occasion when his head bumps into the wall as he's trying to maneuver through the hallway!  I'm tempted to believe he will skip the crawling on his knees stage all together! 

He is also pulling up, though only halfway!!  He will pull himself up to his knees and stop.  I guess it's too much work to get all the way to his feet. :)  He has managed to pull the cloth off the coffee table a few times and found some interesting mail to chew and some fun Caleb toys that were sitting on top!  Time to "baby proof" the next level of our house!

Waving is intermittent with Ethan.  We can't determine if he waves for joy, for fun, or just because.  It doesn't seem very deliberate, but it's fun to watch!  And when it happens to coincide with saying good-bye to someone, we like to think he actually knows what he's doing! :)

Ethan's vocalizing has really exploded this month and he loves to say, "ma-ma", "da-da", "ba-ba", and "ya-ya".  No "Caleb" yet, which really disappoints big brother, but Caleb's working on it with him!  He also continues to make his fun "motorcycle/machine gun/airplane engine" noise with his tongue.  He's practicing rolling his "r's" for when he takes Spanish class. 

Food is finally tolerable at all three meals.  Dada has trained him to even open his mouth willingly to accept the next bite of food!!  We still only eat most things that are covered with a fruit flavor, but at least those veggies are getting in.  It is surprising how many people tell Ethan, "You must really love your food," when they see him, but this is not the case.  He's just a roly-poly baby regardless of the lack of food he eats!  He may just be my picky eater.  Only time will tell.

Ethan's personality is still one of caution.  He does not give smiles freely and often shows his "serious" face when people say "Hello".  It takes him a long while to warm up to most people, though this happens a lot faster when he's being held by Momma.  Instant smiles usually only happen for family:  Dada, Momma, Caleb, and our pacifier!  Yes, the pacifier is a member of the household.  Luckily it is not one in particular, any one will do.  We have to consciously limit pacifier-time to bed and fussiness or he'll keep it in his mouth all day.  And it is amazing how fast Ethan will scoot if he spies a pacifier lying on the edge of a table or chair.  Breaking this habit will not be fun!

All-in-all we are having a blast watching Ethan grow and change as he learns new things all the time. It will be so fun to see how he changes this month.