9 Months

I know, I know. Adam is so much older than 9 months. I literally started this blog nearly over a month ago and never finished it! I have too much fun playing with Adam to bother to stop and blog! Thought I would go ahead and post his 9 month pics, since they are adorable, and a few highlights about his ninth month.

At nine months Adam stands proficiently, takes limited steps, mostly from furniture to furniture. He loves to play peek-a-boo, he waves bye-bye, gives big open mouth kisses and gives high fives. He learned to play "so big" this month, but instead of putting his arms straight up he bends at the elbows and puts them behind his head. Balls are still his favorite toy.

He is becoming quite opinionated. He points to what he wants, it started with his whole hand/five finger point. I showed him how to point with one finger a couple of times one morning and just like that, the five finger point was gone forever! At nine months he points to exactly what he wants and says "that." Yes, his first word was "that." He is actually an UNBELIEVABLE mimic, and can efficiently repeat many of the words and sounds that we say to him. But without a doubt, the first word that he used correctly and independently was "that" (over and over and over). I would say by the end of his ninth month he also said "duck," "dog" and "dada" appropriately, followed closely by "truck." (He also can say that a duck says "kak, kak, kak" -his pronunciation- but I think this was more of a mimic in his ninth month, it was a little later that he understood the meaning.)

He loves to be outside. He loves to read books, and he actually dictates which books are read with his finger point and new word "that." Some nights he will have me read the same book two or three times. I'll pick up a new one, he'll shove it to the side and then point to the one we just read and say "that." (When he says a word he says it in kind of a throaty whisper.) His favorite books right now are books that are interactive, with pages that open/unfold or different fabrics/materials to touch. He loves Buzz, Buzz Baby, Bedtime Peek-a-boo, and Pat the Bunny (he plays peek-a-boo with Paul so long that I get bored. He goes back to that page over and over. He even waves bye-bye to the kids at the end of the book. Too cute.)

He loves turning light switches on and off, and watches the light for the result he wants. You can barely walk by a light switch without him pointing at it and saying "that" (how can you resist that?!). His main nickname right now is "ada" (this is what taylor calls him, so we all leave off the M now too). He gives the best zerberts, often pulling up my shirt to give me a good one on my belly. He has started pretend play, stirring up empty cups and bowls with a spoon and then feeding himself or me a bite out of his empty cup/bowl. He has quite the dance moves too. He'll play music on one of his toys and just start bouncing up and down. Too cute!

This month he also made the connection that the animals at the zoo are real! He first discovered it at the otters, who were swimming so close to us that he got a good look at them. He seemed to translate this over to the other exhibits after the otters, because he is now extremely interested in the animals, where as before he was more interested in watching the other kids.