9 Month Report

I know I skipped his 8th month report, but it's a bit too late to post up now. Here's:

Brian’s 9 Month Report

Height: 69cm

Weight: 8.5kg

He started crawling a week before his 9 month birthday. So, as you can imagine, this month has been filled with exploring and accidents. He’s had lots of head bonks and bumps from falling from a standing position. But now he is very coordinated when it comes to moving around, so accidents have really lessened!

After he started crawling, he right away crawled to furniture and pulled himself up to stand. He’s been so happy now that he’s able to crawl around. He goes off to explore, but makes sure to come back after a few minutes to check in with Mommy; have some cuddles and kisses; then he’s back off in search of another activity.

He loves crawling around outdoors and chases our dirty diseased cat around. I have to constantly be picking him up and moving him to the other side of the lawn so he doesn’t touch the cat. He enjoys watching the other kids play and run around too. He’ll crawl his very fastest to catch up with them. It’s so cute!

At the beginning of this month (March) I moved some furniture around and made a little “Brian Corner” for his toys and books. It makes things a lot easier for me, and it helps to keep him sitting or crawling on one side of the room. J He pulls out his toys on his own, and sometimes reaches up to grab a whole pile of books onto himself, then sits quietly opening and closing the books, then ending his book time by using the books as a teething toy. That’s when I have to DIVE for the books!

He slept really well at night for the first week or so (crawling is tiring!). But after that week his night sleep became restless and he’d wake up often to nurse or to “practice” his new skills. He’s also teething, (four upper teeth coming in) so that could be another reason.
I was real tired during this month. My one bottom wisdom tooth also started giving me problems and I was concerned that I’d have to stop nursing because of the antibiotics that they usually give when you pull out a wisdom tooth. That’s when I started realizing how much breast feeding Brian meant to me. I didn’t want to stop and I told myself that I’d go through the pain for a few more months, just so that Brian would be able to nurse up until he’s 1 years old.

Thankfully, I went to the dentist and the guy said that I wouldn’t have to pull it out until I stop nursing. He said it’s a common thing for gums around the wisdom teeth to get infected and have problems when the person is run down or stressed. Stress is obviously not in my life at this time, so it’s got to be my lack of sleep that is the culprit.

One nice thing that happened because of Brian being tired is that he fell asleep with Josh, twice this month, when I wasn’t able to put him down. J

He learned “Kudasai/Please” (Clap) when he wants something, and can wave “Hello” (or “HEY!!”) to people, trees, animals, and art on buildings. Josh and I ate out at Hamazushi and we put him in a baby chair next to the aisle and the whole time he leaned his head out to see all the way down the aisle, and with a big smile he’d put his hand out in a “wave” gesture to say “HEY” to all the people sitting and passing by. It was cute, but kind of embarrassing because we were getting so much attention. He eventually leaned all the way to the side of his chair (to get a better view) and stuck one foot on the table. That’s when we had to just sit him up right and tell him, “No more”.

He really is a friendly little fellow and usually will smile at anyone, as long as they don’t try to pick him up. He keeps his distance. I guess it’s like that with most babies. This little Gemini boy knows how to entertain and get attention.

Again this month we visited Brian’s cousins: Ray, Ryo, and Taiki. I can’t wait for number four to come next month!

We also went to visit a lady who has two young children and owns a MASSIVE castle-like pension up on a hill.

Every month we experience new things, but the memorable one would be our bath together in his little baby tub! It happened like this, I wanted to shower, but no one was around to watch Brian, so we made an experience out of it. I brought his tub in, showered both of us, and then I got into the tub (with one leg sort of hanging out) and him sitting on my lap, half way in the water. Whew!! We FIT! I can’t wait to bath together in a bigger proper bath tub! Ha! (After hearing this, you’ll probably appreciate your bath tub that you have, but rarely use! Yah?)

This month, instead of playing with his toys like he usually does, he’s been more interested in taking the toys out of their box or container, then putting (more like throwing) them back. He does this with every thing; even my laundry gets pulled out of the basket, and then thrown back in.

He still enjoys puzzles, and is starting to take a liking to cars and things with wheels. He’s really a little boy, and doesn’t take interest in what the other Kato girls play (our next door neighbors).

When we brush our teeth, he brushes his teeth too and enjoys it greatly! He reaches out his hand waiting for us to give him his own tooth brush. Then I do a little simple “check” for practice, and we’re clean! He hasn’t liked bathing as much as he used to. He doesn’t like when I wash his hair. He doesn’t lean back, so water usually ends up getting in his face. Poor guy! He does like water play and splashing around though.

At the end of his 9 months he started feeding himself by picking up small pieces of food in front of him, and putting it into his mouth. Before this, he wasn’t into doing this at all, but just wanted to mush and throw the food on the floor.

I also put away his 6 month or size 60~70 clothes away, and pulled out size 80. He’s not too tall, but getting taller!! Yay!