Logan at 9 months

We've got a curious troublemaker on our hands.

Stats
Weight: 20.5 lbs
Height: 29 inches (length)
Size: 18 mos.
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Hazel - they are mostly blue sometimes a little green, with gold flecks near the iris
Teeth: 2 - bottom front (8/14/10, 8/25/10)
Vocalizations: Squeals, coos, grunts, and laughs/giggles. "goo" "buhbuhbuh", raspberries, "umm", "oak", "gah", "dadadadadada", "t", "th", "sssss",
Words (to count as a word, Logan has to say something and show that he knows what the object is): "boob". Yes, as of 10-21-10, Logan followed in his brother's footsteps with the first word of "boob". In what seems like a case of deja vu, after nursing, Logan reached out, grabbed one, and said, "boob", then laughed.
Motor Development: Logan started crawling consistently just as he turned 8 months old. Now he's speedy and into everything. One of his favorite things is to chase RJ around the house. RJ likes this (sometimes) and the chorus of giggles is outstanding! Logan is also solidly in that stage where he will pull up on EVERYTHING, including things that will not hold his weight, like laundry baskets, which means that if you blink, he's fallen. We officially have a creeper too - he will move himself along the couch or any other thing that he is holding onto. Just a few days ago, he moved along our theater seats and then turned to hold onto my knee and then the couch. In terms of fine motor development, Logan has mastered the pincer grasp, which also means that I need to vacuum and sweep more because he will find every last little tiny piece of crap on the floor. He likes to hang out on the floor in the kitchen when I'm making dinner and every time I drop some peel or piece of vegetable (yes, I am a very messy cook), he finds it. Sometimes I have to fish whatever it is out of his mouth too if I didn't notice it fall in the first place. Now that he's mobile, we set up RJ's old "Fun Zone" for Logan, but (big surprise) he'd rather be crawling around getting into the cat food or whatever other fun things are lying on the floor awaiting him.

Cognitive/Perceptual Development: Object permanence has been achieved! He will look under blankets for toys that I have "hidden" on him. He is also likely to get pissed when a toy (usually one of RJ's that he's managed to grab when RJ wasn't looking) gets taken away from him (even if replaced with a baby toy). He has also started to pay attention to how toys work and will imitate some of the things RJ does. It's no surprise that he will make cars roll! Peek-a-boo and it's variations are a common game that we play and enjoy too. Logan knows his name and will look when you call him. His receptive language or receptive non-verbal communication is growing by the day since he can follow simple commands like "come over here" (although that doesn't mean that he always DOES, but he is capable!). I think he's starting to connect our names to our faces because he sometimes will look at RJ when I ask "Where's RJ?" and look at me when I ask "Where's Momma?". I guess it's time to see if we can teach him a few signs and see what happens. He is a curious little creature and really investigates everything around him. I think that he is particularly interested in the sounds that different objects make because he has a distinct preference for the percussion instruments (and tests out the sounds that other toys make by banging and/or crumpling/squishing). While most babies bang their toys around to a certain degree, he seems to be more systematic about testing the different sounds out by banging different things in different ways than what I've typically seen in 9 month old babies. Maybe he'll be my musical child!




Relationships/Personality: Still likes to instigate trouble with his brother and enjoys playing with other kids, both big and small like him. He really wants to do big boy things and watches RJ all the time. He also starts yelling when RJ does, which is not my favorite thing, but it is a little cute.

He enjoys getting hugs and kisses (as long as they're not TOO tight) from RJ and us and he does not like being put in the Fun Zone alone, even if I'm across the room. However, he's fine if I stick RJ in there with him (which RJ chooses to do voluntarily sometimes). This is a good sign that separation anxiety is in full swing. He tends to get upset when he sees me leave the room too - unless he is engaged in either a.) mischief or b.) playing with RJ.

Eating: Most of Logan's nutrition still comes in the form of breast milk, which is still the healthiest thing for him. He nurses pretty frequently during the day when we're home (usually) at 6am, 9:30/10am, 11:30/12, 1:30/2, 3:30/4, 5:30, 8:30/9. However, when we're out, we tend to nurse less depending on what's going on and he's fine with it. The big change is that we cut out the middle-of-the-night nursing just before he was 8 months old, because he didn't need the extra nourishment and I definitely needed more uninterrupted sleep. He still won't take a bottle of breast milk (okay he did ONCE for Erika), but he will take a few sips of breast milk out of a sippy cup. We're going to work on that more so that he figures out that he can get liquids from sources other than the breast. We're in a good routine for his solid meals (approximately 8:30, 12:30, 6:30), where he eats about 3-4 oz. at a time. He seems to enjoy his food and generally wants to make a mess of himself with it too! Here's what he's eaten so far (in the order he's tried them) avocados, rice cereal, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, zucchini, bananas, pears, butternut squash, yellow summer squash, various yellow and green summer squashes and pattypan, potatoes, applesauce, swiss chard, sweet corn, green beans, apple/blueberry, baby oatmeal, prunes, cantaloupe, turkey, peaches, strawberries, New Zealand spinach, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, yogurt, random CSA melon, turkey vegetable, beef vegetable, or chicken vegetable jarred baby food (which introduced barley and onion), beef, tomatoes, tomato sauce, baby multi-grain cereal, eggs, chicken, puffs, spaghetti squash, mango, turkey noodle soup puree (chicken broth, ground turkey, carrots, leeks, potatoes, parsley), broccoli. I've also started giving him little tiny pieces of normal food, so long as it doesn't have too much salt or sugar in it. He has enjoyed steak, fish, and chicken, as well as pieces of some of the fruits and veggies that I normally puree. Most of his food is pureed, but I've been leaving some small chunks and he'll keep trying whatever the rest of us are eating. Since he doesn't seem to have any allergies, we will just keep introducing food when the opportunity arises.

Sleep: We have made some progress in that Logan doesn't nurse to sleep in the middle of the night anymore. He will nurse and usually fall asleep sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 and when he wakes up after that point, Lance goes in to soothe him back to sleep. Sometimes he can get Logan back into his crib (okay, still a pack n play since the stupid crib hasn't arrived yet), but lately by around midnight, Logan and Daddy are in the guest bed together until he wakes between 5 and 6 to nurse (then he'll sleep with me until about 7:30). This month we are going to see if moving up his bedtime helps the night waking. We're also going to work on getting him to sleep in his crib for the second half of the night too.


We love our crazy Logan. He's such an easy going baby! I can't believe he'll be a whole year old in 3 months! It's going soooo fast!