Still no teeth, but not to worry, you could probably chew gum with your gums.

Eating: You love feeding yourself (I wrote about our decision to go the baby led weaning route here). You typically eat 2 meals a day, but I leave this totally up to you. Some days you don’t want breakfast and I don’t push it, confident that what you’re getting from breastfeeding is all you really need anyway. What you don’t eat in the morning, you make up for in the evening. You typically eat a large amount in the evening and it normally comes from our own plates. You’ve tried just about everything: chicken, fish, pastas, rice, and loads of various fruits and vegetables. There isn’t anything you haven’t liked thus far, though I should note that you definitely have a preference as to how you are fed. Regardless if you love the food, you do not like when I try to give it to you via a spoon. Things like yogurt are very tough to feed you because you want complete control over everything that goes in your mouth. More power to you. I’m just not sure how to get certain things in, given the fact you don’t have the dexterity to use proper utensils. In any case, we’re really enjoying the baby led weaning process.

I’m still breastfeeding you around 9x/day. It feels like a lot, but it’s on demand and I refuse to feed you any other way. With that said, it’s all very predictable and we have a nice routine that looks something like this: Breastfeed twice in the morning before breakfast and then once before your morning nap, then breastfeed twice before lunch and then once before your afternoon nap, then breastfeed twice before dinner and then once before bed. The amount of milk I’ve been donating has slowed, as I’m starting to stock up in anticipation of my supply lessening as it did with Hooper around the 10th month mark. 

Sleeping: You’re sleeping consistently through the night and I’ve nearly forgotten the zombie I once was. Selective memory, I suppose. You’re sleeping about 10 hours at night, going down around 9pm and waking around 7am. You typically nap in the morning for 2 hours and again in the evening for 2 hours. The naps are more inconsistent; you always take one, but it’s hard to know how long they’re going to last.

You always sleep on your back, as you’re not much of a roller. You maneuver your way around your crib, but I always find you on your back.

Nursing puts you to sleep most nights, but occasionally you’re still awake after your nighttime feed. Nevertheless, you tend to drift off to sleep on your own with ease.

Development: Just after your seventh month, you became able to hold yourself up in a standing position. You often reach for my hands to use as support and pull yourself up to a standing position. This is typically your way of macgyvering your way into my arms, which is where you typically prefer to be. Your able to hold yourself up in a standing position if I give you something to hold on to.

You’re not crawling yet, despite your obvious desire to. I’m torn between wanting you to crawl in hopes it brings more independence and not wanting you to crawl because, lets face it, it’s more work for me. You reach out often from a sitting position and nearly make it on to all fours before you plop back down on your bottom. You’re able to rotate a full 360 degrees in the sitting position and can get just about anything within a couple foot radius by scooting.

You appear to be right handed. You consistently put food in your mouth using your right hand. Your pincer grasp is much more efficient and you’re able to pick up small crumbs off the table.

You have a friendly disposition and you love to laugh. Sometimes I hear you laughing in your carseat and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what’s making you giggle. You’re fine going from one person to the next so long as I’m not in sight.

You’ve started gibber jabbering and say “Da” and “Ma”.

You love music. You rock back and forth violently when it’s playing and just recently you started shaking you head back and forth with your chin down toward your chest like you’re back in 1940’s Cuba listening to a man play a trumpet in a darkened music hall. 

Favorites: I’m still your favorite. Not much tops your mama these days. Knowing that it’s fleeting makes me hold on to these days for as long as I can. Your mama’s arms are always open. Taking second place is the electric tooth brush. You’re pretty fond of thing too.