Today Lucius is 9 months and 10 days old.
As of yesterday he weighs 19 pounds 8 ounces and is 28 inches long. Solidly in the 30th percentile for both.
He has two teeth on the bottom and seems to be working on his upper two, although they have not poked though yet. I am looking forward to new teeth to help him eat. These days he’s eating just about everything besides overly processed foods, sugars, citrus, and berries. We try to keep his meals heavy in fruits and vegetables, with some protein (meat or yogurt) for sustained energy. Lucius loves peaches! He honestly cannot get enough of them. If he is eating anything else and sees a peach come out to be cut or ate by Mommy or Daddy, he’ll demand the peach. If it is very ripe he can usually manage to bite off a chunk, or he’ll hold the fruit to his mouth and suck the juice. Having upper teeth would really help.
Despite teeth, we are still nursing. Luckily Lucius rarely bites. When he does he seems to with reason, usually because he’s finished or not interested and is demanding my attention. Obviously it is difficult to ignore being bitten and I try to quickly focus my attention on him to correct the situation so he’s comfortable again.
He still likes to shake his head side to side when excited, and sometimes the shaking seems sometimes associated with teething. Lucius more or less stopped for a few weeks then started again. About the same time he began pulling on his ear more and drool increased, presumably we’ll see another tooth appear in the next month.
Lucius is still crawling, although these days he prefers all fours to his seal flop crawl. He’s become a fast crawler too. He has perfected his crawl/sit/crawl motion and will keep his right leg folded under him when sitting so he can quickly push himself into a crawl to chase after the cats or dog. Lucius is also very good with pulling himself into a stand and walking along furniture. If he runs out of objects to hold on to while standing or walking, he gently sits down and will continue on in a crawl. He is so close to walking, but is not confident with his balance in standing yet. I think this is saving him from many bumps and bruises.
Our routine was established months ago and our days are happier when we stick to it. Daily activities are best scheduled 30 minutes after nap time ends for happiest baby. This gives time to change and feed Lucius so he is clean, energized, and ready to go.
A typical day goes like this:
Wake – 6:30
Nap – 8:30 to 10:30
Nap – 4 to 6
Bed – between 8 & 9
He is working on words. He calls me “Mum” and Jason “Da”. He likes the feel and sound of “laaddle”; I haven’t been able to associate it with any of his actions so I don’t know if it means anything to Lucius or if it’s just noise. He also likes to trill his lips. He started the trill with the appearance of his first tooth.
He is still a very curious and tactile little boy. I try to nurture these traits by giving him things to explore. Today, for example, I found him constantly interested in Petey’s water bowl so I decided to have a water play session. I took two bowls, filled one with cold water with ice, and filled the other with hot water. I put them on the floor in front of Lucius and had him explore the water in different temperatures. He first put his hand in the cold and held it there for a couple seconds, probably until it became too cold, then moved it to the second bowl, held his hand submerged for the same amount of time then removed it. He repeated this with the other hand, then back to the first and so on several times. The first few times he submerged his hand he seemed surprised by the cold then warm waters. Once he came to expect the cool or warm water, he dipped his hands faster and faster, splashing the water, and it wasn’t long until we had a watery mess in the kitchen.
Lucius also liked to fish the ice cubes out of the cold bowl. I think he likes their texture, cold feel, and slipperiness. Once the ice was out of the bowl there was a quick competition between Lucius and Petey to see who would pick the cube up first. Lucius managed to pick up the cube first but Petey gently removed the cube from Lucius’s hand and quickly devoured the ice.
Oh, and did I mention Lucius likes to climb the stairs? (I apologize for the poor picture quality.)
