Isaac hit the 9 month mark on January 23rd.

This past month (and a half, now) has been a crazy one!  Isaac learned to get into a sitting position, which was immediately followed by pulling up (the same day!).  Then, the crawling started maybe a week later (if even).

Now, he crawls all over the house chasing the doggy and kitty.  Sadly only Ozzy lets himself get caught and “petted”.  I wish I had a video of that – our notoriously nasty kitty is the most passive creature you’ve ever seen when the baby is around.  He’ll let Isaac crawl over him and grab handfuls of fur and yank on his tail.  Eddie still won’t let the baby touch him, and Isaac is starting to get frustrated by that.  He’ll crawl as fast as he can and the dog just dances around him, just out of reach.  He’ll look at me like, “Mama, can’t you help me?”.

We got a baby gate for the bottom of the stairs, but I’ve got a unique piece of furniture from our time in Korea that is a “step chest” – a set of stair-step cabinets and drawers – and that he is starting to want to climb up.  I have no idea how to baby-proof that one!  I’ve also been having nightmares that someone will leave the basement door open and he’ll go tumbling down.  Might have to get an auto-close thingy for that door.

He’s also become interested in all trash cans, the dishwasher (he pulled the rubber gasket out of the soap dispenser thingy in the door before I could stop him), and electrical sockets.  I bought those little socket covers this week, but if there’s something plugged into it, he tries his darndest to pull it out.  This is only really an issue with the two lamps we have in the living room, but I keep worrying they’ll come tumbling down on his head.

We had so many bumps on the head from our coffee table that it got banished to the garage.  He loved pulling up on it, but he’d also get stuck underneath it and the corners were sooo sharp!  Now, he just crawls over to the couch or entertainment center, both which he’s a lot less likely to hurt himself on.

He’s still pulling up on everything around and cruising from one piece of furniture to another.  And he’s pulling up and walking with his walker now!  He does it all by himself now (even though I’m helping him in the video).

He’s started giving baby hugs!  It’s absolutely the most precious thing ever.  He’ll just lay his little head down on your chest, your knee, or wherever is closest, then look up at you and smile and do it again.  He also lays his head down on his music table, on the handle of his walker, on the couch, and pretty much anywhere that has a horizontal surface.  It is so stinkin’ adorable.

Isaac does a little baby dance whenever music comes on.  He just bops up and down for a couple seconds.  It’s hilarious!  He does it pretty often, because we always have music playing in the house.  I have a cd from my sister that he likes – Nicky’s Jazz for Kids.  It’s pretty cute!  It’s not always kids’ music though.  This morning we’re jamming to Rusted Root and Jamiroquai, yesterday was The Beatles, Adele and Terry Waldo.  Gotta introduce him to plenty of music early on  .

He’s talking a lot lately.  He says “mama” and “dada” and a lot of other vowel/consonant combinations, but hasn’t connected any particular sounds to us or any objects yet that I can tell.  I love hearing his little voice chattering away while he’s playing.

Isaac’s favorite foods so far are roast lamb, salmon, peas, butternut squash, cheese and yogurt.  He eats pretty much everything we give him, though.  The only thing he just doesn’t like is banana.  No matter how many times he tries it, it immediately gets spit out.  He’s gotten so good at feeding himself, the only thing I spoon feed him is the yogurt and the butternut squash (since I pureed it with chicken stock and froze a million cubes of it in the freezer).

Isaac also cut his two bottom teeth finally!  They are through the gums, but aren’t all the way up yet.  They are taking their sweet time, that’s for sure.

Oh, I almost forgot his stats!  He is 21 lbs 6 oz, 28 1/2″ long, and I can’t remember his head measurement but he was in the 60-70th percentile for everything, so pretty good all around.  He’s wearing size 4 diapers, and has officially grown out of all of his 9 month clothing and is wearing 12 months sizes.

It’s definitely a lot more work now that Isaac is crawling, but it’s also a whole lot more fun, too.  Everything is new, everything is exciting, and it’s so easy to keep him entertained.  The days pass so quickly, though, which is good and bad at the same time.  Time is flying and he’s just getting older and older.  His first birthday is right around the corner, and it is scaring the bejeesus out of me!