11 months and a day

So hey, Kieran had a 9-month check-up. We were a little late. Second child effect. It wasn't this week. It was like 2 weeks ago. So, to recap: 7 weeks late on the appointment. 2 weeks late on the report. And the report isn't even that long. He's healthy. 29 ¾" long (75th percentile), 21 lbs 6.4 oz (an excessively precise weight that yields an oddly round 50th percentile), and 46.7 cm around the head (75th percentile). All percentiles are comparisons against 10½-month old babies; if we'd compared him against 9-month olds, he would have looked more impressive. Maybe we'll do that at his 1-year appointment in the fall.

What else? Eating is less novel now, so we have to give him a steady stream of toys. Mostly we give him oddly shaped spoons and such from the kitchen. He's not nearly as interested in whisks as Uma was. Our labs are working around the clock to develop new finger foods. He's a lot more cooperative when he's feeding himself. And yes, cooperative is the right word; you should see him when he's not cooperating with himself.

One thing where he cooperates both with us and with himself. He's learned over the last couple of months that when we're changing his clothes, to move toys from one hand to the other so we can do his sleeves without taking it away.

Sleep is sliding off the rails again. Two wakings most nights. Naps are pretty good, though. We need to get him back to his 6:15pm bed time. It's slipped a half hour. That may not sound like much, but it can make a big difference. Of course, it could easily be something else, too. Just when you think you have them figured out, they change.

He's starting to understand that there are some places we don't want him to go. When we do a bad job of blocking them off, and he gets there anyway, and he sees us coming... he starts crawling faster.