Today Mason is 9 months old! Daddy took Mason to his 9 month checkup this past week and texted me two words: He's shrinking! Not really, but he is getting lower and lower in his percentiles. Here are Mason's 9 month stats:
Height - 27 inches - 20%
Weight - 19 lbs, 2oz - 35%
Head Circumference - 45.4cm - 60%
At 9 months, Mason has mastered crawling. He will venture all over the house and stop and say, "Oooo" if he doesn't see anyone. He has been getting into mischief, pulling out night lights, opening drawers and chewing on cords. His favorite thing to do in the living room is crawl over to the cable box and turn it off. It is a poor design, because what baby can resist crawling over to the large blue light and watching it go on and off? On the carpet, Mason crawls using both knees, but on the hardwood floors, he will use one foot and one knee and has gotten pretty quick at scooting around. Pulling up is the next skill he has started working on in the last day or so.
Mason has also become an eating machine, even though he still only has two bottom teeth. He eats more table food than baby food. We sit down to dinner each night and he is more interested in what's on our plate than his. He loves puffs and cheerios and has recently tried french fries, mashed potatoes, green beans, yogurt, bread and anything else I can break up into tiny pieces. He still takes four 8 ounce bottles a day and will continue that until at least his one year birthday. Although we have switched to Target formula to save a significant amount of money, formula is still a small investment each month!
One new thing Mason has discovered is being held upside down - he loves it. But for whoever is holding him, they have to be prepared because he will throw himself back without notice. It scared me the first time he did it, so now I try to have a firm grip on him at all times. Mason has also started to try and sing at church. It was so funny Wednesday at church, he was "singing" right along with everyone and had the most serious look on his face during the song. As soon as it was done, he looked at us and said "Oooo" as if to ask, "It's already over?".
Mason is sleeping wonderfully at night (7:30pm-7:00am) and still taking two naps during the day that approx 1.5 hours each, sometimes longer. Thankfully he has stopped crying at bedtime. That lasted for a couple weeks and it stopped as quickly as it started. Now when we put him in his bed, he lays down and usually starts sucking his thumb.
Yesterday, Justin met me at JC Penny at lunch time to get Mason's picture taken. We had to wait a little bit, but Mason was still cooperative by the time we got started. He wasn't too sure about the lady taking his picture and Kate was more interested in looking at the photo props instead of talking to Mason to get him to smile. In the end, there were a couple decent pictures and not one crying picture (although he did end the photo session when he burst into tears).
Happy 9 month Birthday Mason!
