The Tatum Tot: 9 Months!!

Nine months has always been my favorite baby age, no matter the baby. Well, Luke has fit the bill and is more fun than ever. I know I have been saying that for a few months now, but this time I am serious!! He is just so much fun and the CUTEST darn thing I have ever known. I am so hopelessly in love with this little guy. If God loves each of us with this kind of love (and I believe he does, but even more), then we are truly blessed. Sometimes I just think about that when I am rocking Luke at night, and I am just overwhelmed. How can God love me like that? Even more than that? AMAZING. Anywhooo, this has been such a fun, fun time. Watching Luke learn and do new things every day is pure joy for my mother's heart. Seriously. Each little sound or look or smile or laugh is just the greatest thing he has ever done. Well, maybe not the fussing sounds, but you know what I mean. I just adore this little guy! He seems to be getting bigger by the minute...and heavier. When we went to his 9 month wellness check-up, I was seriously expecting him to weigh about 30 lbs. It seemed like he had gotten so much heavier in the past couple of weeks. Here are his stats from his appointment last Friday:

Weight: 28 lb., 8 oz. - 99%
Length: 31.25 in. - 98%
Head: 19 in. - 98%
Diapers: Size 5
Clothes: 18 months

He is such a busy, busy boy. All of the constant moving that he does (even when being held!) must be what is keeping him from weighing more. He eats like a champ and is so solid. He is such a happy boy and really only fusses if he wants your food, and you won't share, or when he's tired. Here are some of the many things that he's been up to these days:

~ He loves to talk to himself. He'll play for hours just talking and squealing to himself the whole time.

~ He has mastered clapping. Within a day and a half of learning to clap (i.e. swat hands in general direction of each other, not necessarily making full contact), he had tweaked his new skill and was able to actually make real contact and even sound!

~ He learned to wave all by himself. I didn't know he could do this, but when I went to pick him up from the nursery after my Bible study, I waved at him from the door, and he waved back. Someone next to me said, "Oh, how cute! He can wave!" I said, "He can?" I waved again, and he waved back again. I couldn't believe it! Now he can do it on command. What a smarty pants!

~ He doesn't like it when we pray before his meals. We have started saying a short little blessing with him before we start feeding him, and he HATES it. We hold his hand, close our eyes, bow our heads, and start talking, and he immediately screams. It's not a crying scream or anything, it's just like a "DUDE, I'm starving here!! Can we get this show on the road??" kind of scream.

~ He still thinks it's hilarious when we tell him no. Even when I say "NO!" in a loud, scary, stern voice, he just giggles. What're we going to do??

You can't see me!

~ He loves to eat chicken, ham, or turkey. We just give him little pieces, and he gobbles them right up. We've gotten the go ahead from the doctor to give him almost anything (minus peanut butter, honey, and shell fish, of course) and see what he'll eat. So far, there's not a lot he doesn't like.

~ He has started letting go and standing on his own. He'll do it over and over. He even stood on his own, bent down, picked something up, then stood up again....then fell over. He'd like to be able to walk on his own, but he's still really wobbly. He can walk all over the place as long as he has something to hold onto along the way and will let go of one thing and take a step over to something else, but he still has a ways to go before he'll be walking on his own. Poor little guy is pretty darn bow-legged, so that might not be helping!

Look Mom, no hands!!

~ He seems to recognize certain words like: Mommy, Daddy, doggy (in reference to his doggy from Gma), shake (as in shaking a rattle), yay (which means it's time to clap and is said like: yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!) , hi (which means it's time to wave), nigh-night (which means it's time to go to bed), bouncing (what he loves to do any time, anywhere), and eat (his favorite!). Keep in mind that I said "seems". This could all be a figment of my mommy imagination.

~ He had his first poop in the bath tub. It was a disgusting mess that poor Daddy had to clean up!

~ He has moved to nursing only 3 times a day. YAY!! I have to give my friend Carli props for this one. When I was telling her about how distracted and frustrating Luke had been lately while nursing, she told me that nursing every 4 hours at his age was actually quite frequent and that he could probably just nurse at meal times....Well, sure enough, she was right! It is such a strange feeling to nurse so infrequently, but I am loving it. YIPPEE!

~ He still would rather chew on the bottom of the sippy cup than drink from it, but loves to do so and to throw it on the floor. In fact, I am just now remembering that there is a full sippy cup on my living room floor right now, tossed there during one of Luke's many laps around the house in his walker.

~ He has 6 big boy teeth...4 top ones, 2 bottom ones! I don't know if the last one had cut through before or after the 8 month post, but it took forever. Strangely, as soon as it finally poked itself out, it grew super fast and caught up to the others.

Showing off his big man teeth. This was a couple weeks ago, so they're even bigger now!

Like I said before, Luke is SO busy. He won't even be still in your arms if you are holding him. People ask to hold him, then after struggling for 2 minutes to not drop him, they give him back. He'll play by himself forever, but does love it when we play with him. Here are some of his favorite activities these days:

banging toys on anything and everything to make loud noises
yelling (happily)/talking REALLY loudly just for fun
boxing with Daddy (video coming soon)
headbutting and chasing the big green ball (video coming soon)
playing UNDERNEATH the exersaucer (Phil's convinced Luke's gonna be an auto mechanic)
eating my oatmeal every morning after finishing his own breakfast
yanking on the curtain next to his bed and/or banging on the wall (happily) while waiting for me to get him up from his naps
opening and closing drawers
standing next to the exersaucer and throwing things through the empty seat to watch them fall to the ground (future Tech basketball star??...nah, he'd go to Duke if I had anything to say about it.)
playing with the magnets on the refrigerator while in his walker
biting Doggy's nose every time he sees Doggy
walking from one end of the couch to the other over and over again
Throwing every pillow and blanket on the couch onto the floor in search of the remote
playing with any kind of ball he can find and throwing it out of the corral or to the back of the couch where he can't reach it, then getting frustrated
wanting to eat anything we are eating and fussing if we don't share
pooping more than any other creature, human or otherwise, that I have ever known.

Trying to climb up the slide, but ending up just pushing it across the room...with Yellow Man's help, of course. Luke can actually climb up to the first step but can't get to the second, which is fine with me.