Today you are nine months old! Hooray! Everyone has been saying that today's the day you've been out as long as you were in, but if I count up the weeks & add the time you kept us all waiting, I see that you still have 8 days before that particular milestone is reached. That's okay. Sometimes I feel like it was yesterday I pushed you into the big cool & dry, and the more time passes, the more unreal it all gets. Nine months? Wow.

This is the month when you really perfected the art of the assisted stand. Inspired by Boudicca, you've really pushed yourself to independence this summer. I feel like it's a matter of days before you start walking; you already crawl up the stairs like a pro and once you start walking IT'S ALL OVER. I'll get the occasional postcard from some exotic locale, but it'll be blank because you can't write yet. Or dictate for that matter. It's a wonder you were able to figure out the postage at all.

standing on a park bench for your great grandmother.
she barely needs to support you at all.

You got your third tooth today, which is a relief to everyone. We've been feeding you a variety of mushy food, with a few fresh fruits & veggies thrown into your food sack for good measure. It's just that with only two teeth, you couldn't do much damage to solid-solid food, and you usually choke after awhile. But cheer up! You've been doing fabulous work with your two bottom teeth, and you're about to enter a world of biting that you never imagined. My nipples are sore just thinking about it.

"eating" peas & mashed potato. mmm.

Yeah, you're still breastfeeding. In fact, about 90% of your food is breastmilk, despite all of the fruit & cereal & water with which we've plied you. Today my grandmother asked me if I'd had my "milk tested" because it shouldn't be good any longer. I laughed in her face; you're so obviously clear-eyed & plump-legged & feisty that I wonder why she bothered to ask. Sure, you're not one of the Buddhababies who sits around blinking & contemplating their thighfolds, but you're pretty damn sturdy. And you still love to breastfeed. I'm happy that I got all political about breastfeeding & didn't follow my original plan to wean you last week. You can drive me crazy when you switch from breast to breast, but I still get all melty when I see that you've fallen asleep mid-suck.

Your favourite game this month is blowing raspberries on other people. That's how your father & I know that you're up for the day: you stop nursing, crawl to my belly or arm, plunk down your big melon head, and blow the loudest raspberries I've ever heard. The really funny thing is that you're so serene when you're doing it. You look like you're meditating, and yet you're producing this awesomely loud rude noise. You are so funny.

contemplating your marvellous hands. what will they figure out next?

This month I'm going to teach you to wave hello & goodbye. I'm kind of worried that if I do, I'll never see you again. You're already insanely popular wherever we go (today I almost lost you to the staff at the Mandarin). I'm afraid that if we add one more atom of adorability to your basic structure, you'll go nova & suck the world into a vortex of cute.

Of course, your father & I are already lost in that vortex, but it's a hell of a way to go.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 9/08/2004 06:31:00 p.m.