Ewan is 9 months old

Here are the latest stats:
Weight: 21 pounds, 10 ounces (about 75th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (about 95th percentile)
Head circumference: I think she said 48 cm, which would be almost 19 inches and officially off the charts, but I'm not sure. (I forgot to ask for a copy of anything this time.)

Still long and lean, despite the frequent comments about how chunky and well fed he appears. He carries all his weight in his cheeks. I do, too, but my other cheeks. Ok, sorry, too much information.

I can best summarize this month by saying that we left for Baja with an infant and came back with a toddler.

I wrote about a lot of Ewan's latest in my Baja post, such as the emergence of his first two teeth and his being able to pull up to standing and crawl up steps (or at least a step). He's also now climbing onto and into everything, as evidenced by the photos of his ninth month. (There aren't too many this month because we took so many in Baja.)

With these recent developments has also come somewhat of an improvement in Ewan's sleep (and hopefully I'm not jinxing us by saying that). Oddly enough, this trend started before his teeth came through, so I'm not sure what's up with that. I think it's just a combination of him getting older, learning how to self-soothe, and really tiring himself out. Hour-plus naps are becoming more common, even at daycare, where he previously usually only slept for 10 minutes at a time. And we've had some better nights, as well. Although this has all been inconsistent, I'm hopeful that we're on the right track. I've also learned to love and feel really good about our sleeping arrangement. I really enjoy being close to Ewan all night, and it's so much easier to comfort him when he wakes up than to have to get up and go into the other room. We had an amazing family bed moment the other night... When Troy and I got into bed, I reached across Ewan to grab Troy's hand and say goodnight. Within seconds, we felt a third little hand in ours. In his sleep, Ewan reached out and grabbed our hands. It was like a magnet. A little family love magnet. The best!

With these fun and positive changes, there have also been some changes that aren't so fun. Clothing and diaper changes and cutting fingernails have become nearly impossible. And we are constantly chasing after the little fella and having to extract him from dangerous situations. It seems that with each new phase comes new rewards and new challenges.

Ewan is still doing his army crawl, but he's really fast. He does push up onto all fours, but anytime he wants to go anywhere he just plops down onto his tummy. I think this may just be his version of crawling and he'll go straight to walking, but who knows. The doctor said it was completely normal though (thankfully along with all other aspects of his development at this time). Here he is in action... (This video has a bit of a cliff hanger at the end, but I'll let you know that everything turned out ok.)

army crawl from Rebecca Turvy on Vimeo.

Ewan's receptive language continues to grow, and he is a big talker. He has started babbling in his own sing-songy language that totally mimics the intonations of real language. It's super cute.

He's also started sharing food with us (and the dog). He takes a bite then extends the food out for us, then takes another bite. And my absolute favorite new trick, which Ewan is doing constantly now, can be seen at the end of the last video below, but you have to watch to find out what it is.

Ok, here are the videos... The first is one from earlier in the month when my mom was here. I forgot to post it on the post about her visit. They're rolling the ball she got for him, which has continued to be a favorite activity.

having a ball with Gram from Rebecca Turvy on Vimeo.

And here's the pull up to standing... (Not his most graceful effort, as the socks on linoleum was a little slippery, but you get the idea.)

pull up to standing from Rebecca Turvy on Vimeo.

And a little more standing, and my new favorite (and Ewan's, too)... (Sorry about the focus issues with this one. Our camera requires you to focus before you begin recording, and that takes a few seconds. That just doesn't work with a 9-month-old who's constantly on the move. Also, I had a fixed lens on the camera, so I couldn't zoom out, hence the constant shift between head and feet.) I think this video is the perfect ending to this post, though, so I'll leave it at that!

9 month tricks from Rebecca Turvy on Vimeo.