9 Months

I was going to post this last Tuesday, but River was running a fever that day and I hadn't taken the pics yet, so I had to postpone the post.

the sun has shifted since I started taking these photos, so after two months of substandard lighting, I switched rooms, hence the different colored background

Three quarters of a year old already- how did that happen?

River is growing well, still average for height and weight, though he seems big. Maybe we just know a lot of petite babies?

He has improved his crawling skills and now crawls very fast.
He pulls up on furniture, legs, walls, whatever he can grab onto.
River has even let go of my leg and taken a step, then promptly fallen. He'll be walking soon. Sunshine cruised early and we thought she'd start walking before crawling. However, as the months passed, she was content to keep cruising. She did eventually start crawling, and finally took her first steps on her own at 14 months.

Mobility= lots of bumps and bruises.
Arnica is great, I first used it here, and have started using it liberally on River.

He likes the pool. Maybe a bit too much. He keeps trying to drink the water from the sprayers, and when that doesn't work he settles for licking pool water off his hand. So gross. But at least he doesn't have a death-grip around my neck like Sunshine did when she was his age.

trying to catch the water to drink it

River can pick out the one item in a room he shouldn't get into (my painting paraphernalia, the plant on the window sill, whatever) and make a beeline to it. If you call to him to come back, he'll turn and give you a mischievous smile before continuing on.

playing marker lightsabers with Sunshine 

it won't be the last time- many more battles are sure to come :)

He's an easy-going, happy baby unless he's tired, then he's not afraid to let you know that he wants his bed now! And he definitely prefers to sleep in his bed, as did Sunshine. I had hoped our variable schedule would help him be more flexible than her, but that has not been the case so far.

he and Sunshine frequently sleep with one leg crossed and up in the air, which we find hilarious

He likes eating what we do. We were eating bowls of fruit at dinner the other night and I'd chopped some up and mixed it into his glork (Sunshine's term for his mixed up food mess), but that wasn't good enough. He wanted what we had and kept complaining till I fed him bits of a raspberry out of my bowl. Then he was happy.

first spaghetti. squash, that is

Speaking of eating, he still nurses 7-8 times a day. This is a huge change from Sunshine, who was down to 1 or 2 times a day by this age. My milk supply was a lot lower with her and she completely weaned by her first birthday. We nursed one last time on her birthday and that was it. She never asked for more and I never got engorged, so I don't think she'd been getting much at that point. I can totally see River nursing past his first birthday- he really enjoys it, and it's a lot less stressful for me than it was with Sunshine. I credit my improved health and gluten free status for my improved milk supply.

River needs a haircut. I was hoping to make it to his first birthday, but I don't know that that will happen. He's getting pretty shaggy, and his hair is a lot thicker than it used to be. Sunshine had her bangs trimmed around 18 months and lost her baby mullet at 2 for a cute little bob. Obviously boys usually have shorter hair, but if he was a girl he'd still need haircuts long before Sunshine ever did. I'm just sad about losing the wispy baby hair look. I need to google how to cut baby hair without scalping him. How do you cut a wiggly baby's hair?