9 Month

It is hard to imagine that in just three months our little guy is going to be a one year old!  I don't even know how it happened.  It feels like I blinked and he grew up.  During this past month he has really lost his "baby" feel and he is becoming more independent.  He is also learning how to express his opinnion and is not shy whatsoever about letting us know what he wants.  It has certainly been fun and interesting at times watching his little personality emerge.  Here are the latest milestones for our littlest man:

• Beckett weighed in at 24 lbs and was 30 1/4 inches tall.  Both in the 98th percentile!  Needless to say he is big!  He can still wear a few 12 month items, but he really fits into 18 month clothes better. 
• Before Beckett could even crawl, he pulled himself up to stand and started cruising around on the furniture.  I think he has been watching his big brother running around on two legs for so long that he up and decided it was time for him to join in on the fun!  I thought since he wasn't crawling, that he would probably be later to walk as well.  Boy, was I wrong.  This little guy is rather bold when it comes to walking and within a few days he was transfering between furiture, the wall, and anything else that was sturdy enough to hold onto.  He has even taken a few spins around the basement behind a push toy.  I can tell he has thought about taking steps on his own, but his balance just isn't there yet.  Thank goodness!!! I am not ready for him to be THAT mobile yet. 
• Along with the aquired skill of cruising, Beckett is getting more comfortable with standing.  Several times I have caught him just standing while he holds onto a toy and chews away at it.  I think the longest I have seen him stand unassisted is about 20 seconds, but the frequency with which he is trying it out has really increased.
• This month has really been about mobility for Beckett.  At the beginning of the month, Beckett's scooting turned into a true army crawl.  He became pretty quick at it and I didn't know if he would ever decide that crawling on all fours was really worth it especially since he could pull up to stand from a seated position.  However, shortly after he started pulling up on things, he realized crawling was a pretty good vantage point for reaching his goal of being on two feet.  It did take a little encouragement from us, but in the past couple weeks he has been choosing to up on all fours rather than army style on his belly.  He still isn't super fast at crawling, but in a way that is nice for me since it gives me a few extra moments to get to him before he is into something he shouldn't be. 
• Apart from mobility, Beckett finally cut another tooth.  The upper right tooth came through not too long ago.  I felt like he had been teething forever.  His teeth are certainly coming in at a much slower pace than Owen's, and it seems like they cause him more pain.  Maybe that is just because it has been such a stretched our process. 
• This little guys LOVES to play, especially with all the big boy toys.  His two favorite spots in the play room are the kitchen center and train table.  We fianlly just cleared all the small objects from both, since Beckett seems to play at them more than Owen does.  It is so cute to see him standing there like a big boy with a huge grin and so proud of himself.
• On a really different note, we found out that Beckett is pretty farsighted in one eye.  We had gone to the eye Dr. for a clogged tear duct, but while there Owen's farsightedness came up.  The Dr. decided to take a quick look at Beckett's eyes just in case.  We are glad he didn't because Beckett's eyes are imbalanced in their farsightedness and could possibly be at risk for a lazy eye.  We are going to keep a close watch on him so that if his eyes do start crossing we can take care of it right away.
• Beckett has really started to enjoy eating with his hands.  He loves cherrios and baby puffs, however, that is all he can handle outside of pureed food right now.  I can tell he is interested in eating our food, but every time we try he ends up gagging and has even thorwn up a few times.  As a result, we are taking the food introduction pretty slow with him.