9 Months Old!

Lincoln turned 9 months old on Saturday.  I'll eventually go back and post date this blog entry, but for now it's happening today so I'll leave it on today.  While 8 months was a super eventful entry, 9 months is much more subdued.  We did have some exciting milestones, however!

• Stood BY HIMSELF for 10+ seconds.  No support, no help, no nothing.  He just let go of the fireplace and started waving his toy in the air with both hands!  This has been repeated multiple times, so we know he is on his way to walking!
• We had our 9 months check up.  I don't usually post his "stats," but thought I would this time because we were so amazed.  Lincoln was 19.8 lbs. and 27.75".  What's so amazing about that?  Well, they put him in the 32nd and 37th percentiles, respectively.  We were amazed because we are told on an almost daily basis how tall he is or how chunky his legs are, when in reality, he is below average.  We decided it must be because of how tall Lucas is (6'4").  People must just mentally put Lincoln and Lucas together and assume Lincoln is tall, too.  And he probably will be.  But for now, short like his mama!
• We had visitors:  Luvie, Pops, and Aunt Breanne came down for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and watch Lincoln so Lucas and I could go out for an afternoon and evening out.  We went up to Rice Village (a little area of town with cute restaurants and shops) for the afternoon, just exploring.  We came home then to put Lincoln to bed (more on why we had to do this in a minute), then went back out for Tapas at a place nearby. 
• Sleep.  Hmmm.  Not good, my friends.  Lincoln has decided he can survive on hardly any sleep, and be quite happy to boot.  It has gotten to the point where we turned to our doctor for advice at our 9 month visit, and even she said "well, I guess you just have a night owl on your hands.  Don't have any more advice for you!".  Fan-tastic.  Seriously, we are getting desperate for sleep in these parts.  Lincoln spends a good 2-3 hours stretch each night AWAKE.  Awake despite our trying everything under the sun to get him to sleep.  And when he does fall asleep, it is fitful.   I recently bought "The No Cry Sleep Solution" and am tearing my way through it in hopes it will provide an answer for us.  
• What Lincoln eats--we get asked this a lot, so I thought I'd throw together a quick list.  He eats a wide variety, but doesn't really eat a large quantity at any time.  Lunch is quickly becoming the one meal of the day where he actually is happy to sit down and eat. We don't force him to eat, as he is still nursing, but we do offer at each meal.  We normally just fork mash, unless it is especially tough or lumpy.  Then we pull out the Magic Bullet :)
• Vegetables:  carrots (cooked in chicken broth), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, avocado, guacamole, hummus
• Fruits:  pears, bananas, applesauce, mangos, peaches, plums, blueberries, kiwis, watermelon, cantaloupe
• Grains:  oatmeal, oat bran, quinoa
• Meat/Protein:  chicken, hard boiled egg yolks
• Special Blends:  banana, kiwi, and pear; banana, blueberries, and pear; applesauce, banana, and blueberries; chicken and sweet potatoes; chicken and butternut squash
• Dairy:  cottage cheese (he had a tummy ache after this, so we've only tried it once.  we'll introduce it again in another month or so...)
• Other:  puffs.  not the most nutritious, and our only non-homemade item, but they are easy for him to pick up and he often gets frustrated that he can't pick up and eat his other food by himself (we do let him try, but it is just too slippery for now...).

ETA:  I forgot some things!

• Imitating us!  He imitates some movements (head bopping, arm waving) and sounds (laughing, a few word like utterances--e.g., in the bath we have a little rubber ducky.  We say "duck" at least a dozen times every bath and lately he has been saying "dut" right after we say "duck".  Never on his own, but I'm still impressed!)
• He is on the verge of using mama and dada to actually mean mama and dada.  Right now, we noticed that when I'm around, his babbling consists of mostly mamamamama and babababa (both bilabial (lip) sounds) and when Lucas is around it is mostly dadadadad and tatatata and dut dut dut (alveolar (little bumpy ridge behind your top teeth) sounds)
• He eats a lot of paper.  All the time.  We are always fishing paper out of his mouth. 

We're still waiting for some more teeth to come in.  The drool is nearly constant and we are changing shirts at least once a day.  I swear I can feel a bump on the top, so I'll keep you posted!

Picture time!

With Aunt Breanne (stolen from Aunt Breanne's Facebook)

With Pops (stolen from Luvie's faceobook)

Waiting for Daddy to get home from work

Finally some sleep!

At the window, again.