Ninth month

I'm a little late posting Dexter's ninth month photo because we've been a little busy lately. Since we got back from Montreal, I've been struggling to put baby back on a routine.

In any case, here he is beside Stretch, his toy giraffe.

Some new things:
- He's much more animated now. More babbling and humming (I think it's related to the teething pain), as well as more amusing "rap" sounds, a rhythmic combination of sucking and kissing.
- He can play ball. While sitting in his exersaucer, he would throw the ball to us and we'd throw it back. And we'd do this over and over and over again!
- He can shake his rattle on command. Jon will sing "Shake it baby, shake it. Shake it up and down...." and Dex will look at him and move that rattle to the beat.
- He's trying to wink. Lolo showed him how to do this and he would imitate. Of course, his wink is not very polished -- more of a blink, really, but we still think he's brilliant.
- We now have a very active boy. I think I'm going to have to give up the change table because he insists on turning and squirming when he is being changed.
- He is trying to sit, but succeeds only in assuming the "sexy pose," on one hip and one elbow.
- Now doing the commando crawl and can push forward when motivated. Still not very elegant, but he can acquire targets out of reach when motivated.
- Teeth no. 7 and 8 are trying to poke through so we are not sleeping much these days.
- Thicker hair coming in, but there is still that thin spot at the back of his head, the side he rubs on the bed when he's trying to sleep.
- He tried chicken and he's not sure about that.
- He's now eating fruit combinations: bananas with apples and pears.

In terms of cognitive development, some highlights:
- I think he's demonstrating some stranger anxiety. Once, he wailed -- an inconsolable, terrified wail-- when a friend came in to visit. I think this means that he is starting to have expectations. In this case, I think he expected his dad to come in through the front door and when it was a different face/person, he got a little frightened.
- He is combining his motor and cognitive skills with some messy results. For example, with the chicken thing, he didn't like it that much so he took a hold of his spoon, looked me straight in the eye and dropped his spoon to the floor in a different version of our gravity game.

Overall, the little tyke is getting stronger and bigger. We need to buy more sleepers because he seems to be outgrowing them overnight. But, we are having a lot of fun, except, of course, for nights when his teething pains wake him up. Last night, for example, we were up three times!!!