Nine Months Old!

Yesterday Benjamin was officially nine months old. Or as Mike likes to put it, he's been out longer than he was in. In these pictures I had stood him up and he balanced himself by holding onto the crib. He is not pulling himself up yet.
Yet another silly face. That tongue has been appearing a lot lately, since his upper teeth came in.
He had enough of standing and took a seat.

Eating turkey and rice. He really liked it, but he's had a cold all week and popped his pacifier back in his mouth sometimes in between bites.
And there it is. When he was ready, he'd take out the pacifier so he could eat more turkey.

No explanation needed for these.


Benjamin loves him some hats. Especially Daddy's hats.

Benjamin likes to gnaw on the plastic cap to his bottle, which makes for some great shots of his teeth. Here is a blurry view of the bottom chompers, and his upper gum is red and white where he cut two teeth this week.
Here's a better view of the white bumps on his upper gum.

Someone had a dandy time playing underneath his jumper.

Mike spoiled me by letting me go to the grocery store tonight on my own. The last time I went to the store I put Benjamin in the child seat of the grocery cart; at the time it seemed like a good idea. Boy, was I mistaken. I had to prop him up with a bunch of apples on one side, he did not want to stay sitting up (not that he can't, he just didn't want to), I had to hold him part of the time, and by the end he was trying to lie down in the seat. And when I wasn't paying attention he grabbed the pencil out of my hand and starting chewing on the tip. A nice woman pointed out to me that he had lead in his mouth, and I was mortified. She just smiled and said she used to be a schoolteacher and it's impossible to keep kids from chewing on pencils. That trip took forever, and I was exhausted by the time I got home.

Speaking of Benjamin squirming in his seat, he has gotten more active on his stroller jaunts around the neighborhood. Today he arched his back and tried to grab the stroller canopy. He also chucked his burp cloth and pacifier onto the street. Not the first time things have come flying out of his stroller on walks this week, either. But he really likes the walks, and I've been enjoying the weather early in the day.

He still has a cold, but it doesn't seem to be as bad as the last one. I only used the humidifier a few times. For some reason he has been eating a lot of formula instead of juice, which I'm glad about. He often wants a few sips of juice before naps or in the middle of the night, and I can't figure out if he's really hungry or eating out of habit. Maybe this will break him of his juice addiction.