9 Months Old!

Derek is 9 months old already! Who said he could grow up so fast? He is getting so big and is so much fun. He weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 28 inches tall. So, not so big according to charts. He's actually way below the chart on his weight and continuing to fall further, a concern to the doctor. He doesn't seem that small to me. Apparently he has a heart murmur so has to go see a cardiologist to see what might be causing it. The doctor's guess is a valve that should have closed but hasn't yet. We'll see what the cardiologist has to say about it in a couple weeks. He didn't enjoy having chest x-rays done. He's a trooper. I love my little baby!

Derek still gets around by army crawling, going on 3 months of that. On Sunday he got up on his knees for the first time! He's starting to figure them out.

Today I walked into the living room to see Derek doing this:

He was having fun digging through Elliott's bucket of train tracks. I couldn't believe he was all the way up on his knees! He's been climbing up on things lately. He loves to play under the table and chairs. He usually gets stuck trying to climb over chairs though. But he still thinks he's pretty cool.

Speaking of trains, Derek LOVES Elliott's trains. It's hard to have Derek around when Elliott wants to play with his Trax. This time I decided to make a track just for Derek. Notice how he races over to the track when the train starts going. This was the second time I turned on the train. He moved twice as fast the first time. He loves to watch the trains go, but he really likes to grab them and eventually destroy the track. It's all fun!

He found the VCR the other day (before he figured out his knees). He was pulling himself up and hitting the flap of the VCR and having lots of fun.

Here's Derek standing up. He loves standing. The first few times we stood him up at the couch he would get a huge grin and laugh. He knew he was cool. He still thinks it's pretty fun.

Did you notice a theme in the last 3 pictures? Derek loves sticking out his tongue.

Derek loves to feed himself. I didn't think kids were supposed to do that at 9 months! Sure I understand feeding himself Cheerios, bananas, crackers, stuff of that sort, but cereal? Come on! He insists on grabbing the spoon and putting it in his own mouth. Fortunately he lets me help him scoop the food and put it in. But it's definitely messier. He's a good eater though, so I can't complain. I just started him on 3rd foods and he enjoys it. When Elliott tried them, he gagged all the time. He never did eat that stuff. Hopefully I get to experience what it's like to have a good eater with Derek - so far so good.

Here's a video by Elliott of Derek feeding himself. I think you can get a feel for it even though my hand is in the way.