April 7, 2010

• My Big Baby

  Derek turned nine months old this past Monday. Wow! We had his well-check yesterday, and he measured in at:

  Weight: 19 lbs, 6 oz (90th percentile)
  Length: 30.5 inches (almost 90th percentile)

  By comparison, at this age, Jack was a pound heavier, but an inch shorter. The pediatrician (a different one than our usual doctor, who was on vacation) asked if Johnny was really big, given Derek's size. I said no, he's 5'10" and about 175 pounds. She shrugged and said, "Well, whatever you're doing, keep it up because he's growing really well!" But you never know -- babies really slow down in their growth after the first year, anyway. Jack grew like a week and was always in the 75th to 90th percentiles, but nowadays he's just 40th percentile in weight, and 60th in height. We'll see!

  Anyway, Derek's doing really well. He's army crawling and dragging his stomach on the ground when he moves, so we're waiting for "true" crawling to happen any day now. My mom jokes that we should attach a Swiffer cloth to Derek's belly and just have him clean the floors. Ha! He's also very smiley, and he can sometimes wave on command. I really do love the 9- to 12-month age range. Babies are so easily delighted by everything during these months, they're sleeping well (usually), they'll eat anything you put into their mouths (Derek's happy to eat everything I puree for him) and they haven't yet learned to say "no."

  Speaking of saying no, Jack is the master. It gets really frustrating sometimes to hear "No, no, no" as a reply to everything, even when he means yes. I know it's just a phase. We're trying hard to be consistent and to give him realistic choices between two options where appropriate, so he feels in control. I can see that Jack's struggling with his growing independence, too, in the way he shifts between being his usual sweet self and being The Terror From Toddler Hell. He's slowly learning that words can hurt people's feelings, and what the appropriate responses are when he's feeling bad. But, frustrating moments aside, Jack's still making us laugh and doing some pretty delightful things. These days he's very into learning, and he's always asking what something is ("What's after twenty-nine?" "What's this called?", etc.). We also recently watched his first movie with him -- we put on Toy Story after Derek went to bed one night, snuggled on the couch and ate popcorn. He was a little scared by the scenes in Sid's room, but he paid attention throughout and seemed to get the plotline. Another plus is that Jack is really good about telling us when he needs to go pee now. He's been good on the #2 for a while, but the pee was a bit unreliable. Now, he'll tell us almost every time, instead of us having to remind him. He's extremely reliable on outings, so I no longer worry when we're at the grocery store or the mall. Yay!

  Anyway, here are some recent pictures. They're mostly from Easter brunch at Chris and Victoria's house. A bunch of you have probably seen them on Facebook already, but I know there are those of you on here who haven't added me on Facebook (and why not? You should! ), so here goes.

  I baked some mini cheesecake cupcakes that I decorated with chocolate eggs and colored sugar

  

  Maddy had this little gun that shoots out bubbles. She and Jack had fun with it. Look at Jack's stealth expression on that second photo!

  

  Victoria and I in the yard; the Easter brunch table setup and the kids' Easter baskets

  

  Derek's too young for a basket, so we just got him an Easter bib and called it a day

  

  Cute cousins!

  

  Chris hid plastic eggs filled with little crackers around the yard, and Maddy and Jack had so much fun hunting for them!

  

  Derek was delighted just to witness the festivities

  

  We tried unsuccessfully to get a group kids shot, but the attempts were pretty cute anyway

  

  I hope everyone had a great weekend!

  • 4:05 pm
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