9 Months Old

I admit it was a bit frustrating to try and get a decent picture of Malachi today on his 9 month birthday, but this is the PERFECT picture to show just what this boy is all about. He is such an entertainer and total HAM when the camera comes out. I seriously cannot believe just how much personality this kid has in that little body!

So what has Malachi been up to this month? He has been fine tuning his crawling and cruising skills. I kind of didn't think we would see any BIG developmental changes in this month, but just over the past few days the boy has been learning all sorts of new skills!

Right before Christmas, Malachi learned how to climb the stairs. It was a fun one, but he clearly was not understanding how to get back down so it was time for the baby gates.

Food wise he has really decided that baby food is not where it is at. He pretty much just eats what we eat for meals and loves things like hot cereal for breakfast. He also really likes noodles whether it be in Macaroni and Cheese or Spaghettio's. The other day I was impressed to see him eat an entire grilled cheese sandwich! He is quickly growing into a toddler boy and I am not sure how I feel about that.

He has learned some new things. One not so great thing is biting. I think he just does it because it feels good on those teething gums but we are really trying to teach him to be gentle (especially with a new baby coming!) We were also thrilled to see him start signing back to us this month! We have been working on the sign "milk" with him since he was 6 months old and just a few weeks ago he started doing it back! We are now working on "eat" and "all done" with him. Last week he started giving us nice slobbery kisses and just yesterday he started saying "uh oh". Why do I get the feeling we will be hearing that one a lot :)

For the BIG milestones. We were shocked yesterday when Peter and I both looked over at Malachi and he was STANDING on his own for a few seconds (but then he fell). We were a little giddy about it, and he continued to impress us throughout the day as he continued to let go and balance for a few seconds at a time! Just for fun we set his favorite toy on the couch (the laptop) and stood him up and he proceeded to TAKE 2 STEPS to it! We were so proud! It was so fun to watch how very careful he was to balance himself before attempting those steps. I don't think it will be long before he becomes really brave and is walking all over the place! But it all started with just 2 steps :)

And just when we thought we were all done with the milestones today we noticed that tooth #3 has FINALLY popped through. He has his top two front teeth that have been playing games with us for about a month where we thought they were going to break through and then they didn't, but it looks like we are finally making progress and tooth #4 will be making an appearance any day now!

So our little boy continues to constantly impress us with all of his new skills. He also entertains us like none other. If you spend any amount of time with Malachi, you will quickly recognize that he lives to entertain everyone and he constantly is looking around the room to make sure that EVERYONE is watching him. He is hilarious!

So with that being said: Happy 9 Month Birthday Mr. Malachi!!!