Benjamin: 9 months old

Nicknames: Ben, Ben-Bo, Benjamin Kenjamin

Temperament: happy, cheerful, social, enthusiastic

Item/Toy you love the most: ball popper toy
Item/Toy we love the most: high chair

Things you're loving most right now: Abigail, Miss Jessica, toys, books
Things we're loving most right now: your smile, your interest in everything, your appetite

Eating:
Ben is a great eater! He is continuing to nurse well, wake up, before leaving for school, when we get home, and at bed time, and is taking his bottles pretty well at school. He finishes them most of the time. He continues to be very interested in feeding himself and is currently enjoying yogurt melts, baby cookies, some purees, chicken tortilla soup, black beans, tortellini and strawberries.

Sleeping:
Ben is sleeping well but has been waking up early. I try to get up at 5:45 and start getting ready before he and Abigail wake up but most of the time he is waking up first! Sometimes I can have him hang out in his room for a little while or if JP is home then he can hang out with him until I am ready to feed him.

Playing:
This is such a fun age! Ben has just learned how to wave--a few days ago we were sitting at the table eating breakfast when JP came home from a night shift. Ben vocalized and clearly waved at him!  Ben is also signing for "more" by clapping and he is doing lots of babbling, a mix of vowel sounds (ahhhh) and consonants (gaaahh, mamamamama).

He also loves playing with Abigail and watching or trying to "help" with anything she is doing! She is patient most of the time and really sweet with him, although she has her moments of trying to be too helpful.

In terms of movement he is interested in getting to a standing position and "walking" around holding our hands. He will get up on his hands and knees sometimes and rock in place but has not quite figured out crawling yet.

Growth:
Ben had an (another!) ear infection at the end of March. It started off as a cold and then turned into a fever. We discovered this when he threw up all over the sidewalk at daycare right before he was dropped off.  Luckily he responded well to the antibiotics and didn't miss a lot of school. But he was a snotty mess for a little while.

We had his nine month check up and he is doing well. He is up to 17 lbs 10 oz which puts him in the 15th percentile. His height said that he got shorter so I am not going to count that one. He is still fairly low percentile for weight (15th) but the doctor is not concerned since everything else looks good. This is also an improvement over the past two checkups. Based on how well he is eating, I think he will start increasing his weight soon!