9 Months Old!

Milestones:
-Pulling up on anything and everything. He even tries to pull up on flat walls (that doesn't work too well though. He gets up to his knees but after trying valiantly to grip the walls and stand he gives up and goes to sit back down. He can sit/stand on his knees/grab the walls repeatedly for half an hour. I guess I need to get more things in his playroom that he can pull up on). Sometimes I find him in the middle of the night standing in his crib. He knows how to get back down safely though so that is a relief.

Yes those are baby legs that he is wearing. Bob objects to leggings for boys but if it protects his knees I'm all for it. I secretly think that they are cute on him though!

-Crawling everywhere. I can't leave him alone for a second. He been army crawling for quite awhile but only started to crawl for real two weeks ago. I think he goes faster while army crawling for some reason, and he sometimes reverts to it if he really wants something quickly, but for the most part he is crawling on hands and knees.

-He recognizes himself in the mirror (it's not just another baby).
-Ethan now plays with his toys instead of just grabbing and mouthing them. He bangs his toys together, he knows how to push buttons or turn knobs to get the toy to respond. He likes to flip the light switches off and on. He knows how to find objects if I hide them in front of him and when he drops his spoon or object from his highchair he will look at it and then me to indicate that I should pick it up for him.
-I think he understands what things are off limits. If I pull him away from something and tell him 'no no', he still goes after it again but right when he gets to the object or area that is off-limits he will pause and look at me as if to check if it is okay for him to do what he wants to do. Or else maybe he just wants to see if I will catch him in the act.
-No new new sounds but he is stringing his consonants now and going ABaBaBaBa for long periods of time. He is definitely more vocal these days and babbles a lot - especially when we take him out for walks. I don't know if he is 'commenting' on the new sights that he sees or else he is bored and feels the need to entertain himself by talking.
-This is not a milestone but Ethan is really interested in texture these days. He can slap, scratch, or run his fingers over anything that has a different texture for an inordinate amount of time. He likes rough or course textures like weathered stone columns or burlap bags or the wooden woven fabric on our closet doors.


A Few Of My Favorite Things
Favorite Food: Anything and everything. I don't think there is a veggie/protein/fruit out there that he does not like.
Favorite Book: Still sparkle board books and books by Leslie Patricelli. I guess either Ethan has very consistent taste or else this is a sign that we need new material to read. Hopefully now that Bob is in the states (business trip) he can buy us some.
Favorite Toy: Ethan puffy hearts the springy bird on his booster seat tray. I think if he could finally just achieve his goal of tasting the bird the love affair might be over but alas he can't quite reach it (which is in my best interest because I need something to entertain him while I get his food ready).

Favorite Color: Ethan still is captured by red objects but I think his new favorite color is green. At the indoor playground there are different colored sections and he will crawl around until he gets to the green mats and then stop to play there. If he sees a choice of object in different colors he will always go for the green ones first. At least we know that he isn't color-blind!
Favorite Activity: Toss up between bath time and story time. He giggles like a madman and splashes and chases toys while the bath. As for story time, whenever I show him a book he gets really excited and waves his arms and kicks his legs around until I start reading. Then he listens intently and goes to flip the page for me whenever I pause during my reading. Sometimes I think he might like the flipping part the best but he seems pretty interested in the story too.