i witnessed my child making a grown up decision

mo woke up today in a bad mood.  he's been doing this less frequently this week (he'd had a rash of it since we moved, i think the transition has been a tiny bit hard on his sleep pattern), but still, this morning he woke up grumpy.  i got him up and popped out his pacifier, and he started crying like crazy.  i popped the pacifier back in his mouth and he immediately calmed down.  (this isn't the grown up decision yet.)

i sat down with him on our nursing chair, got out the boob, and lined momo up to feed.  he reached out with his hand and smiled behind his pacifier, because i'm sure he was hungry for breakfast.  but then, the dilemma-- he wanted to keep his paci in his mouth!  he furiously sucked on the paci while he held onto the boob and thought about it.  then, he took his hand back, grabbed the paci, popped it out from his own mouth, frowned BIG time (but held back the tears!), and latched on to me.  and it was all good!  haha... it was amazing to watch him decide to make a sacrifice for something better.  my heart swelled with pride.

some new developments in mo's world these days: he loves cheerios, he loves to pick them up and shove them in his mouth and make them go crunch!  i think he's getting bored of baby food, which is just as well, because it's getting expensive!  he pulls up and cruises around like nothing.  he sometimes forgets how to get back on the ground, but he's getting it more often these days.  he knocked his mouth on the coffee table and got his first real injury this week (yes, there was bleeding, and yes, i cried [read: sobbed] about it).  he doesn't hardly play with the books on the bookshelf or the outlets or the trash or shoes anymore--yes, i believe babies can learn boundaries!  even still, we are learning that he cannot be left out of our sight for very long before he finds mischief.  wow.  it's hard work!

we also took mo to our new pediatrician this week for his 9 month checkup, just a day after his 10 month birthday.  he's a nice doctor, pretty no nonsense, and still easy going.  a good combination.  he answered all my questions about feeding (basically we're really down to 4 meals a day now: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime nursing) and he complemented us on how easy our baby is (he told us we were doing a good job, saying easy babies are easy because parents set the pace for sleep, nutrition and hygiene).  overall, a great visit.  he measures:

• 21 lbs, 10.6 oz: 80th percentile for weight
• 29.75 inches: 90th percentile for height
• 18 inches: 75th percentile for head circumference

lovelove,

me