9 months

Guess I'm a little behind on blogging. Riley is now 9 months old. For five weeks, he weighed exactly the same (21lbs, 1 oz), but this past week, he finally gained 4 ounces. I guess it's all his moving around. He rolls around all day, occasionally pulling up on his hands and knees. He also loves to stand and can stand by himself for at least 3 seconds. He's learning to cruise, but he doesn't go far yet. It's been fun seeing him learn to stand; he gets so excited.

Steady....

Standing!

Riley still hasn't figured out the need to have your hands open when you clap, but he loves to "clap." We took him to Sears to get pictures taken a week ago. The photographer kept trying to get him to smile. He just stared at her. After a while, he gets this look on his face like "I've got a thought" and starts to "clap." She's still trying to get him to smile, but then he seems aggravated that she doesn't notice his clapping. He just keeps "clapping" and "clapping" and looking at her like, "What's your problem? Don't you see I'm clapping here." I guess he thinks everyone should say, "Yeah!!! You're clapping" like his parents do.

I'm sure that we've mentioned it before, but Riley loves music - who doesn't?! I've been trying to play Christmas music everyday, and he's enjoyed having the stereo on. He just stares at it with a sweet smile. Every once in a while, he starts bouncing (dancing) to the rhythm or moving his head side to side. We have a six disc changer with Christmas CDs and his Jack Johnson Curious George CD in it. Of course, the Jack Johnson CD is his favorite, probably because we've listened to it since he was in the womb. Really, it's probably because it has a lot of bass. If you sing a song to Riley, he loves it and just stares at you. However, if you sing a song that we normally play on the stereo (any of the Christmas songs or Jack Johnson), he smiles and looks at the stereo, then back at you, then at the stereo, like "go turn it on." I told Scott that he's probably thinking, "that's nice, Mommy, but it sounds much better coming out of there." This morning after we woke up, I put Riley down to play. He kept looking at the stereo (which was off) and looking and looking. So, I turned it on and started to play Amy Grant's Christmas CD. He smiled a little, but kind of had a disappointed look. I flipped over to Jack Johnson and his smile got huge and he started bouncing immediately. Then, he went back to playing while bouncing and smiling.


For months we've been running Riley's and our fingers over his and our lips to make noises. He's now learned to do this to himself and to run his fingers over our lips to make noises. He thinks it's so funny, especially when he does it to us. He'll do it, and then throw his head back laughing and then do it again. Doing it to himself keeps him entertained for a little while, and that's been nice. It's the first thing he wants to do in the morning, so we get to at least lay in bed for a little while longer (maybe 5 minutes).


When I feed Riley, I have to give him his own spoon. Otherwise, he will snatch mine. He's gotten really good at this. He'll act normal and laid back as I'm giving him a bite. Then, as soon as the spoon is in his mouth, he gets this determined look on his face, snatches the spoon and pulls it as far away from me as he can. He's so strong. The first time this happened, it took me by surprise. He really likes to chew on the spoons, and I guess he likes to be in control too.

Big tooth. The other big tooth has already broken the gums a little.Riley loves to play with Dada! (And vice versa too)Scott got an idea into his head, so I had to be crafty. We took an old fleece jacket of Scott's and made Riley mittens.

Here we're trying out the cuff to make sure it wasn't too small. This was actually the second pair I made. The pattern I used at first made the cuffs WAY too small. (Riley would have been so cool in the 80s. Scott kind of wanted us to keep them as wrist bands.)

The baby that hated pacifiers now loves to chew on them. He flicks the back with his finger while he has it in his mouth. He must like the vibration....or maybe he's trying to get it to make noises. Who knows what he thinks. But, boy, is he cute!!! :)