My mom says that 9 months is her favorite age for babies. Andrew is more sociable than he’s ever been, and more opinionated. He definitely has a mind of his own and it cracks me up. Last night at the dinner table I was giving him pieces of cheese, which he *loves*. He was shoveling them in, then grunting and flapping and looking pointedly at the cheese on the table. When the cheese was gone, he still wanted food, so I gave him some peas. He ate the first pea, then picked up the second one and dropped it over the side of his highchair. I gave him another pea, and he promptly picked it up and dropped it over the side. Duh, Mom, which one would YOU prefer?

He is also getting very physical right now, even though he isn’t quite coordinated enough to pull himself up without a little help, nor crawl properly on his hands and knees. He army-crawls like a little soldier and climbs over/under/on to/through EVERYthing, including his mother. He thinks standing up is just about the grandest thing in the world (besides cheese, of course) and he won’t take a single step but would stand forever happily, just dropping toys and banging toys and slapping his hands against whatever he’s holding on to.

We took the bumpers out of his crib (although we haven’t lowered the mattress yet… we will do that as soon as he figures out how to get into a sitting position from lying down) and now he really does look like a big kid when he’s sleeping in there. Tiny burrito baby no more!