Lucas Turns 9

NOTE TO READERS:  Sorry for back-dating this post.  I've had this in my drafts for weeks, but never got the chance to post it.  However, I'd like to keep it in my journal so I'm posting it now.

Lucas turned 9 months old on February 24.  I can't believe it's been 9 months.  The pain of labor and delivery and the recovery from it are still very fresh in my memory.  I can still feel the fatigue of waking up every 2-3 hours to either feed him or pump out breast milk when I engorge.  And for those who often see me, you'll agree that I haven't lost all the weight that I gained during pregnancy--in fact, I still have most of it.

But no matter how surreal this may seem, it really has been 9 months since I had Lucas. 

So how has my Lucas been after 9 months? 

• He's been crawling, and he can do it really fast.  Afterall, he's been crawling for almost three months now.
• He can sit up straight and has learned how to balance.  I can let him sit in the handles of his little push bike (well it's not necessarily a bike because it has 4 wheels on it, but I don't know what to call it) and he doesn't fall.
• He can stand up on his own with little or no support. 
• He can move from one place to another by taking small steps and holding on to stuff, but he can't walk yet.
• He's got two lower teeth.
• He's had two haircuts.  The oldies back home are not happy--they said babies should not have their first haircut until they're at least a year old.
• He's been eating solid food and he likes it.  He likes soup of any kind with rice cereal and some chunks of meat.  He likes fish too!
• He loves Yogurt!
• He loves being in the kitchen, especially if we are there.  He's so curious of the dishwasher--he watches really closely as his dad loads the dishwasher with dirty dishes.
• He's a little impatient.  He wants to be fed fast and he screams when I'm slow (I feed him slowly when I'm watching TV while doing it).
• He doesn't like watching TV.  When we put him in front of it, he would watch a little and look away after a minute or less--longer if he sees something interesting on the screen.
• He babbles a lot.  He can only say "dada" or "deee" or "babababa" or "anggi", but this little man can make some serious noise.
• He likes it when I read to him before bedtime.  Although he doesn't understand a thing, he smiles and laughs when I read to him.  He likes his Curious George books more than his Baby Einstein books.
• His Eczema rashes have faded.  Sometimes they reappear, but it has gotten more manageable.
• He has his ways of communicating what he wants--he lifts his arms when he wants us to carry him and he wiggles when he wants us to put him down.  He shakes his head when he doesn't like what we're giving him, and he pulls off his bib when he's done eating.  However, he never tells us when he's hungry (maybe he's never hungry?) and he never complains about being wet or having dirty diapers.
• He prefers to sleep next to us rather than in his crib.  This is bad.
• He can kiss--the first thing he has learned how to do (apart from eating and being mobile).  More about this in another blog.
• He is looking more and more like his dad.

My Lucas is growing up so fast, and there's just no stopping him.