Art has his first ear infection! So he’s on the Pink Stuff. Poor guy, he was at the cottage (pictures to come!) with an ear infection all weekend. Poorer guy, I had to inject all kinds of medicine into him tonight – ear drops in his left ear, pink bubble gum antibiotic squirted into his mouth to be followed by a squirt of MORE medicine, grape flavored children’s tylenol. Blah. Sleep well, little one!

Today Art clapped for the first time! And then he seemed to want to exercise his new skill because he clapped a lot this evening – crawl, clap, sit up, clap, crawl, clap some more… And he’s gotten into dropping things off his high chair these last few days. Drop, watch it land and/or roll, watch mommy pick it up. Drop it again… Another thing we’ve noticed just in the last day or so is him standing AND doing something, like eating a pear (!) or picking up a basket (!!!). Tonight he got himself up to standing while holding both handles of his basket of blocks. Pretty cool. He’s also just started to find it fun to knock down a tower of blocks. This is all in the last few days, as if there’s just some sort of development explosion!

 

 

So, we all know that Art’s a baby, and babies like to master new skills. And we all know that babies have to be fed. Well, Art is working on feeding himself. He’s been taking my fruit for a little while now and eating it by himself (see him above eating a nectarine on my sister Emily’s lap) and just tonight I set down a spoon with some food in it for him and he picked it up and ate from it! I reloaded the spoon with the chicken-veggie mush and he got it in again! And it wasn’t as messy as you would think! He ate several bites that way before tiring and getting spoon-fed by his mother. But it sure was fun!

A new little two minute video of Art’s latest and greatest moments. There’s even some video of Art being fed by his great grandma in Wabash, Indiana (my mom’s hometown). And of the little person swimming, playing, and sleeping. And Jessica and I being entirely silly. Here’s a direct link to the movie (which you can right click and download to your desktop), or click the image below:

http://bengarvin.com/art_8-9months.wmv

Art had his 9 month check up today and he is doing just fine in every way. No problems. As usual, he caused trouble on the weighing table, squirming and bouncing around. He also made it very difficult for the nurse to take his tempature, grabbing at the thermometer and pulling it out from under his arm, wrestling with the stethascope. But all is well!

Lately he’s into shaking his head. He thinks it’s pretty funny, especially if you shake your head back at him. He also screams if you take away something he has been chewing, especially if it is food. He can crawl up the stairs, which is cool to watch, and he likes to stick his tongue out a lot. He’s not walking or standing on his own much, but if you hold his hands he likes to take enormous steps, way too big for walking – he’d totally lose his balance – but probably good for practicing. Oh, and he’s a very happy guy.