Tales from the Treviños: 9 Big Months!

This is the busy season edition of Nathan's 9 month post. Maybe sometime later I can come back and add some more color, but for now you are going to have to be happy with a bullet list of my sweet angel's accomplishments between 6 months and 9+ months. At his well check with Dr. Haney he was 29.13" long (78%), 20 lbs 2 oz (43%) and head circumference of 17.72" (40.5%). Still my long baby but starting to even out a little.

Learned to sit (i.e. balance) unassisted (around 6 1/2 or 7 months was pretty stable on his own)
Started finally getting the hang of baby food (7 months...he's consistenty a late bloomer in the food category)
Learned to get himself into a sitting position (8 months)
Started the "wounded soldier" version of the "army crawl" (imagine those war movies where that last wounded soldier is on the battlefield dragging his way to the enemy with one arm and one leg) (almost 8 months)
Graduated to 3 "meals" of baby food a day @ 4 oz each (9 months)
Learned to do the conventional crawl (January 12th - 9 months) - yes this is a new developement and it has REALLY broadened his horizens. The good thing is that it has made him a tiny bit less clingy since he knows he can get to us quickly if he wants to.
Learned "gimme 5" right around the New Year, although it was more like "gimme 15"!
Started saying "dada" on January 8th (but doesn't mean it yet). Still no "mama" but "baba" is very popular and apparently can mean anything from, "Come HERE Biggles!" to "Hmm, I'd rather tell you about my day than swallow this food."
He's about to graduate to size 4 diapers
Eats four 6 oz bottles a day (if we're lucky) to complement his baby food
Still does not sleep all the way through the night. Usually we have one waking where the binky saves the day (or night, as it were) but sometimes he actually gets up for a middle of the night snack. It is pretty hit or miss.
Is still (barely) fitting in his 9 month sleepers, although I really think it is just because they have stretched. He wears almost exclusively size 12 month clothes now (and has since before Christmas)
We just started more solid type foods and he is not really picking it up too quickly. So far he has tried the Gerber Graduates Puffs (sweet potato flavor) and banana. Today (1/17) Jimmy had some moderate success with 3 puffs (i.e. no choking or gagging noises during "chewing")
Cut his first tooth sometime in mid-December (accompanied by an ear infection...not fun times)
Cut his second tooth in early January. The top ones are now looking like they'll make an appearance any time now.
Has had 3 ear infections since October and is on his way to a fourth if we're unlucky.
Started trying to pull himself up just before Christmas. Santa brought him an activity table and between that and the ottoman he has really gotten quick at it! Now, when he wakes up in the middle of the night, if I'm not fast enough to get the binky to him he is standing up holding onto the crib railings when I get in there. Luckily we had already lowered the crib after he learned to get himself into a sitting position on his own.
Has has lately started to try and get in a standing position from the middle of the floor. He is no where near able to do it, but he's starting to figure out the mechanics!
He is more clearly recognizing some words. I think he knows: Mommy, Daddy, cat, book and no (although the jury is still out on that last one). If we ask, "Where is Mommy or Daddy?" he'll look to where we are, and if we say, "Do you want to read a book?" he'll look at the bookcase where his books are and start to get excited. My baby loves to read and snuggle!
He's still an early to bed baby. We start the bedtime process around 7:00p and he goes to sleep anywhere from 7:30 to 8:00 depending on whether he gets a bath or not.
Speaking of bathtime...it is impossible to bathe him laying down. When he is sitting up he wants to lean forward to play with the running water or the drain. He won't let you stand him up to wash his bottom half. So we have the slippery baby wrestling match several times a week where we figure he is cleaner than before the bath by the virtue of him getting wet and some soap bubbles make it into the water around him! Our saving grace is that he doesn't mind water in his face, so you can wash his hair while he is sitting up and douse him to rinse and he just continues playing as if nothing were happening.
Still a terrible and inconsistent napper at school. He naps anywhere from 1 to 3 times a day at school, from 5 to 30 minutes each. At home, we have the bad habit of holding him while he sleeps and so (shockingly) he sleeps for at least an hour for his 3 naps at home. I can always find a reason to justify holding him while he sleeps, but the biggest one is that I really don't get to see him that much during the week, especially these days. Oh well, I'm pretty certain he won't be scarred for life because his mommy held him while he slept. If we put him in his crib to nap he'll usually stay down for 20 minutes to an hour.
Likes to wave his arms in the air, sometimes in a dramatic "why me??" fashion. Also has this funny way of turning his head to look at things sometimes. I tried to capture it on camera with limited success...see below.