9 months

Elias celebrated his nine-month birthday this past weekend with a number of new experiences. He took a ride in his new convertible carseat, still rear-facing, of course, until after his 1st birthday...


...to Cambridge, where he took his first, albeit brief, subway ride...



...to Harvard Square to meet his "uncle" Mark (every kid's gotta have a few aunts and uncles that aren't actually relatives, right?) and check out the famous glass flowers at the Museum of Natural History.


He seemed to enjoy all the new experiences, even though it basically meant missing the afternoon nap altogether, an unfortunate trend of the past couple of weeks. He still takes a pretty decent morning nap, beginning about two and a half to three hours after he's up for the day, but if I go out for anything more than a walk or a quick grocery run following that nap and mid-day feeding, he falls asleep in the car on the way back, about five minutes from home, waking up the minute I park the car. This surprisingly restorative little cat nap seems to sabotage what had been our typical afternoon routine for the past couple of months. I think I might have to make an intervention and help this kid transition from one and an occasional half nap to one solid, afternoon siesta.


Otherwise, Elias has been busy crawling straight to all the things we don't want him to get into but don't quite know how to babyproof (like the heater vent pictured above).


He had pulled himself to standing a couple of times several weeks ago but just within the past few days has been doing it pretty regularly, one time in his crib during an unsuccessful attempt at a late afternoon nap that ended with him screaming at the top of his little lungs, I'm assuming because he had no idea how to get back down. He occasionally "cruises" just a bit around a music table he has (or the box of diapers in the picture above - yet another way babies are a little like cats, preferring empty boxes and paper towel tubes to anything you can spend money on at Babies 'R' Us), but he seems mostly content to just stand there for now.

All of this activity and lack of napping has resulted in a bit of fatigue - mainly a result of the fact that I've been staying up later than I should - and frustration. I know that getting out during that mid-day cycle means potentially sacrificing a solid afternoon nap but some days I'm frankly bored to pieces hanging out on the floor or following Elias from room to not-yet-sufficiently-baby-proofed room or guarding him as he stands against the futon or music table should his legs decide to suddenly give out. I think we both need to get out of this apartment on a daily basis; I just need to figure out how we can do that and all get the sleep we need!

On that note, while I have more to say about the 9th month of Elias's life, I'll wrap this up for the night and pick up where I left off later this week. Night night!