December 05, 2004
Long n Skinny
Robbie had his 9 month doctor's check-up last week. He now weighs 18 lb 14 oz, which puts him in the 25% for weight and is 29 1/2 inches tall which puts him in the 85% for length. I was a bit worried that he's too thin, but the doctor said that he's fine. Some kids are just long and skinny. He was upset the entire visit because he's afraid of strangers lately and didn't like being handled by the nurse and doctor. The fact that his last visit there was when he was sick and they ended up sticking a thermometer up his bum probably didn't help either.
Robbie is taking a class for crawling babies at Gymboree. It's an hour on wednesday afternoons. It starts with all the moms and babies sitting in a circle and singing a few songs that include hand clapping and other movements. If the babies don't want to sit in a lap, they can just crawl around. Then there's play time. They have an indoor playground for toddlers that includes a few slides, soft obstacles to crawl around, tunnels to crawl through, and so on. Last wednesday Robbie went through a tunnel for the first time. Towards the end, they have "parachute time". All the babies sit on a parachute while the moms move it up and down and sing more songs. The teacher blows bubbles for the babies. For the last song, the kids sit underneath the parachute as we move it above their heads. The first time we were there, Robbie was afraid during this part, but he likes it now.
Despite his fear of strangers, he's ok with the moms at gymboree or other playgroups I've been to. I guess he figures if they have babies of their own, they must be ok. He's not afraid of the babies at all and it's fun to see him sitting next to another baby as they make noises at each other and grab at each other.
What else is new? We're starting to teach him to understand "no". We say it whenever he plays with something he shouldn't like the dog's water bowl, or the curtains. He understands it because he does stop playing with the curtains in the living room when I tell him no. He looks at me, grins and starts playing with something else (for a minute or two anyway). But he suddenly forgets what it means where the dog's water or food bowls are concerned. Those are just too tempting.
He has gotten really fast at crawling around and whenever I look away for a few seconds he's off to the kitchen, his favorite spot in the house (because of the dog and water bowls of course). He's also cruising along furniture and can even let go for a few seconds and stand unsupported. He mostly likes playing with toys that allow him to stand up. Climbing the stairs, is another favorite activity. We've put up a baby gate to prevent him going up without us. He has no fear and although he'd probably get upstairs ok, he'd then try to just go back down face forward.
Robbie is so busy crawling around, it can be hard to find time for his toys, but he manages somehow. :) He often plays with multiple toys at ones and likes to crawl from one to another and turn them on as he passes by. In a 30 second timespan you can sometimes hear the music from 3 different toys. Aside from noisy music toys, he also likes toys that involve dropping a ball into some basket or hole, where the ball comes out again in another spot. He has several games like this, including a basketball hoop for babies that we got him for Sinterklaas/Mikulas. Another favorite are wheels. He has a train and a car and likes to turn them over and turning the wheels. He also watches the wheels of his stroller whenever we go for a walk.