Not too young for reading and good oral hygeine

Alder is now nine months old. Very exciting. My friend Janet reminded me of what a significant milestone this is - same amount of time in the outside world as he had on the inside! A very significant milestone indeed.

Alder had an appointment with the pediatrician today, and the doc said all is good. He weighed in at 21 lb 12.8 oz (75th%) and 29.75 in long (90th%).

This certainly is a very fun age - lots of laughs and more 'real' communication. He actually waves bye-bye to us and to Ms Anne (his babysitter). Most fun of all are his slobbery, open mouthed kisses planted right on your face and the way he has started to dance when he hears music that sparks his boogy bug. We first noticed this the other day when he would stop what he was doing, look toward the stereo and begin to shake his body and bob his head for the musical interludes between news stories on NPR....very funny.

We have been reading to Alder for awhile now and he is starting to get into it. He likes to turn the pages - annoyingly before we have finished reading each page, but that is ok. The one word-one picture per page books are therefore perfect for his attention span and keeping him engaged.

His first Valentine's day passed without too much excitement, but Granna did send a wonderful gift for his mouth so newly full of teeth...yes, it's an electric toothbrush and he loves it, even after removing it from the packaging.


And here is Alder the playboy...the point of this photo is to show that he is bending his legs fairly well when his brace is off and now easily goes from sitting to stomach, but not the other way.