Young Old, Lunar Cycle No. 9

We're back from our trip to Cali and now need a vacation from our vacation, especially since we're leaving town again in two weeks to head up to Alaska. Anyway, wanted to play some serious catch-up, and hit you with the summary for Young Old's ninth month of life, with his ten month update coming tomorrow or the next day.

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[Going off some really old notes here, so bear with me if this seems like utter nonsense, which it very likely is. -Ed.]

• Young Old's prolific vomiting career is over, and after a brief stint at the rehab facility, he has officially gone cold turkey from the baby antacids. Tums are a helluva drug.
• Young Old has been eating lots of new foods; so many, in fact, that we've had to begun keeping track of them all on a calendar to make sure we're allowing a good three days or so in between to account for possible allergic reactions. So far, he's been really enjoying watermelon, sunscreen, and cat litter.
• Music is this boy's life. Every morning, Young Old and I load up the ghetto blaster and bounce to some obscure tunes from my vast cassette tape catalogue. We keep it firmly ensconced in the early 90's up in this batch. I'm so thankful that we utilized music to calm The Boy from an early age, as he's now constantly rocking out and laughing whenever anything with a rhythm hits his big ol' ears. I still remember the soundtrack to my early childhood (lots of Beatles and CCR), and hope to pass one on to my son, as well.
  
• Now that he's mobile, he's much less tentative interacting in this brave new world of his. A life of adventure is the name of the game, and he's a serious winner, getting into all sorts of trouble each and every minute of the day. No nook or cranny is left unexplored. No object is left saliva-free.
  
• Young Old is now standing and walking with the support of grabbed ledges and his little push cart toy (videos should be coming your way soon, I swear). Baby proofing has now entered the vertical realm, forcing us to clear off tables, put the lids down on the toilet, pull up blind cords, and elevate our plant life. Sorry buddy, no matter how much you want to shove that cactus in your mouth, it really won't taste good.
• Less naps = more sleep at night = total awesomeness. He's still interrupting our slumber one to three times for feedings, but you won't hear any complaints about seven hours compared to our previous five or six during the early months. That was awful. Thanks, bud, we love you for it.
• Temper tantrums are now the default setting when objects are taken away from the little guy's slimy little paws. It's pretty annoying actually.
• The Young One is much more interactive now, making our wrestling matches feel less like child abuse, and our poker games a bit more challenging, though, more often than not, I still take him for his whole pile of cheerios.
  

Our little crotch fruit at nine months: