Gallant's Nine Month Checkup

Today was a big day for Gallant.

During the night he got his third tooth: his upper right front central incisor.

This morning he had his nine month checkup.  No shots this time.  He has grown a lot since his six month checkup.  Gallant is 27.5 inches tall (20th percentile) and weighs 19 pounds, 12 ounces (25th percentile).  His head size is 46.4 cm (70th percentile).

(At nine months his big brother was 28 inches tall (45th percentile) and he weighed 17 pounds, 13 ounces (10th percentile), with a head size of 46.5 cm (65th percentile). Again we see that nurses do not read percentile charts consistently.)

This afternoon he rode the little wooden scooter on our wood floor for the first time.  During the past week he only was allowed to have it on the carpeted floor, where it is a bit harder to make roll.  He enjoyed pushing it, and tipping it over to spin its wheels.  Until yesterday he would climb down off it if we put him sitting upon it.  Since he might stay on it sitting, today I wanted to experiment with him riding it forward.  He enjoyed this very much, even though he of course cannot yet steer it.  He would ride down the hall towards Smiley, who was sitting on the floor drumming on empty coffee cans.  When Gallant "caught" his big brother then Smiley would move to the other end of the hallway and I would turn Gallant and the scooter around.

Today he also fell asleep unswaddled for both his naps.  He normally sleeps swaddled, so this is a big deal.  He will sleep through the night better once he learns to self-comfort when he partially wakes up.

How else is Gallant different than at the end of Februrary?  He is crawling much faster.  When "cruising" holding onto furniture he can cross his legs to move sideways much faster.  He can balance for up to five seconds when standing.  He claps objects together as well as banging one object on a surface.  He can climb up stairs, but not down.  He enjoys drumming on coffee cans and sometimes sings when he drums.