9 Months Old!

In 2 days, Asher Owen Rives will be 9 months old! Tempus fugit!

Here is the much-anticipated update:

--5 teeth! Upper and lower front teeth as well as one to the right of his upper front tooth. He has handled teething remarkably well. No major pain or loss of sleep!

--He is a frustrated non-crawler. He rocks on his hands and knees and sometimes scoots forward a little, but no real crawling yet. He usually tries to reach out one hand, but then figures it looks a little too much like work and just rolls over to his back for a little rest.

--He is quite verbal! He says da-da and bye-bye, usually in the right context. His other words sound like "attica-attica" and "gahta-gahta". He says both of these all the time, but I'm not sure to what he is referring. Occasionally a "ma-ma" will sneak out, but not consistently like "da-da." And then there is the general babbling and shrieking that goes on pretty much non-stop.

--He is eating pretty much everything now--cheese, lunch meat, rice, veggies, fruit, yogurt, bread. Our newest discovery is Gerber Wagon Wheels. He's a big fan of those! And he is a good water drinker. I'm really glad about that. I don't want him to know that there are other beverages besides milk and water.

--He weighs about 21 lbs. He is definitely a chub!

--He is still living up to his name! He is such a happy baby. He smiles a lot and has even started doing this little flirty, head tilt thing when someone starts talking to him. He smiles, then leans his head over very coyly. It's the ol' Rives charm--works every time.

This Isn't an Official Update

Asher just wanted me to pop in to report that today he actually picked up a piece of cheese with his thumb and pointer finger and put the food directly into his mouth! This is huge people! For weeks, he has been scooping up a fistful of whatever is on his tray and bringing the fist to his mouth, hoping that one might make it's way inside. But today, there was purpose and precision to his movement. I'm so proud.

Still no crawling.

He will update at the 9 month mark in just a few days.

But here is a cute picture to hold you over.