Leaps & Bounds

The boy is growing. There's no stopping him.

Here are some milestones recently reached...

While at the beach, Flint decided to start taking some serious steps. Prior to our trip, he could manage two or three steps before collapsing, and at just 8 months! He hit the 9-month mark on July 20th, and decided to take off!

Here's a clip from the beach, just a couple of weeks ago:

Here's a clip from last week:

Since then, he's pretty much got it down, with just a few falls here and there!

He also cut his top two teeth, followed by a third soon after. We've yet to see the fourth up top, so for now, he is contentedly asymmetrical, and totalling 5 teeth in all. I can't remember Lyla's top teeth when she was tiny, but Flint's definitely seem kind of... far apart. I'm thinking either they will scoot together as they grow out some more, or we'll just insert another tooth in the middle and no one will notice.

The boy is also mimicking much more. He can spout out "ma-ma-ma's" and "da-da-da's" on command and has called out for Lyla a few times with something that sounds kind of like a very breathy "high-la." He raises his hands for "How big are you?" to show he is "so big," waves hi and bye like a pro, signs "all done" and recently started to shake his head "no." This one is particularly amusing, as he doesn't quite understand the meaning of "no-no" just yet, but he is certain that shaking his head must precede specific activities, such as splashing in the dog's water bowl, grabbing Mommy's cup, or using the fake Ficus to pull up on prior to distributing peat moss all over the carpet. So, occasionally, before partaking in such activities, Flint will first engage our attention and then shake his head. He hasn't quite figured out how to shake his head from side to side, either, so mostly he just shimmies his entire body until his head shakes like a bobble-head. It's very cute. He will also shake his head on demand, like here:

As seen in the video, Flint also recently started giving kisses. They look more like my childhood impression of movie stars making out (wide-mouthed and slobbery), but he leans in intentionally and sort of mouths, well, our mouths. It's kind of amazing to see the different levels of awareness light up his face as he learns more and more. It's like a little person is awakening inside his small baby self. The other day I asked him to give me a toy he was holding, and was very much surprised by the fact that he actually seemed to understand. He placed the toy in my hand, and while he was reluctant to actually release it, I was still very impressed. Another "first." Luke has (sorta) taught Flint how to "give five." I mean he does "give it," -- it's just in a very polite, gentle manner. And the most recent "first" development is clapping. I think Flint was as proud of himself as I was. Adorable.

While we're on the subject of "firsts," (it seems to be a common trend in all these baby updates), Flint got his first official haircut a few weeks ago, before leaving for the beach. He was unfazed by the process, and mostly amused himself with trying to find his hands beneath the giant pool of black draped over his little self. When we got home, Mama got to work on some stylin'. I hadn't been able to play with his hair in a while because the top was so long.
At his 9-month well check-up with Dr. Dickey, Flint weighed in at 22.4lbs (91st percentile) and measured 28 3/4 inches (dropping from 91st to 59th percentile). He has slowed down quite a bit, and slimmed down, as well. He does still have some baby chub, but he looks more and more like a little toddler boy every day! The doc said she couldn't give any predictions as to his eventual height since he's been on a few different growth curves.

Summary: Our walking bobble-head boy is defiant, indecisive, hilarious and amazing.

Will keep you posted as he continues to grow and impress us!

Watch Flint Grow!