Nine month checkup

Eating waffle pieces out of Mama's hand on Father's Day - like father, like son (as to the fact that he likes waffles, not that he eats them in pieces out of mama's hand). 

Today was Jayden's nine month checkup.  In the not-so-surprising department, Jayden is still in the 95th+ percentile in height, measuring a whopping 30-1/8" tall/long.  He weighed in at just over 19 pounds, which was the 25th percentile.  The doctor was fine with that, saying his weight has just leveled off, that he is establishing his body type at this point (lucky him - long and skinny!).  His head circumference was somewhere around the 80th or 90th percentile too. 

But, apparently that hasn't helped with his communication development or his gross motor skills.  According to this questionnaire that we had to fill out, Jayden has some work to do in both areas.  He "should" be associating certain sounds with certain objects (for instance, saying "da-da" when looking at me or Carmen).  Afterwards we remembered that he does repeat a particular sound when looking at Jasmine - so maybe he's just decided who/what is important in his life! 
He also should be standing and cruising or almost cruising.  Considering he just barely started moving at all, I think we have a ways to go.  The doctor didn't seem overly concerned, but he gave us some activities to do with him and told us that we need to encourage him to crawl, stand, cruise, walk, etc.  So our job this weekend, if we can get to it, is to find a giant cushiony rug to put down in the family room so that Jayden can play around in there and learn to stand/walk.  He does put weight on his legs when we spot him and can support himself, but so far he has no desire to stand on his own. 

Motherhood (or I should probably say Parenthood, but it seems mothers worry more, in my experience) is apparently created to cause anxiety.  It should be called Anxietyhood.  I was feeling okay with Jayden not crawling or walking and encouraging him, but letting him go at his own pace.  But then I go to the doctor and he starts worrying me.  I just have to remember that not every waking moment needs to be spent pushing Jayden to crawl/walk.  He needs non-structured playtime too.  Auntie Ellen bought him a jumper, which we tried to put up, but it appears to be too long for our doorways.  It doesn't make sense to me, so I'm going to try to mess with it this weekend to see if I can make it work somewhere. 

One last note - he scored slightly low on their anemia screening test - "normal" is 11 and he scored 10.8.  No big deal as far as the doctor is concerned, but just a suggestion to focus on iron-rich foods. 

Wow, that was a long post.  I had to work late tonight and got home after Jayden went to bed and I already have a little hole.  It's amazing how missing out on an hour or two of his life makes such a huge difference in mine.  He's so little, but makes such a huge impact.  I can't wait to get up tomorrow (although I wish it weren't going to be at 6 am) and hug him and kiss him.