Walker has been outside as long as he was inside. He’s growing up to be quite a nice boy. It’s funny to think about the time before we knew him. And when I think about his personality now, I realize it is similar to how he was inside (just a bit more pronounced). During the first 40 weeks he was very fidgety. He’d kick and move so much it would become distracting. I remember more than once I’d be in a meeting presenting or expressing a thought and WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! The train my thought was on was derailed by little feet and hands and head and butt. Today he’s always on the move and one of his favorite pastimes is to flap his arms and kick kick kick his little legs. He kicks so much in his bathtub I’m sure he would have made it to Hawaii and back if he’d been in the ocean (which we know from Florida, he’d like to avoid for the time being). When he was inside, he’d calm down when I would rub one of the unidentifiable bulges despite the fact Daddy would say in a small baby voice “Mommy, stop pressing my HEAD!” Today he loves it when I rub his head or stroke his cheeks — especially when he’s super upset, he’ll calm right down. I love that little boy and if he stays on the same trajectory, he will be a sweet, sensitive, constantly moving little boy.

We went for his 9 month check up and Dr. Mimi (no, I’ve not given myself additional credentials, our pediatrician is named Michelle but friends call her Mimi) made note of how much Walker looks more like a little boy than a little baby. We’ve thought the same thing but it’s great to hear from someone who sees hundreds of little babies. Of course, she probably tells everyone similar things. Anyway, here are his stats:

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 20lbs 10 oz
Head circumference: 45.3 cm

He is squarely in the 50% for each measurement. It’s nice because he was tracking in the 75% for his weight and 50% for the others which made him a VERY Chunky Cheesecake. Now he’s just a REGULAR Chunky Cheesecake.

Walker’s favorite color is RED. Yes, we can tell and I’ve done some tests to confirm the hypothesis. We have these colorful stacking disks Walker likes to hold and bang together. He always reaches for the big red one even when it’s under the other disks. He holds it over his head and is so proud to show us. I bought him a new toy that makes noise and it has four pieces — red, blue, green, yellow. Guess which one he reaches for first. Yes, the RED one. He like to take the red disk and hit the red toy with it. He likes his RED truck. Call me crazy but I think we’re seeing a preference.

Walker likes to make noise. Sofiya let him have a tambourine and a maraca and he loves to bang them together. He’s a one man sitting band. (He hasn’t figured out how to march yet). The above mentioned toy I got is really cool. One piece is like a tamborine, one is a collection of bells, one is like a maraca and one is like a castanet. He can play with them individually or in one big fantastic noise-making square. And now he’s clapping at just about everything. Yesterday morning he woke up and started clapping. YEAH! HOORAY! I’m AWAKE! (and then GRINNED a big toothy GRIN.)

I’m spending a lot of time reading about sleep. Funny that I’m staying up to read about how to keep Walker’s eyes closed for longer than 3.5 hours at a stretch. Probably not the last time I’ll find something about parenting ironic. I’m finding that giving him some water in a sippy cup helps. I can hear his little voice, “Mommy, I’m THIRSTY! Can I have some water?” so I oblige. He’s still not drinking too much from his bottle. Today Sofiya said that he drank very well from his bottle when she put some formula in there. Yes, it was the first time he had more than a taste of formula — many months ago we tried to give him some but he didn’t like it. However, I’m sure the formula tastes better than some of the veggie mush he eats.

On a completely separate note, my iPod crashed and after trying to reset it, I got the sad iPod picture. Now, this has happened before and the “Genius” at the Apple store told me I would have to spend $150 to get it fixed. But then I looked on the web and there were some instructions on how to take off the back and reconnect the cable to the hard drive and then reassemble the iPod. It’s actually very easy. And I’ve had to do this more than once. And it works. And I didn’t have to spend any money. But today, I just didn’t feel like doing that again so I looked on the Internet and I found a site recommending “shaking it like it owes you money.” And I did. And you know what? It worked. So, if your iPod ceases operation, bang the top of it a few times on the plam of your hand and there you go.

Time for bed. No reading about sleep tonight. I’ll just dream about sleep. Is that possible?

(And thanks to Grammy Jane for the great photos of Walker at Dubose Park)