Drew has finally been living for as long outside of me as he was inside of me- he hit the big nine month mark on Sunday. I didn't write sooner because he was miserably sick last week but fortunately he seems to have completely recovered and is back to his happy-go-lucky self.

We went in for his 9 month checkup and found out that while he's been pretty stable on weight (23 and a half pounds) for the past couple of months, he's managed to grow almost 3 inches- he is now just about 2 and a half feet tall (29.5 inches). Weird to think that he's almost half my height!!! (I'm taking a shot in the dark and saying that he's probably going to be taller than me as an adult, based on his current trajectory.) Also, just so those of you who have been waiting with baited breath can sigh and relax, an update on his head circumference- he has apparently been putting a lot of cell division into his cranial growth, and he is now well into the 50th percentile rather than the 20th, so we're no longer concerned about his pea-brain. All in all, he's healthy and happy and growing like a blond little weed, so no worries.

Despite a slight hiatus from walking while he was mopey and sick (during which he insisted that I carry him in my arms 24 hours a day, and wallow in his misery with him, and NOT try to do anything as insulting as trying to entertain him or force him to play or sit on his own) he's on the walking thing like nobody's business. He has decided it's his preferred mode of transportation and is as pleased as punch with himself. He rounds corners and comes bow-leggedly hobbling towards you with a huge grin and repeated gasps of elation at his new-found abilities. Fortunately, being a baby, he's not the least conscious of how self-impressed he comes across, so he's reveling openly in his delight at this new skill. So much for the little bit of reaction time I've been afforded up until this point. Now he's across the room and out the door before I've even realized he was going somewhere. I can only imagine this will get worse before it gets better, when he figures out how to run (tomorrow?).

In true Drew form, now that he's decided he has mastered the walking thing, he's moved on to the next big task, which is communicating. He is using "Dada" and "Mama" to refer to Andy and I and exclaiming "oh WOW!" and "whoa!" to everything else he finds exciting or interesting in the world. I think he might also be giving me a window into the inner workings of his mind, as I've also noticed he tends to use the word "mama" to refer to food of any kind- not too surprising since I've been his 24-7 all-you-can-eat buffet since his cells began dividing. We also think he's working on saying "Manu" (although this of course sounds a lot like "Mama", which I try not to take too personally) and he's starting to pick up other little tidbits here and there. He has both spoken and used the Sign Language word for "ball" in the past couple of days, which totally took me by surprise since I've been inconsistent at best in signing to him. I guess the moral is that when he's ready to put his mind to something, he does whole-heartedly, so he's giving it all of his energy and it's really showing- so when hanging around Drew, don't say anything you wouldn't want to hear him mimic back to you

Our other (bittersweet) news is that Webster has been living with a wonderful new owner for the past week and they have mutually decided to make the arrangement permanent. We are of course very sad to see him go but are thrilled for him that he was able to find someone who has the time and the energy to give him all of the attention and exercise that he was missing out on here with us. The house is MUCH quieter with only Manu around, as she's much more "mature" (aka lower key) to begin with, and there aren't any more doggie wrestling matches daily in the living room. She seems a little lonely but also a little relieved to finally have all of our dog attention focused on her where it rightfully belongs, and not to have a pesky younger brother chewing on her face while she tries to sleep. I'm not sure what it says about our lives that a nine month old and a 55 pound puppy bounding around the house bring to mind the term "quiet"... but I guess it's all relative.

We have finally gotten our camera lens fixed and have tried to get back into the swing of documenting Drew's every milestone, although I must admit that capturing him moving around the house is significantly harder than catching him laying or sitting around as an infant. At any rate, I wanted to share a few more recent pictures of him, since we haven't put any up for a while- here are some cute closeups of him (don't worry, it's a clean diaper- he's taken to raiding my bag whenever I'm not looking):









We filled out an application for Drew's first passport this week and took some photos of him to send in. It was a great series of shots, and while we didn't ultimately go with this one because it looked to me like a mugshot, we thought it was pretty great: