The Merrick Family has grown: 9 months old

Our little Ben isn't so little anymore...he turned 9 months old yesterday and he is full of energy and lots of laughs. He is quite the little charmer, always smiling, and good for a laugh or two! We love watching him interact more and more with Luke and respond with laughter to all of our craziness! Luke is taking a stronger interest in playing with Ben more and more each day, but he still is working on 'sharing' pretty much everything in the house. A lot of things around the house seem to be "Luke's"! When Ben wakes up from naps or in the morning, the first thing Luke wants to do is go in and climb in Ben's crib with him. Ben's latest is doing "So Big" and dancing to music. We have a little Valentine Bear that plays "Hey Hey Baby" when you squeeze its foot, so we play that for Ben and he just bounces up and down to the beat...so stinking cute.
Mr. B, we call you our squirmy wormy...that you are! Always on the go, impossible to change, and darn near squirmy your way out of my arms.
9 months of pure joy and so much love you bring to our lives little Ben, what else are you up to these days besides stealing our hearts???
-loving life as a mobile little boy, crawling, climbing the entire flight of stairs, pulling up on everything possible, standing for a few seconds at a time, and have taken 2 daring steps!
-wearing most 6-12 months, 9 month clothing
-wearing size 3 diapers but ready to move to a 4!
-drinking 4 bottles a day, give or take 6-8 oz
-we have been giving you Claritin most mornings to help with allergies, which seems to be working. You get really stuffy and full of mucus causing you to gag a lot. Dr said you could most likely grow out of them in a couple of years (fingers crossed)
-eating more and more table food, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, cucumber, avocado, macaroni, little bites of hamburger, pancakes, potatoes,to name a few. You favor table food over most all of your baby food these days and it looks like we will be retiring it soon.
-drinking water from a sippy cup all by yourself
-sleeping 10-11 hours at night
-two solid naps, 1 1/2-2 hours each morning and afternoon
-you play so well independently, but you really love having Luke around
-when you get excited you let out a little yelp hear and there!
-you say dada a lot, mama very little:( jk!
-you love to wrestle your brother
-you are becoming a very pleasant traveler, talking and laughing to yourself constantly! It makes me smile thinking of you laughing to yourself in your rear facing car seat! I often wonder what is it that is so funny back there, starring into the backseat!?!?
-you have 6 teeth, 4 on top, 2 on the bottom and you love to bite my shoulder and you try to bite at my cheeks!
-9 month check, you weigh 20 lbs (60th percentile) and measure 30 inches long (80th)
-mommy's hair is always in a pony tail when you are around because you pull my hair nonstop! When I lay on the floor you get excited and come crawling as fast as possible just so you can play/pull my hair
Ben, these past 9 months with you have truly been a blessing to our family. You are one of the happiest little boys I know, with the sweetest smile that lights up the whole room. We love watching you grow (even if it is TOO fast) and we look forward to embarking on the many more milestones to come in your 10th month of life. Sweet Ben, we love you so!