Mikhail: 9 Months

Mikhail has now spent the same amount of time outside of my womb as he did inside it.
Hehehe!

I spent the last hour re-reading all the posts on this blog and am now engulfed with nostalgia.
Memories of being pregnant, waiting for D-Day, the birth and the first few weeks with my newborn baby… all came flooding back.
It made me really broody.

Wan got a shock when I messaged him ‘I want a 2nd baby’.
Heheheh
Don’t panic darling, I didn’t mean right now.

Anyway, I’m enjoying Mikhail more and more every day.
Needless to say, I love him more and more every day.
Wan and I are getting so much pleasure from being Mikhail’s parents.
I hope Mikhail is enjoying us just as much.

I still feel a pang of sadness each time I have to say goodbye to him on working days.
He still gives me the same ‘where are you going, mommy?’ look.
On some days, he’ll actually hold his arms out for me and whimpers.
On those days, I’ll always be late for work as I’ll insist on spending the extra few minutes to pacify him before I go.
My mom tells me it’ll get harder when he gets a little older and starts crying when he sees me leave.
Oh dear.

And at the end of the day, I'll be itching to go home to him. Any cause for delay would be greeted with nothing but frustration and fury.
There's only so many waking hours for a working mommy to spend with her son, you know.

So… the question of the day – What Can Mikhail Do Now?

He’s big on dancing.
It started with just a slight nodding of the head whenever the radio was on.
Now it's going full force - his whole body grooves to the beat.
No matter what the beat is.
Even a slow number is greeted with a heavy-duty head-banging.
Sometimes, there's no music to be heard but Mikhail will just starting grooving...
In fact, there were a couple of occassions when he was trying to sleep and rolling left and right when suddenly, despite his eyes being shut and his mouth open in a tired yawn, he sat up and started grooving.
Mikhail has rhythm in his blood. (Much to the delight of his Daddy!)

Mikhail truly enjoys his bedtime stories.
We'll be lying on the bed after his last nursing session, and I'll grab a book.
The second he sees the book, he'll excitedly crawl towards me and lie himself down in the crook of my arm.
Most of the time, he'll listen to my reading and point to the pictures in the book.
Sometimes, he'll attempt to mimic my voice and we'll have a duet-book-reading session.
Mikhail loves books. (Much to the delight of his Mommy!)

Mikhail is still commando-crawling.
His diapered-butt will go high in the air and then down on the ground, then back up high and so on.
He does it really fast, like a caterpillar on speed.
We can never take our eyes off him when he's on our bed. A split second is all he needs to get to the edge of the bed and stare at the floor.
Wan & I have had a couple of mini-heart-attacks when this happens.

What else can he do?
In a nutshell, pretty much what other babies his age can do.
He can also stand unsupported, but not for too long.
He's a speed demon in his walker...
He's very manja with the family and a bit aloof with strangers.
His love affair with the swimming pool is still ongoing.
He's just being a darling; that's his job :)

We celebrated his turning 9 months by taking him out for a movie.
And since it was a working day, we had to take him out for a night movie.
We went for the 9pm show at KLCC - Ratatouille.
It was a really good show!
We all enjoyed it. I had a craving for pasta afterwards, but that's another story :)
As usual, Mikhail was enthralled by the trailers and advertisements. And as usual, he sat through the first half of the movie while sleeping through the last bit.

The memorable thing about this movie trip is that Mikhail's more alert now than he was the last time we took him.
So when Wan showed him the huge cut-out of the rat in the foyer of TGV, Mikhail stared long and hard at it.
And the second the rat came on screen during the movie, Mikhail sat upright with a priceless expression on his face.
A mixture of recognition ("I know you!") and wonder ("What ARE you??").
Hope he maintains this interest in movies... Wan & I are both devout movie-goers.

Mikhail is still breast-feeding, but of course, he takes formula as well.
He also loves his food and I love preparing 'em.
Yes, I have to sleep a little later and wake up a little earlier to make sure he gets a wholesome home-cooked meal every day, but I love it.
My parents (and anyone else who knows me... the old me) are shocked at the interest I now have in cooking. I enjoy planning the menu, shopping for groceries, preparing the ingredients and cooking 'em.
And I absolutely LOVE it when Mikhail gobbles up the dish in delight.
My son brought out the chef in me :)

So yeah, things are settling down quite well for our little family.
It's amazing that 9 months have flown by since Mikhail was born.
Time certainly DOES fly when we're having fun.

Pictures to be uploaded later.