Nine Months

• Today, Rainer is nine months old, and what a rockin' month it's been for our little Ray-ray (or Ray-ray Bay-bay, as Faith calls him). Many many new milestones for Rainer happened this month, including (but not limitied to!):laughing out loud, especially when Daddy tells funny "jokes" like pretending to blow an aunt off his hand

• going from a tummy down position to sitting up, all on his own
• crawling for real, no more pulling himself along on his tummy with his arms only
• waving bye-bye. The first time was when I was leaving to run an errand and Rainer was staying with Daddy. He waved at me with his whole arm, from the shoulder. So cute, so I ran to get the new video camera, but alas, no waving for that

• Playing peek-a-boo. This first showed up after his bath one evening. He was laying on his changing table and he started raising and lowering the towel over his face. I provided the words and it was an all-out game of Peek-a-Boo.

• And last but not least, getting his third tooth--but they are all on the bottom! Nevermind--even with all his teeth on the bottom, this good eater has been eating plums and peaches in the yard--just gumming them and getting quite a bit in his mouth. He also eats little bits of ripe fruit at the table, and yesterday he ate peas.

Rainer, it's been a great month and you are the sweetest little baby ever (along with your siblings, of course!). We love you and can't wait to see what you do next.