June was a busy month for us. We traveled back to VA twice. Our first visit brought us to Charlottesville for Uncle Brent and Erica's wedding. Ryan and I enjoyed our first weekend alone with our friends from college while my Mom and grandparents spent time with Rowan. It was the perfect weekend. Then, we traveled back to VA a few weeks later for Rowan's cousin Landon's 1st birthday and Uncle Todd's 40th surprise party. It was our first time seeing Todd, Cate, and Quinlin since they left for Taiwan last year. And, it was even more special because we got to meet our nephew Calyx for the first time. Rowan has so many cousins (all boys) right around his age. I can imagine we're going to have our hands full trying to keep up with all of them.
At his 9 month check-up, Rowan weighed in at 22 lbs., 8.5 oz. and 29 1/4 inches long (80th percentile in all areas). He definitely was not thrilled about getting 2 more vaccinations and a blood test to measure his iron levels that day. Truth be told, neither was I. He's in the process of cutting his four top teeth, and it's quite a change from the experience of getting his bottom 2 teeth. He seemed to breeze through those with minor symptoms, but these 4 up top are really making him uncomfortable. We've had a few really difficult moments, lack of sleep and fussiness, but thankfully the tooth grumpiness goes in waves. I keep telling Rowan that he should be grateful he's getting his teeth. This way, he won't have to eat mush his whole life! Speaking of food, Rowan has been trying lots of different "real" foods lately which has been fun to watch and definitely messy. He's still not a fan of peas, like his Dad. We've phased out one of his feedings, so in addition to 3 solid meals a day he now only takes four 6 oz. bottles and we introduced a snack before dinner.
Another huge milestone this month included Rowan's first (and only...we hope) surgery. After many, many ear infections, we opted to get tubes put in his ears. We have been pleasantly surprised with how well he has done. We've noticed him making a lot more sounds since the tubes like bah, wah and oo's which is encouraging. And, he loves making silly noises with his lips and fingers and squeals a lot. Rowan hasn't started crawling in the traditional sense yet, but he definitely knows how to move around by scooting on his bottom. It's actually really funny to watch him bounce up and down while his legs are folded.
