The Blanch Herd: It's Fine to Be Nine (Months)

Sammy has officially hit the "milestone" of being out longer than he was in (me, that is). (And I must say that the past 39.5 weeks has gone a lot faster than the 39.5 weeks before that!) Here's what he's up to these days:

Crawling machine - he's got some speed! And to watch his little bum move back and forth as he cruises is probably my favorite thing ever.
Starting to pull up to standing on things - lower things are easier (my legs when I'm sitting on the floor, the dishwasher door when it is open, etc), but he has also stood up next to the couch and Cal's bed and has been trying next to the coffee table and in his pack 'n' play. (We've lowered the crib mattress in response, though we haven't seen him trying or standing in there just yet.)
Claps like a champ - and knows what it means when I say "clap" or "pat-a-cake" because he goes to town with his fat little hands.
Loves to feed himself - he'll eat much better what we are trying to feed him in a spoon if he also has something on his tray to distract/keep his fingers busy. With Cal I did the wait-three-days-between-new-foods thing religiously, and I started out that way with Sam, but it quickly gave way to here-try-a-bite-of-this and that has been working just fine.
He'll eat pretty much anything we put in front of him, but he especially loves green veggies, mac 'n' cheese, peas, cheese, blueberries, watermelon, bbq chicken, french fries, bread/rolls/buns, tomatoes, cheerios. (Yeah, basically anything he's tried, he loves.)
He's got a super open-door sensor built in - if I open a door (to outside, a closet, a cupboard, the fridge, the bathroom) he can tell from across the house and puts on the rocket boosters to crawl over to it before I have time to shut it.
He's already a little dishwasher "helper" - he can pull things out as fast as I put them in.
Still absolutely loves his sister - if she gives him an ounce of affection, he just lights up with the biggest grin or giggle ever.
LOVES to be outside - this one hasn't changed, except for maybe gotten stronger. I can't keep him in if the door happens to be open to the deck, and if I walk by an open-to-the-outside door while holding him but don't go out, he let's me know he's not pleased. (He also understands the word "outside" and gets super excited if I ask him if he wants to go out.)
His favorite diversion is the shoe pile - he'll crawl all over it and chew on the shoes (so gross, I know!)
Big time water-lover - bath time, pool time, it doesn't matter as long as he gets to splash.
Sleep - blah. We have our good days and our bad days and nothing seems to be consistent. Same old, same old.
Back to one nighttime diaper change (even in size 4 diapers) because sleeping on his stomach (also a new feature of his sleeping that took some time to get used to and contributed to some long bad stretches) doesn't evenly distribute the wetness and he often ends up soaked through if we don't.
No more sleep suit! (I think this was a major part of one of the bad stretches - weaning from the sleep suit - but it's done and that is good.)
Jabbers and goos and babbles all the time: mamamama, da-da-da, Oh! Oh! Oh!
Has started lifting his arms to beg to be picked up.
Always exploring and dumping and pulling and eating and grabbing and patting.
Sometimes waves or something similar (both arms going crazy).
Oh, and we have some stats! weight: 18 lbs 11.5 oz (31st percentile!), height: 29 inches (74th percentile), head circumference: 45.5 cm (63rd percentile). He's growing and healthy and quite the happy little guy and we are sure grateful for that.