It's been a busy three weeks since we last wrote. A few weeks ago we realized Seth has been in the world now for longer than he was in utero - hard to believe time has gone by so fast! Seth has had lots of advances in the food arena. He is a very good eater, and almost always opens his mouth to be fed. When he is done, though, he is done - we can tell because he smears his food in his hair and his eyebrows! He is learning how to use a spoon - if we put a little food on it and hand it to him, he can usually manage to feed himself. He is learning to use his pincer grasp when picking up Cheerios and pieces of cheese. We notice that he does many things with his right hand, but likes to do the pincer grasp best with his left hand. It's interesting to try to guess if he'll be left handed or right handed. He is getting better at drinking water from a cup if we hold it for him, and he can also drink from a straw! They started him on it at daycare, and it is so cute! It makes sense, since he knows how to suck! Beef is definitely his favorite meat, but he is getting better with chicken. He's had cottage cheese, blueberries, raspberries, corn, potato, avocado, and pasta recently.

Seth has really been getting better and better at all his movement skills - he never sits still unless he is sleeping! He crawls so quickly now, it is amazing to watch. He pulls up on everything, and is big into cruising along the furniture. He can stand on his own for longer and longer periods of time, five to ten seconds at a stretch! He finds this new skill to be fascinating and hilarious. He is getting more daring and will move from being pulled up on one object to a different object by lunging his body between the two places. He can go from standing to sitting much more easily (good thing he has that padded diaper butt!) and is getting much better at balancing. The other day he crawled over to the stairs, and with me holding onto him the whole time, he went up almost all of our stairs. Time to get the baby gates out! He was so efficient, too! We are not in a hurry for him to walk, but it can't be too far away! He also likes to stand up on his tiptoes when he is reaching for something - so cute!

Seth loves to play with his toys. He is into having a toy in each hand (or one in the mouth) and banging them together. He likes to crawl and bring a toy along with him. On occasion, he can get one of his toy rings on the ring post. He loves to play tug-of-war with me using his attachable rings - makes him laugh! He is a very happy baby and has a great sense of humor. He laughs all the time. Today he was laughing at himself as we showed him video of himself laughing! He is ticklish on his feet and his armpits, and continues to love little games. He will initiate peek-a-boo by putting a cloth over his head!

His language is progressing - he is saying the syllables "ma" and "la" now, and talks all the time. He loves to say "dad dad," "dat dat," and "dog dog," and sometimes we think he is saying dad dad to Jason, but we're not sure. He loves to stick out his tongue and spit!

He is learning how to clap, and possibly learning the Baby Sign for more. Seth's eye color is holding steady at a beautiful light blue, and we think this might stick - must be from Grams' side of the family. He has a full head of light brown hair - we think he will need his first trim soon!

We had Seth's nine-month check-up last week, when we had quite a bad cold and cough, which luckily he is getting over now. He weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces, and it 28 inches long. Time to switch to the convertible carseat! His doctor wants us to give him foods with some more calories in them to get his weight up a little bit, so we have the go ahead for lots of yogurt, cheese, butter, and oil! He can start to have food cut up real small, so we'll be working on that this month!

We've had lots of fun visits the past few weeks - Auntie Carolyn, Auntie Gina, and Auntie Kara visited at different times. We've seen Papa, Geema, Grandpa Joe, and Grandma Nancy. We had a fun weekend with Chris, Cathy, Chuck, Jenn, and baby Katie. Uncle Brian has just come back into town, which is great. We are already looking forward to a March visit from Grams.

On a sad note, last week, my grandfather, John Sarafian, passed away at 102. We had just gone down to see him last weekend and spent some time with him and Nana. He loved Seth very much - he was hoping for him to be a catcher for the Red Sox. Grandpa was a wonderful father, grandfather, and great-grandfather (to Seth and his cousin Lila). We were lucky to have him in our lives for so long, that he got a chance to meet Seth, and that we got to say goodbye. It helped to have Seth present at his funeral this weekend.

We can't wait to see what Seth will do in the next couple weeks - we'll keep you posted!