Agustin at Nine Months

Supposedly most babies' eye colors are set by this point. Which means I might always be confused about Agustin's eyes. They're brown. Ish. I think. But sometimes they seem like they're dark blue. Sometimes they seem dark green. Or light brown? My sister calls them chameleon eyes, and that's pretty much what they are.


My son has become quite the busy bee these days. I was starting to think he was going to skip crawling and go right to walking—he was way more interested in pulling himself up to standing than being a quadruped. But, silly me, I encouraged him to crawl, and finally it worked.

And I thought, at least the lower center of gravity will be safer for now. But I made a grave error. Now he simply crawls to something he can pull up on. So he’s just that much more dangerous. I cannot take eyes off of him because he’s started cruising and experimenting with how close the next object needs to be for him to let go and make it. Hint: He usually doesn’t make it. Yet.


His other hobbies include climbing all over his parents’ tired bodies, scanning the room for objects to attack (preferably things we don’t want him to have), and trying out his three new teeth on various objects and body parts. The other day we were walking through a store and he realized that his bottom two teeth clink against his top tooth. Then he started grinding them together. Then I crawled out of my skin and twitched on the floor for a while.

This month he REALLY took to solid foods. I think egg yolk is the only thing he doesn't really go for. He is especially passionate about tomatoes, plums, and blueberries. But these days he shoves big hunks of food in his mouth and munches away. Also, we're pretty sure he's a lefty--the picture below does not illustrate this point, but he usually uses the left hand when eating.


Let’s talk about the dog. Agustin loves Kona. Or at least he’s super interested in him. He tries to pet Kona like he sees us doing, but sometimes he can’t resist trying to use that ever –more-accurate pincer grasp on Kona’s nose, eyes, or ears. I keep a close watch on him though and we’re working on being gentle with our pup and taking good care of him.

I only wish Agustin’s feelings of jovial interest were mutual. Poor Kona. His doting owners abandoned him for 9 months and returned—not with a mewling, vulnerable and defenseless babe, but with a bonafide grabbing, pinching rugrat. Kona isn’t thrilled about having moved another notch down the totem pole.

The first time he growled at Agustin, I thought there must be some mistake. He must have heard something at the door. Agustin was using Kona’s butt to pull up on because I’m not kidding, the kid will pull up on anything as long as it stays still long enough. I thought we were having a precious moment with our indulgent dog. Then he growled again. I scooped up Agustin and banished Kona from the den (his “you’ve been super bad” punishment). It was so upsetting because Kona has never had a problem with kids before, and of course, we really wanted him to love our kid.

taken seconds before the growl

The NEXT TIME (oh yes) Adam was there. Agustin was trying to pet Kona and Kona barked in his face. Adam made it clear he was not happy. Kona has not made the same mistake again. But we also realized that Kona needed some extra lovin’ and to know that he was still part of the family, so we’ve made some adjustments, and it seems to be helping. We do regular mommy and me dates now, etc. KIDDING. Kinda. It seems to be working, and today Kona actually rolled over onto his back when Agustin was trying to pet him, which is a really good sign. But who’s this update about anyway? Back to the kid…

Rigorous scientific testing has revealed that Agustin understands at least the following words and phrases: “kick, kick, kick;” “bounce, baby, bounce;” “we need somebody on maracas!”; “clap;” “hi;” and he’d better understand “mama” and “daddy” if he knows what’s good for him. We’re currently working on “do not throw your food.”


It’s so amazing to think of how much he has learned even in the past few months. He occasionally tries to repeat words now, which sort of blows my mind. There’s so much more purpose to his play now too.

I thought he was a character before, but some of the impish grins he gives now just slay me. And Adam and I are constantly saying how huge he looks compared to when he first arrived (though he is still quite small for his age).

Sometimes I watch families with boys of various ages and wonder what kind of kid he’ll be. I’m looking forward to finding out.