Charlie: 9 Months!

Happy 9 months to my baby boy! Is time flying or is it just me? I love watching him learn and process things in that little big head of his. It's so much fun to be able to interact with him more as he matures. His personality (and facial expressions) crack us up every day, though we can tell he is going to be a bit of a challenge as he gets older, seeing how intense and strong-willed he already is at 9 months old.

• At 9 months, Charlie weighs just under 18 pounds and is 28 inches long (or should I start saying tall?:)
• He says, "dada" over and over again while talking to us, but doesn't seem to connect it with his "Dada" yet :)
• Overall he loves his solid foods, but he is not a fan of anything green, it seems. Must take after his dad.
• His tummy crawling has gotten even faster and a few moments here and there he's even gotten into an actual crawling stance (hands and knees) and taken a "step" or two. 
• His favorite activity is standing. He grabs our fingers constantly to pull himself up and stand or walk with our help. 
• He loves his kitties. Anytime he sees one of them  he breaks out into a huge smile, points, crawls at them, and says, "Ca." Usually he says "dada" or "baba" for everything, so maybe he is actually calling them by name! :)
• Teething continues to be a struggle for everyone, and there hasn't been many more teeth to show for it. He has five teeth all the way through and about 5 more that are trying to come through. Poor baby. The only thing that works (besides teething tablets) is frozen food he can eat (applesauce is a hit). 
• Sadly, he is going through a (quite long) phase of being very attached to me and not wanting anyone else to hold him or take care of him. We have tried multiple times to put him in the nursery at church and continually get called down to get him because they can't calm him down. Sad. Hope this phase ends soon!
• His hair is growing faster than any other part of him, I'm convinced. The longer it gets, the curlier and wilder it gets! 
• Since I've cleaned up his room quite a bit, he's really enjoyed playing in there. He gets unending amount of joy from the door stopper behind his door (the kind that looks like a spring sticking out from the wall) as well as the air conditioning vent. 
• He has started clapping recently, which is so cute, and he is so proud of himself when he does it. 
• My favorite development this past month is something I have no term for (which drives me crazy). Maybe you can help. One day when he was super fussy, I decided to take my finger and brush it against his lips up and down while he was yelling. He thought it was so much fun! He quickly learned that whenever he felt my finger he would make noise and when I stopped, he would stop. Now we only have to do it to our own lips and he, in turn, will copy us. So cute! (Is there a name for this???) Anyway, below is a video that shows you what I'm talking about if this makes no sense.