10 months

Mr. Man,

I don't know why, but now when someone asks how old you are and I say "10 months," it feels so much older than last month. Usually people think you are much older because of your hair- one guy even guessed that you were 2 haha!

This month started off as one of our more challenging months and ended as one of my favorite months. Right after you hit 9 months, you started to become really clingy, super fussy, and overall seemed to be in a bad mood. I took you to the doctor twice in one week, hoping that it was something explainable, like an ear infection, but each time the doctor said you seemed just fine- that it was probably a combination of separation anxiety and 3 teeth coming in all at once. I just kept hoping that this was only a phase, and sure enough, it was. You quickly went back to your sweet temperament and we have had a blast since.

It is amazing to watch you learn new things every day. Yesterday we were reading a book that had different flaps to lift up. On the first page was a flap with a cuckoo clock on it. Later on in the book, the same cuckoo clock is on the page, but not a flap. You remembered it from the first page and kept trying to lift up the clock. You recognize books by their cover and will immediately go to touch certain things on pages right when I open them like the circle on the wheels on the bus book, the ladybugs in the bug book, and certain tails in the tails book. You are starting to push cars back and forth, and can now give kisses on command. Dad also taught you how to "high five." You will occasionally wave when we ask you to, and you have started a little bounce dance to music. It's so cute to watch your little body go up and down and your music conductor hand waving in the air. You're starting to stand for longer periods of time without holding on to anything, and you are moving around the couch and different toys with ease. You don't really seem interested in holding our hands to walk yet, but I know that can change tomorrow.

Your second bottom tooth came through this month and we discovered this really random third tooth on your top gum that looks like it is coming out of the side of your gum. Your cousin James had the same thing and it eventually dropped into place.

You are starting to get favorite toys that make you squeal in delight when you see them. Your favorite things this month are your mini and big soccer ball, the fork lift from your train set, pretty much any stuffed animal, but particularly your big teddy bear, your frog, and your little monkey. You love to shake your jingle bell and the salt and pepper shaker from the play kitchen aunt Jessie is letting you borrow, and you absolutely love eating your animals and people from your nativity set. You really love music and will sit with me to read at least 4-5 books multiple times a day. Some of your favorite things to do are stand at the back sliding door or on the windowsill to look outside, sneak into the bathroom and stand on the toilet and pull down toilet paper before I catch you, play with the buckles on your seat after eating, chase after your soccer ball, open the window and door and press the door bell of your play house, and jump around in your bed after bath time before dad puts your pj's on.

I feel like the whole after bath routine deserves a paragraph of its own. It is seriously such a fun time of day. Your dad gets you so riled up. You get so excited it is like you are going to burst at the seams. You jump and laugh and squeal in your crib while dad sings songs, plays peek a boo, and "gets you" with stuffed animals.

You got another trim up. We didn't realize your hair was so out of control until I took this picture.

Before

After

One fun thing this month is that you are starting to get more social and interact with people. You get so excited when we go to a friend's house, or someone comes to our house to play. You normally start with a high pitched squeal and will start crawling around really fast. If someone isn't paying attention to you, you tend to start talking really loud.

Here are some videos of fun during play

With regards to sleeping- you are still pretty much all over the place. During the week or so where you were super cranky, you were up a lot in the night and were hard to get back to sleep. Since you've gone back to your normal self, you normally sleep until 4:30 or 5 and then go back until 6:30ish. You still go to bed between 6:30 and 7. You take 2 naps a day, normally around 9 and 1:30 and for the most part, they are around an hour and 20 min. Your naps are still like clock work with regards to length. You still always wake up at 35 minutes and usually go back. Your naps are either an hour and 20 minutes, an hour and 40 minutes, or 2 hours and 20 minutes.. never anything different unless you poop, then it's all over. I've never had the guts to take pictures of you sleeping, but one day I had to wake you up from a nap so I snapped a couple before waking you up.

We have turned a corner with eating this month. Apparently all the refusal to eat was due to purees, because now that we are only doing chunks of food, you could pretty much eat all day long. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you eat for an hour every meal- except for breakfast because you inhale it. You just eat and eat and eat! An average lunch is 3/4 of a string cheese, 1/2 a slice of bread, 1/2 c. veggies, 1/4 c. black beans and lots of water. For breakfast you will eat a whole waffle or toast with applesauce, or almost an adult size serving of oatmeal with yogurt and fruit mixed in. It's been a little challenging to get you to eat meat, you don't seem to love it. But you do LOVE trader joe's turkey meatballs. You usually eat 2 full ones. It has been really enjoyable to let you feed yourself and to be able to eat dinner with you.

You are a delight my sweet boy. You are just perfect for our family- we love you to pieces.

xoxo

mom