Ten Months

Here is our happy, 10-month old boy!

 

 

Despite a trying few weeks, he is still having fun and doing great.

Although I must say that it is getting much more interesting to take these monthly photos now that he is so interested in my signs...

Here are some milestones from the last month:

• He is learning to communicate with gestures and body language. He can shake his head from side to side for no (as in "no, Mommy, I don't want you to spoon any more peas into my mouth"). He can also bob up and down for yes (as in, "yes, Mommy, you are quite silly and entertaining trying to get me to eat my dinner"). 

• He is working really hard on forming words. We get a lot of "lalalala" noises now (accompanied by sticking out his tongue) plus he is also trying very hard to say either Daddy, down or dog. We're not quite sure yet, but it is a definite word attempt.
 
• Food has been a bit of a battle recently. The pediatrician recommended we keep him on soy formula in case the gastrointestinal upsets of late have a milk allergy linkage (he still thinks it's viral, but just in case) and we're avoiding all dairy for a bit until allergies are ruled out. He is OK with the soy formula, but turning down pretty much anything that comes on a spoon. He would much rather feed himself with his fingers, thank you very much. So, we've been doing lots of steamed butternut squash, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, steamed carrots, noodles, canned fruit, bananas, some avocado and even some very finely chopped chicken breast and fish. Dinners are a messy, messy affair, but sometimes learning how to feed yourself isn't pretty, I guess. Good thing we have the dog to keep the floor under the high chair clean.
 
• It's also a good thing he has more teeth to chew all of these new foods. He sprouted the two top left ones just before the new year and has the two top right teeth on their way shortly. One of them is just starting to poke through. We're noticing that he's always feeling around his mouth with his tongue, so I'm guessing that he's pretty intrigued by this whole teeth thing, too. 

• He is quite stellar at getting from place to place. He crawls as fast as can be and is also very proficient at cruising. He can navigate an entire room with just barely one hand holding onto the furniture or walls. Put him behind a walking toy or a laundry basket and away he goes on two feet without batting an eye. He will even walk with us holding onto only one hand, although he prefers when we let him hold both hands. He is experimenting with taking steps on his own without holding onto anything, but so far we've only caught him doing this a handful of times -- once he forgot to hang onto the couch and took two steps toward me before realizing he wasn't hanging on (once he realized this it was like a looney toons cartoon where the character realizes he's run off a cliff and immediately starts the plummet - in this case, he dropped to his bum to crawl the rest of the way). The other time, he wanted to get from the couch to the loveseat and made the 2 ft stretch between the furniture after calculating in his mind whether he could do it. He was quite pleased when he did. 

• One of his best movement-related stories is his love for tackling his big brother and his Daddy whenever he catches them laying on the floor. We'll hear him giggle and then it's off to the races before he's crashing onto someone with an enormous smile on his face. He even tackled the dog a couple days ago (she got up and moved to the other side of the room).
 
• He can stand on his own for about 10 seconds at a time, but doesn't seem inclined to stand for much longer. I think it's just that he's too impatient and wants to get onto the next thing instead of standing still.
 
• I'm getting a little worried about his weight gain since he is essentially the same weight now as he was at his 9 month appointment, but with two major stomach bugs and 5 days in the hospital this month, it was probably inevitable that he would lose a little weight. Fingers crossed that we stay well for awhile and can get him moving in a good direction again quickly.
 
• We are finally getting some relief on the sleeping front. I don't know if it was the comfort of having me lay next to him every night while we were in the hospital that taught him that sleeping was actually pretty nice or if it was the cozy new flannel crib sheets we bought for his bed or if he's just been too tired to stay up all night protesting sleep after all that he's been through these last few weeks, but we have actually been getting rather consistent 6 and 8 hour stretches of sleep at night - which is incredible compared to where we were about 6 weeks ago when he couldn't sleep for an hour at a time without needing someone to come comfort him. Fingers crossed that this continues on a good trajectory, too!