10 Months Old!

Nathan,
You are 10 months old! You have continued to grow and change this last month. This month you celebrated your first Valentine's Day, made your mommy's birthday extra special and went to the park for the first time along with all your other daily adventures. It's been a great month!

You wave all the time now. Usually it's just for fun, and you do it most often when you're happy and excited. You are clapping your hands too and will imitate me when I clap. You still love to play peek a boo and laugh like crazy when we play. You also like to play "horsey" and be bounced on our laps, and you especially think its fun when "horsey goes whoa" and we flip you upside down. You also like to play the "passing game" with me and Daddy. If I'm holding you and you see Daddy you'll reach for him, and as soon as he takes you, you'll reach for me again, and so we pass you back and forth while you giggle and smile. We've been going to story time at the library and it's one of your favorite things. You are interacting more and more and you love the songs we sing and watching the other kids play. It sure is a fun time with you.

I've noticed big improvements in your verbal skills this month. You babble all the time when you're playing. New sounds I've heard this month are "ra" "na" and "ma." You also said you first word this month (on leap day) and your daddy wins. I'm just glad I got to be there to witness that sweet moment. Your daddy has been working late a lot lately and so he doesn't get to spend as much time with you as usual. When I was rocking you before bed, your daddy made it home just in time to see you before you drifted off to sleep. He came into your room, and you saw him, reached out for him and said "dada." Oh, it was precious little one. Hearing your voice is one of the best sounds in the world.

  

You feeding schedule is about the same as last month. You get four (6 oz) bottles a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime). For breakfast you usually eat cereal and yogurt. With lunch you'll eat a vegetable and a fruit, and for dinner you'll have a meat and usually some cheese or fruit. We'll give you small bites of what we eat a lot of the time too, and while I'm making dinner I usually hold back a few things that you can have (small pieces of meat, pasta, etc). You snack on puffs, crunchies, yogurt melts, goldfish, and crackers.  Your favorite foods right now seem to be cheese, bananas, and crunchies.

 

Your sleeping schedule also hasn't really changed since last month. When we're home you take a good morning nap (1-1.5 hours) around 9:00 or 10:00. We're out and about most days during your morning nap, so you snooze in the car and those quick cat naps are usually enough for you to make it to your afternoon nap without getting too grouchy. You nap for about two hours in the afternoon. You go to bed about 8:00 every night and you usually always sleep until about 7:00 in the morning. You've had a few mornings when it's been close to 8:00 before we've heard you.

 

We've had a tiny bout with separation anxiety this month, but I actually think we're passed it for this stage. I'm sure it will come back in a few months. When I've dropped you off at the nursery or at your preschool, you would latch onto me when I would hand you to the worker and then fuss for a minute when I left. As soon as you were distracted or I was out of your sight, you calmed down almost immediately and were happy the rest of the time. For the last couple of weeks though, you have been just fine when I've left you.

You weigh around 20lbs. You had a pretty big growth spurt this month and gained over a pound in two weeks. You wear 9 month, 9-12 and 12 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. I'm noticing your 9 month clothes are getting a little snug, and with all the adorable Spring clothes out, I'm sure we'll be out shopping soon!

Your balance is improving this month. You can hold onto just one of our fingers and be able to walk, and you can balance yourself sitting on your knees without any help. Sometimes we see you just barely hanging on to furniture, but you've yet to stand completely on your own for more than a couple of seconds. I think it might be turning into a confidence issue more than a balance issue. You seem to need a little reassurance by having your hand on something solid while you're standing. I have a feeling as soon as you get that balance mastered, you'll be running everywhere. You cruise so fast around the furniture and push your little cart like a reckless driver. You'll get on your tippi toes too while you standing to reach whatever you're wanting. As active as you are, I know you are going to have a ball once you figure it all out,  and your little knees need a break. They are red by the end of the day with all your crawling.

You continue to do wonderfully in the church nursery and at your preschool. This month we had a missions conference at our church and between that and regular service and Bible study, you were in the nursery for five days that week, and we got a glowing report every time we picked you up. You play really well in the nursery even when you're with bigger kids. I volunteered in the nursery one night during the missions conference and it was fun to watch you play and get a peek into what you do when you're in there. You are very active and don't sit still for very long. I remember one night when we took you, we had dinner at the church before we dropped you off, and there wasn't a place to let you get down and play, so you had to sit in our laps for almost an hour. By the time we took you to the nursery, we put you down and you crawled in all by yourself. You were very ready to get down and play!

You still love your paci's. If you have a paci in your mouth and find another one, you'll take the one in your mouth out, to put the other one in. Sometimes you'll switch them out several times almost like they taste differently. You definitely keep us laughing, little one. Your favorite toys right now are your elephant that pops balls out of its trunk, rattles, books and your music table. You love to pull your books off the shelf. As soon as you see them on the shelf you rush over to pull them down. Needless to say the floor in your room is almost always covered in books and toys. I sure wish you thought it was as much fun to put them back on the shelf as it is to pull them down. You also have a fascination with doors and windows. You open and close doors all the time now, and you crawl up to the window and look out and play with the blinds. Sometimes you and Rhapsody will both be looking out the window at the same time.

Sweet baby, these last 10 months with you have been the best in our lives. We don't know what we would do without you in our family. We love you more than we ever thought we could.