10 & 11 month update

Development- 

Not walking yet! Which is fine by me : ) I know he'll realize eventually all the mischief he can get into on two legs and then we'll really be in trouble! Not much has changed as far as babbling goes, he says mama and something that sounds close to dada. He has four teeth now! He points ALL.the.TIME... His favorite thing is to point at lights...which are everywhere- big fun! :) He makes a gentle little high pitch noise for the kitties (meow?). And he makes a less gentle VERY high pitch fussy noise when you are taking too long to get his food. Really, kid? Not sure how to discourage him from doing it, I hope he just grows out of it because "no" just doesn't seem to work! 

Sleep-

He's doing so great, I can't complain. He usually goes to bed around 7 and sleeps til 7...some days even til 8..those days are extra special :) We stay over at my husband's parents house on the weekends sometimes and he has gotten pretty comfortable with that routine but he still will wake up extra early when we're there- at like 4... not cool. My heart goes out to mama's that are still going through the newborn sleep phase- it get's better! And when it does get better, you'll have a new appreciation for sleep like you've never had before :)

Eating-

Almost a year and mama is still breastfeeding! I was thinking of stopping a few weeks ago when we went on a little getaway to Vegas without baby, but when we got back he had a little cold and was teething and was overall miserable and it just didn't feel like a good time to stop. Surprisingly, my milk hadn't dried up.. ??? Everything I've read about breastfeeding seems like if you don't keep on a strict schedule of pumping then you'll dry up and that's that. We've never been strict about it.. I've always just fed on demand and haven't pumped since he was like 3 months old & we're still going strong. He only gets nursed to go down for naps and at night now, so 3 times a day. It's easy enough now and not bothering me to nurse so I think we'll just keep this up until he can start regular milk. In other food news- he likes eggs, waffles, french fries, strawberries, those little gerber "cheese" puffs, yogurt.. basically anything. The only things we have tried that he's not a fan of would be baked beans and bananas.

Likes-

Talking on the phone. (the phone=anything he wants to hold to his ear like a phone :).  Cars and Balls. Books. "Petting" the kitties. Swinging at the park. Lights (turning the switches on and off, pointing at the lights, really anything about the lights). Climbing. Pretending to play xbox, or playing with the tv remote. Giving stuffed animals kisses. 

Dislikes

He's not a huge fan of car rides.. he can last about 10 minutes then starts to get a little mad. He still gets pretty annoyed about getting his diaper/clothes changed. I think he just has so much he wants to do at this age that laying still for even 2 seconds is asking A LOT. That's about it, he is a pretty happy baby considering teething and every day baby angst. Being a baby is hard work but he's doing great! : )

9 Month Update

Growth

Development

So he's been crawling for a few months now and has mastered his craft! He's a fast little guy. Basically the day he mastered crawling he decided he wanted to stand up too. I was so worried he would just start walking and not give me any chance to catch up my baby proofing with his development! But I think he didn't really have any motivation to walk since he can get places pretty fast crawling. He's been using his walker a ton lately though and can stand on his own without it. We've been saying this for a while but I think he'll be walking pretty soon. No hurry though- stay little baby boy! : (

He's been babbling a lot lately too. He can say mama and uhhh (up), he's been saying what sounds like yay! & does this fake laugh that is pretty hilarious. He just learned to wave last week and is quickly learning that kisses get a big reaction.  He started kissing all of his toys recently which is pretty cute. 

Sleep

Little Al is doing great for the most part! Most nights he sleeps from 630ish to 630ish.  It's kind of nice to have the evenings to spend some grown up time with my hubby. He sleeps in his crib at home and most weekends we'll spend one night with the grandparents and he'll sleep in a pack n play there. We tried taking his bumper off (because he has completely smashed the crap out of it, it doesn't have any form anymore) but I didn't realize how much he depends on it! He slept really bad for a few nights before we just put it back on. He likes to cuddle up to it when we lay him down- whatever works little dude!

Eating

Still breastfeeding! *pat on the back* He's definitely started to self-wean though. I only feed him when he goes down to sleep now, so 2-3 times a day.  He eats just about any food we've given him so far! Three meals a day, baby cereal and at least one baby food each meal. He snacks on puffs and yogurt bites whenever mom needs 5 seconds to get something done :) He only has two teeth, so we have just recently started giving him a little more difficult foods to gnaw on. He does great though! It's surprising what damage he can do with two little nubs for teeth :) I think his favorite treat has been strawberries & honeydew. We've tried bananas a few times and he's not too impressed with that. 

Likes

Books. Dancing. Puffs. Cheerios. Climbing. Glasses. Hair. Noses. Water bottles. Paper. Remote. Kitties. Walks. Swings. Grass. Ceiling Fans. Other kids. Socks. Shoes. Balls. Cars. Daddy coming home.Light Switches. Stairs. Elmo. Sports on TV. Easter Eggs. 

Hates

Getting dressed/ Diaper changed. Waiting for his food to be prepared. Being told no. 

Six month favorites

1. The Bumbo- any parent should know what this is... It's really neat to help little kiddos learn how to sit up, but the last month or so we have realized it's the ultimate substitute for the high chair. I refinished an eddie bauer high chair with intentions of using that, but this thing is just so darn convenient!

2. Carter's sleep bag- when Alex started rolling over he kept waking himself up in his crib. This little bag solved two problems- keeps him nice and warm when we put it over his pjs &&& he can't really move around that much when he's in it. He's almost too long to fit in them anymore, don't they make these in toddler sizes!?  ; ) 

3. Vtech Walker- We had this on a "to-buy" list for Alex but luckily got it as a Christmas gift! It's awesome! He has already pulled himself up on it, and loves to press the cow over and over and over again.

4. Sesame Street Phone- Alex has been obsessed with our iPhones for months now... this was also an awesome Christmas gift that he plays with for minutes on end. He doesn't play with anything for more than 5 minutes. ha! 

5. Cetaphil- Little guy keeps getting the nastiest dry skin/rug burn patches. :( It seems to have let up a little since he has mastered his crawling. When we were in for his checkup the doctor recommended a handful of strong lotions to help clear it up, and this one works like a charm! It clears up the dry patches within a day, but then he gets a new one somewhere else. ugh. 

6. Little Blue Truck Book- this is my favorite book we have for Alex, and I think his too! I've been reading to him since he was born but he is finally enjoying it! We have piles of baby books under our coffee table ready to grab and rip to pieces at any moment. He hasn't done it yet, but I know it's coming.

Six/Seventh month update

It feels like this post has taken me three years to write! Alex is changing so fast- it's hard to keep up with him! 

Growth

At his last appointment around Christmas he was at 18 lbs and some ounces that I forgot... I remember he was in the 75 percentile though! Height and head were around average as well. He's wearing 6-9 months now. He's got all his fat stored in his cheeks and his thighs which still have about 6 rolls. I would be ok if he kept those until he is 8.. So cute. 

Sleep

He had a rough stretch around Christmas. I'm not sure if it was a growth spurt, possibly ear infection, teething, whatever it was he slept like crap for a good two weeks. He would wake up every 2 hours and need nursed back to sleep. Around six months I noticed when I was nursing him to sleep at night he wouldn't settle down and fall asleep on the boob like he used to. I started to put him down in his crib after nursing for a few minutes and he would fuss for a few minutes then fall asleep and sleepy for 4-5 hours! I'm not sure if this is really considered crying it out (which I thought I was against...) add this to the list of things I thought I would never do as a mom. After seeing how much happier he was after a good sleep I feel totally fine letting him cry a little to get to sleep. I'm still not sure if we're in the clear but he's had a few consistent weeks of sleeping at least 6 hours at a time. Now it's just a matter of mom and dad going to sleep while he is sleeping (bedtime at 7? Sure, why not! I haven't slept in six months...) 

Eating

Started baby food a month ago. Doctor recommended rice cereal first but Al was not a fan. We tried it a few times with no luck, and then just gave sweet potatoes a try and he was hooked. It was so nice not having to struggle to get him to like it! He's still not really taking a bottle. But since he gets at least two baby foods a day I'm not nursing him as much. 

Development

Our little guy is officially on the move- watch out ladies! ;) He started trying to crawl probably like a month and a half ago. He incorporated a little army crawl, scoot, roll, and even walking on his hands and feet. Usually all of those things combined moved him about two feet. It was basically overnight that he realized he didn't need to do all that & then he got really fast- and we were in big trouble. I didn't expect baby proofing to be a big deal. I put some socket plugs in awhile ago and figured I would just "keep him away" from the dangerous stuff. ha! what a joke. We are in the market for a new entertainment center since ours has everything out in the open. We took down our dvd storage thingy since it was way too tempting for Alex to climb. Our surround sound speakers are now off of their stands and sitting on the floor... not sure what to do with those besides mount them ($$$). Anyway my point is... caging the beast is the only way for mom to get 5 seconds alone to take care of mom stuff. (like, you know, brush my teeth, use the potty, pour a glass of wine) ha!
Before he realized he was caged...:)

Oh yeah, it was Christmas last month. It was fabulous.