10 Months

My dear sweet Ben,

You are KILLING me! I cannot believe that we're in double digit months. Only 2 more months and you'll officially be a toddler.  What are you up to these days?

You have gotten super speedy.  We always laugh that you're like our little puppy dog.  You are incredibly fast at crawling, and when you really are trying to get somewhere you basically make a panting sound that mimics how fast you are crawling.  You also like to crawl with something in your mouth.  Hence, the little puppy dog comments.

You are stating to get quite chatty.  Lots of mama, dada, and I'm pretty sure you're trying to say Ja-Ja for Jack (you adore your brother and follow him everywhere...Jack is no longer certain that this is a good thing).  And, tonight, when you were apparently quite tired and you thought I wasn't getting the message fast enough (although I was quite aware since you were trying to bury your face in my chest and pull my shirt down) you said ni-ni (I always ask if you're ready to go ni-night) and signed milk.  Daddy says we can't count the milk signing as real since I never taught you to sign for milk...but it was very obviously a sign for 'something' (you just kept opening and closing your little hand...and when I looked it up, it was indeed the sign for milk). And, who knows, maybe at daycare she practices signing with you.  It's possible.  Regardless, it was adorable and totally got your point across.  

You really got the hang of cruising this last month.  And, on Friday (10/5), you took a little tiny baby step on your own.  I was hoping you'd beat your brother on this one, but I think he one-upped you by a couple days.  Overall, you guys are in a dead heat on your gross motor skills.  You're standing for a little bit longer on your own as well.  And getting braver at moving from one surface to another without dropping and crawling.  You love to climb up on things to get to anything else (you mastered Grandma and Grandpa's stairs within seconds this past weekend). 

It's VERY hard to get pictures of Ben these days.
I know this one is blurry, but I just LOVE it.
It is the epitome of who he is at 10 months!

In the last few weeks, you got your 3rd tooth.  It's not one of your main top teeth though, it's a little one to the left of them.  The rest of your gums are swollen and busting at the seams.  Poor thing.  You are the drooliest little thing I've ever seen.

 You've been sick on and off (back to back) since the middle of August.  Lots of viruses--you share really well too.  I hope your little 'puts everything in the mouth' phase ends sooner rather than later. 

You also have some serious stranger anxiety going on these days. You like to keep very close to mommy (even at home), and frequently completely lose it if someone you don't know tries to hold you.  Even if Daddy has you, more often than not, you get whiny and starting saying Mama and reaching for me.  You're quite the little mama's boy...which is okay since Jack has switched teams since you came along. 

You are pretty much moving into 12 months clothes.  You can wear 9 month pants (short little legs), but not the onesies, and pajamas pretty much have to be 12 months. 

You moved into your own room a couple weeks ago, and you have taken to it like a champ.  All in stride.  You're slowly sleeping later and later in the morning.  Usually waking anywhere from 4am-8am (occasionally you like to throw in a super early one just to keep me on my toes). You take 2 fantastic naps during the day (sometimes your morning nap is about 3.5 hours long). But you certainly play hard while you're awake.

As for food, you usually breastfeed 7 (sometimes only 6) times a day, and we've been doing purees twice a day. My goal over the next month is to boost the purees up to 3 times a day. Mommy started taking a hiatus from making your baby food herself, and now you'll eat all kinds of vegetables from a jar. We continue to work on textures.  You are just like your brother...you do not like chunky food.  You'll sort of eat puffs and rice rusks, but nothing mixed in with purees. I gave you some cut up avocado the other day--you did all right with it, but you spit most of the strips out rather than swallow them. 

I haven't weighed you but maybe once this last month.  That neurosis of mine finally appears to be getting out of my system.  So, I'll have to work on getting a weight on you tomorrow.  

Update: I got your weight on 10/8 and you weight 19lbs 1oz.  Of course, you had just eaten 6oz of baby food an hour prior to that so we might have gotten a little bit of a boost.  But we'll take it regardless!