beau andrew | ten months

We're in the double digits! I can still remember the day when we hit the double digit days as well as the day we hit the double digit weeks! And now we're in the double digit months!!! Someone will have to hold me when we hit the double digit years...sniffle.

Let's just be honest here and acknowledge that he and I are both less motivated in the monthly photos. These were taken on our way out the door today. This is what ten months looks like! #crazy

Month nine was a BIG one for Beau. His personality is blossoming, as is his mind. You can see the change in how he plays and interacts with people, animals, toys, and his surroundings. 

Here's what he was up to last month:

-waves his hand for "hi" and sometimes for "bye"

-says 'dada' quite a bit although I'm not 100% sure he refers to Mark that way yet. He definitely knows WHO dada and mama are, as well as Motley or 'dog'. 

-Crawls with his belly off the floor about 60% of the time now. Just about last week he decided he wanted to crawl the 'correct' way and he has been doing it ever since and getting faster by the day. He prefers his 'breaststroke' crawl when he is on slick or hard surfaces but is on hands and knees whenever he is on carpet. 

-Pulls up to stand on pretty much anything he can, including while being bathed and in his high chair at restaurants. He is cruising between our couch and ottoman and anything he can reach. We had to teach him how to get down from standing and he's pretty much got it down. 

-finally slept through the night consistently!!!! He has been sleeping from bedtime until 7 or 8 am for the past week and a half. I didn't want to say anything to jinx it but hopefully we are in the clear now. We had a few rough nights when putting him to bed because he wanted to stand up instead of lay down but those are to be expected. I am loving the long stretches of sleep!

-nursing 4-5 times a day. I'm hoping that month 11 will be mostly just nursing at morning and night so he can be weaned by the time he is one. I know I will miss it but I'm also SOOOO ready for dresses and some mama time! Right now he is nursing when he wakes up in the morning, before his nap around 10am, usually a long stretch until before his second nap around 2 or 3pm, sometimes around 5 and 6pm (this is when he gets fussy and wants to nurse) and then before bedtime between 8 and 9pm. 

-using multiple sippy cups and occasionally drinking straight from a cup. He is taking in more water now.

-I think he is working on saying 'hi' and 'dog'. I try to encourage him multiple times a day to say 'dog' whenever he sees Motley (and he LOVES her) and he says what kind of sounds like 'doggy' (to the hopeful mother's ear). We'll see....He was babbling into the mirror and waving yesterday and I heard some new sounds that sort of resembled 'hi'. Here's hoping!

 

-playing in new ways with his toys. This one is still a favorite (for the last several months) but I picked up this barn toy off a facebook garage sale site and he loves it! We are working on colors, letters, animals, and shapes. He loves closing and opening the barn door and I love saying 'your barn door's open!' hahaha!

-He ended up having a double ear infection just a couple of weeks after we got back from Charleston. We aren't sure if the first one didn't heal or if it was a whole new infection but it has been brutal. The doctor thinks that his ear drum burst so we have been treating him for that and it STILL isn't back to normal. Cross your fingers it fully heals soon!

-At the last weigh-in, he was 24lbs and 29in tall. He has pretty much been in 12-18 month clothes for a long time and is staying pretty steady. We finally aren't switching out sizes every 3 weeks! 

-He started clapping last week and it's so cute! He is still trying to get it down and goes from waving to clapping and back again. 

-He has started to use his pointer finger to feel, scratch, point, and touch things, including our ears, mouths, and noses! He loves feeling our teeth (because he doesn't have any yet!) 

-He is eating bigger meals and has 2 pouches a day plus a full lunch and dinner. Puffs are usually for breakfast (with a pouch) and recently he has been wanting a snack, which is usually fruit and cheese or a snack bar from Plum Organics. 

-He has started going to his own class during Sunday School at church. I worry about him every time but I bet he is having a blast! I'm taking baby steps to separating myself a bit more from him because once we stop breastfeeding I know we will spend more time apart! Crazy!

-As of today, he understands what water is and when I've asked him "where's your water?" (to redirect him from pulling out the charging cable on my laptop while I'm writing this post) he has sat down and took a sip out of his sippy cup that was on the floor. I'm impressed!

And again, here are some bonus pictures/videos from the last month. Happy Friday!