10 Months...

10 months. I keep repeating that to myself. Sometimes the phrase ends in a question mark, sometimes in an exclamation point, but most often it fades in a trail of dot-dot-dots as I try to total up the moments I've had with BB and make them add up to ten entire months.

I am just as astounded that I have been a mother for ten months as I am that BB has been out in the world for that amount of time. I still feel like such a rookie mom sometimes. Still unsure, wondering if all the other moms are looking at me and thinking I am too fill-in-the-blank, which makes me feel defensive. Just sometimes.

At 10 months old, BB is scaling entire rooms on foot, going on playdates, and turning into a climber (as evidenced by him sticking his foot in the baby gate holes and crawling across J to hoist himself onto the couch). He both developed and got over a fear of baths in a 2-week period. He is very nearly self-weaned, only nursing in the morning and maybe once throughout the day (which is mama-initiated, but this is all a long-overdue post in and of itself). He went on his first swing at the park, has two can't-miss-'em shiny white bottom teeth, and is more active than ever (in the church nursery all the babies sit in the middle of the floor and pass toys while BB traverses from one corner of the room to the other).

Here he is on a playdate with E:

And on his first ever swing at the park:

Note the death grip on the swing. As compared to E's more freewheeling approach:

I guess I found something he exercises some caution with!

Happy 10 Months.

Much Anticipated

Here's a long but full-of-cute all-in-one video: crawling, walking, squealing and smiling!

Washington in Photos

BB made another journey Northwest this month, where he enjoyed puppies and cousins and his auntie and uncle, and was indoctrinated with soccer propaganda.


Uncle and Auntie

The family on a mission to Seattle Sounder-fy us! Auntie got BB his own Sounders jersey!


BB loved crawling after the new puppy Lulu and Simon, and BB thought the doggy toys looked a like his toys.

I loved getting to know sweet Lulu!

Cousin A had BB screaming with joy, bouncing him on the air mattress. BB grinned whenever he saw his Cousin A, who played with him all weekend long!

Cuddle time with Cousin M

Sisters!

P.S. This is what happens when you open a new package of formula on an airplane. The stewardess cheerfully exclaimed, "Cabin pressure!" as the formula burst in the air and showered over me.

Blog-Meets-Real-World

When I became a mom, I quickly learned what was so alluring about the mommy-blogosphere - there were others like me out there who wanted to compare parenting notes and share joys, but only had limited and disconnected moments to do it in, sometimes at 2 am when a phone call to the BFF was not very polite. But writing a blog post, that was okay at 2 am. And so was a comment on someone else's post. Blogging allowed me to connect.

I recently got to meet up with blogger C and her Little One for a blog-friendship-meets-real-world experience. C and I went to the same high school and college, but really got to know each other via blogging and babies. My belly was bulbous and bursting at the seams when I found C's poignant and clever blog, full of new-mommyhood and social awareness - I was instantly hooked and have been peeking through this window into their world ever since.

So naturally when C told me she was here visiting Tucson I jumped at the chance for a playdate. We took the littles to the park to feed the ducks and bask in the sunshine, and enjoyed the live, in person, 3D company.

Thanks for sharing your day with us C and Little One!

Lucky

Our little family celebrated St. Patrick's Day early by enjoying the traditional corned beef and cabbage with BB's auntie and uncle and cousins in Washington this past weekend. But of course we are still wearing green to honor our motherland today!

BB and I are off to spend the day chasing snakes out of Ireland...or grocery shopping. Whatever happens, happens.

Gnaws - I mean, News

BB says Hi from the world of upside-down!

And if you look carefully, you can see his gums, where last week there grew a little pink ridge, and then a few days later there was a little slit, and now you can see two bottom teeth starting to poke through!

This morning I even found a block that had the paint gnawed away in one corner...
Solid foods, here comes BB!

Social Games

At BB's 9-month check-up, he measured in at:

29 inches - the 75% percentile
16 lbs 8 oz - the 3% percentile

Yes, you read that right - I didn't forget to type a zero.
BB only gained 1/2 pound in the last two months, which dropped him from the tenth percentile down to the third percentile.
I have vacillated between feeling worried, feeling guilty, and looking at my healthy, thriving son and chalking it all up to genetics. The pediatrician gave us some recommendations to try and chunk him up, and we are going to follow up in a month.

In the information sheet our pediatrician's office provides at all of our well child checks, among the reminders to keep cleaners out of reach and to use sun protection, there was a sentence in the Development section telling us to play social games with our baby. Now, when I hear the phrase "social games", I think about being nice to BB's face and then gossiping behind his back, or other manipulative high school behavior, but I think this is more along the lines of peek-a-boo. Still, J and I have been referring to social games constantly since we read that and it makes us giggle.

Speaking of social games, it doesn't get any socially gamier than Family Game Night, does it?

9 Months (Observed)

Happy 9-month birthday (observed) BB!

*
*Not pictured: Little C

The subject of BB's 9-month birthday was a hot topic of debate when visiting Team P this weekend - since BB's actual day of birth was on the 31st, he often doesn't have a true month birth date to celebrate, and I always opt to "observe" his month birth date on the 1st, rather than on the last day of the month, as in my opinion, no one can argue that BB isn't a month older when it's the 1st, but on the last day of the month one could try and say that BB's not actually a month older yet when it hasn't been 31 days (who these rain-on-our-parade people are, I do not know, but I am quite concerned with ensuring accuracy in order to please them). Now, A feels passionately that his monthly birthday should be celebrated on the last day of the month. A is a doctor, and a pretty doctor at that, and she made a good point - that when BB was in my belly he went through all of those shorter months too, so maybe today is BB's 9 month-and-1-day birthday, or maybe it's just his 9-month birthday, but either way, let's celebrate!

Now that BB is a big 9-month old:
He claps!
He waves! (Albeit, he waves when he's happy or excited and not so much as a greeting, but it's waving, and it's cute.)
He chatters! "Dadadadagagagabababa"
He walks!
He had his first sleepover! (while Mama and Daddy went snowboarding!)

He loves to watch his cousins B and K play, often screaming and subsequently turning purple with delight, and on our visit to Team P's, he watched Little C run around with a huge smile on his face, and tried to crawl after him. Little C and BB actually played together a little bit, had a 45 second moment where they each stared at each other smiling at the lunch table, and Little C patted BB gently on the back and shared his toys. Watching BB in a new environment, I could tell that he was having a blast - new toys, new places to explore, and a big boy to watch and learn from. He also fell in love with their (very tolerant) kitty. Other than when his daddy sang the chorus of White Wedding just a bit too loud during Rock Band, BB had a great time celebrating turning 9 months old with our best friends (and their cat)!