10 Months

Leland crossed over to double digits – 10 months – last Thursday. He has developed so much in the last month.

He eats all of the time. He nurses first thing in the morning, at lunch (on my lunch break), and then first thing before bed. For the past month, most nights he is also nursing two times per night – usually about 1 AM and 4 AM. I am becoming more sleep deprived, but he just seems so hungry. In addition to nursing, he takes a 5 oz breast milk bottle about 10 AM and a 5 oz formula bottle about 3 PM. He eats yogurt for breakfast about 8 AM, lunch about NOON, and dinner about 6 PM. About two weeks ago he started eating “school lunch”. He still has no teeth, but it seems he can eat anything! He downs chunks of meat, fruit, veggies, cheese – almost anything! He still gets 1-2 jars of baby food per day in addition to the solids. He is also slowly mastering the sippy cup!

All that eating leads to growing. I have not had an official weight since his 9 month check-up, but I would guess his weight is between 18-19 pounds. He is getting taller too, but not quite tall enough to outgrow his infant car seat. He is growing quickly, but is still a little peanut.

He has several new skills. He started clapping and now loves to clap all the time. It is so, so cute. He also started clapping his hand over his mouth to make an “Indian sound” We practiced that for so long and he can finally do it. And he just giggles when he makes that sound and we make it back to him. He is trying to pull up to stand but has not made it yet. If we put him down in a standing position, holding onto something, he will stand there for several minutes. (We lowered his crib last week because of this budding new skill!) He is trying to crawl, but has not quite figured that out either. He is becoming a bit mobile, using a combination of rolling, twisting, stretching, etc. But, he is not very efficient and any movement is slow, for now!

Another cute new skill is helping me get him dressed and undressed. He will pull up or pull down on a shirt when I am taking it off or putting it on him. Most of the time he pulls the right direction, but sometimes he gets is backwards. Either way it is really cute. The funny part is that I though he just started doing this, but it turns out Robert had been practicing with him.

He still loves bath time. His favorite toys right now are his ball popper, stacking cups, and books. He has become so much fun to read with. He points to the pictures and makes noises. He helps turn the page, or turn the page back to see a previous page. He has completely outgrown his swing, but still uses his bouncy seat to join us in the bathroom in the morning. He also still enjoys his jumperoo. He has tried his walker a few times and seems to enjoy it okay, but we rarely use it.

At school, they recently split the baby group into two groups. He is now in a group of 8 children ranging in age from 9 months to 14 months. There are only two girls younger than him, and he is the only baby in the group that is not mobile in some way. I think it has been good for him to be encouraged by the bigger children. The smaller group also means that get to go outside to the swings in the morning.

In other news, Robert graduated from his master’s degree program last Friday night. This upcoming Friday, Robert will graduate from his 2^nd bachelor’s degree program. We are so proud of him and are very happy to have him back home every night of the week. This past semester he was taking 18 hours and we missed him a lot. This upcoming weekend we have a fun trip planned to Chattanooga for Mother’s Day and I am so excited!  

Oh…and I will update this post with some pictures soon.