happy ten months!

When he was one month old and we started these monthly pictures, I don't think I realized how difficult it would be to get a picture of him laying in his crib next to his elephant months down the road! It takes every obnoxious noise and patience I have to get at least one decent one and that's after putting him back on his back fifteen hundred times! I'll never forget how fast he flips to his stomach the second I try to put him on his back :) and of course he just thinks it's hilarious! So many laughs and memories just from these monthly mini photoshoots!

Diaper Size: three
Clothes Size: still a few 3-6 months, 6 months, 6-9 months, and the beginnings of his 6-12 months (the onesie in these pictures is 6-12 months and just a little big still)

Health: Oh this month... Started with a fever of 104 degrees and a right ear infection. Ended with a left tear duct infection. (and in the middle of all that, mom got the flu!) In other news, he had his eye appointment to check on his pupils and all looks well. We won't have to go for another check up for 6 months!

Sleep: Unfortunately, this month was no better than the last. I hear there is such thing as the 8, 9, 10 month sleep regression which makes me feel like at least it's normal and I'm not a complete failure as a mom. But then the thought of this lasting for potentially another month...
When he had his bad fevers we were lucky if he slept at all (unless it was on my chest). The rest of the month, he was waking up anywhere from 2-4 times a night. I'm to the point where I can't tell if he's in a place to be sleep trained or if he is still suffering from some sickness, teething or if he really is hungry (because my milk supply dropped a bit while I was sick). I have all the mom guilt over here because I'm so tired (working 50+ hours/week, being a single mom, AND not sleeping) and I just don't know what to do. Pray for us this next month because I'm turning into a walking zombie. As far as naps go, he was taking about two good naps a day until this past week when he has decided that his afternoon nap is no longer needed. Like I said, pray for us ;) And I think it's worth noting that we officially never swaddle him anymore.

Diet: He's still getting 3 meals a day and breastfeeding/bottling 4-6 times a day. His all-time favorite food is plain greek yogurt mixed with a fruit baby food. He still loves any type of baby food and is finally starting to like a few real foods. A few things we've tried and had success with this month: baked potato with cottage cheese, peas, bananas, blueberries, waffles, macaroni and cheese, bread of any kind (particularly croissants, my little french boy), his grandpa's famous pancakes and mashed potatoes with gravy. For snacks: puffs, cheerios, rice chex, and graham crackers.

Likes:

• helping mom load/unload the dishwasher
• standing, falling to his bum, and repeating
• snuggling and sleeping with his ellie
• swinging
• bubbles
• pushing balls around the house
• facetimeing daddy & kacee
• still a huge fan of his binky!

Dislikes:

• raspberries
• laying on his back for more than 0.2 seconds (making diaper changes an adventure :) 

Milestones: This is the biggest month where I've started looking at him just wondering how he got so big and grown up all of the sudden. We finally have a crawler and he loves it! He is exploring every square inch of our house and getting into everything he shouldn't be. He is constantly pulling himself up to stand against things (we had to lower his mattress this month because he tried to nose dive out of it for nanny miranda just one day after he learned to pull himself to stand!) and loves cruising along the couch. His sixth tooth (right incisor) popped through and oh how I love that toothy grin! He loves to say "baba", "gaga", "yeah", "hi", and just a lot of babbling but still no mama or dada (insert eye roll here). He started to wave and loves to copy things.

Things I don't want to forget:

• The way he nuzzles his face into his elephant.
• When he splays his hand in front of his face, moves it around and just stares at it.
• The way he laughs whenever I rub my face in his belly.
• He loves climbing over things, especially legs.
• The time Shay and I were pretend boxing each other and he just laughed and laughed harder than I've ever heard him laugh! He was laughing so hard that his face turned bright red and tears streamed down his face.
• Every single time I open the dishwasher, he crawls over to it as fast as he can so that he can "help" (aka stand agains it and pull out all the silverware!)
• The way he brings his hands together when he's excited. His own little version of clapping.
• He has started carrying things around in his mouth like a puppy.
• The day he kept coming over to me just to give me a hug or kisses.
• When he crawls over to me and climbs to stand against my legs so that I'll pick him up.

I love that these 10 pictures describe him perfectly at 10 months of age: smiley, curious, and always chewing on something. Oh how I love you, Mckai Nicolas!