10 months

Clearly no one is listening to me. I have requested for Henry to stop getting any older, and here he is ten months old today.

Stats: At his well visit last week, Henry weighed 17 lbs 8 oz, which was at the tenth percentile. I forget his length, but that was twentieth percentile. He is so much bigger than Celia was that I figured he would be higher on the charts, but it turns out he's going to be a little peanut. To compare though, Celia was 17 lbs 8 oz at one year. She was (still is) tiny! Henry wears size 9 month clothes, and some brands have 6-12 month clothes that fit. He has two teeth, both on the bottom.

Schedule: Henry wakes up around 6:30 to 7:00 in the mornings. He nurses, plays, and then has breakfast at 8:00. More play time, and then nap at 9:00. The length of his naps can vary, but he is napping pretty well now which is nice. After nap time comes more play, nurse at 11:00, lunch at 12:00, play a little, and then afternoon nap at 1:15 or 1:30. Then he nurses at 3:00, plays, has a bath, sometimes nurses again, has dinner with the family at 6:00, and nurses a little and goes to bed at 7:30. I know, the dude nurses a lot. More than necessary maybe, for a babe his age, but that's where the best nutrition comes from and I plan to nurse for a long time so the more the better for keeping up my supply- especially with me going back to work. Night time sleep is not too bad these days. There are occasionally nights when Henry is up a lot, but it's obviously because something is bothering him. I think it's gas, so I've stopped trying any new foods at dinner time and stopped giving him beans because I think that leads to tummy trouble at night. Henry does wake up once during the night, and again around 5:30 or 6 am. If I nurse him he will go back to sleep very easily. Again, because I'm going back to work and want my supply to stay good, I worry a little about not nursing at all during the night. Eventually we'll night wean completely. I would like a full night's sleep someday. I can say things are much better than last month, with the song of his people and all.

Motor Development: Henry pulls up to standing on pretty much anything, defying any sane person's standards for safety. The kid literally cannot be left alone for more than a few seconds before he's either pulling up on something dangerous, or taking off somewhere to get to something he knows he's not allowed to play with. I can also tell that he wants to walk. He gets in a standing position and then looks at where he wants to go and tries so hard to figure out how to move, but of course he's nowhere near ready to walk yet. I think he'll be cruising very soon, though. He has taken steps with me holding him, so he's starting to get the idea of what has to happen. Other new motor skills are: holding both a low and high kneel for a few seconds, and getting much better at picking up small pieces of food to feed himself.

Feeding: As I said, breast milk is still the best source of nutrition before age one and Henry nurses like a champ. He is done with baby food at this point. I'm trying to use up what we have, but he really only wants table food. He likes any kind of fruit (we haven't done citrus or strawberry yet), many vegetables (all kinds of squash, green beans, peas, beets, carrots, sweet potato), and we haven't gotten very heavily into grains yet but he has had gluten free whole grain pasta, oatmeal, rice, and barley.

Social and Communication: Henry has his first word! He says "ha" for hi! He says hi and waves, and it's so cute. He also waves goodbye and likes to clap his hands. He makes car noises with Chris when Chris is pushing him around in the stroller. Henry imitates other sounds too. I've also noticed in the last couple weeks that he definitely understands some words. He knows his name, understands "hi" and "bye", "no", and "clap". I would guess that he probably also understands "milk", "kitty", "jump", "dance", and maybe our names. Henry is very social and loves interacting with people and playing with other babies and kids. He really likes daycare because he's such a social butterfly. Henry also loves Celia so much. He likes to follow her around and try to do whatever she does. He likes to climb on her, knock her down, and half wrestle-half snuggle with her.

Cognitive: The biggest change with Henry's cognition this month is that he remembers things and where to find them, and when he wants to do something he doesn't just forget about it. He remembers and follows through, even if he's sidetracked. Henry really likes playing with Celia's tricycle, but it's dangerous for him to do by himself so we typically don't let him near it and we keep it either in the basement or in the living room, where we spend less time. If the tricycle is in the living room where he can get to it, every chance he gets Henry will take off across the house to the living room to play with that tricycle. You can't take your eyes off him. He also likes pulling up at Celia's easel. (Basically, if he knows it's off limits he wants it even more.) He's so funny because he obviously knows when he's doing something naughty, and he will kind of smile at me and pretend he's not doing anything, and then go right back at it.



Play: Henry's interests right now are the same as Celia's were at ten months: Chasing the cats, and chasing the vacuum. I used to not be able to vacuum when Henry was around, but now he is fascinated by it. He follows me around the house, watching and sometimes climbing on the vacuum. So, our floors will stay very clean now. I could vacuum all day and he would be thrilled. Henry isn't really into toys that much right now. He's mostly interested in exploring.

Henry has his cranky times, but he is generally such a sweet and happy little guy. His personality is really starting to develop even more now, and he's quite a little character. He has a great sense of humor and can charm pretty much anyone. He's so soft and warm and snuggly, and smells so sweet, and I wish he would stay that way forever. He is proving to be a Mommy's boy through and through, and I love it.