Happy 10 mo to Ben!

Ben at 10 months:

• You wear mostly 12-8 mo. clothes but some 6-12 month shirts/sweatshirts. You weigh 20 lbs. but I don’t know how tall you are.

• You have 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom

• This month you have become a little less cuddly at night---you cuddle but I know when you are ready to lie down and go to sleep. You are great at going to bed on your own for bedtime now as well as naps- or WERE before you were sick/WA/Daylight savings/etc. Now you struggle a bit but are getting back on the wagon. You go to bed at 8 and wake up anywhere from 5 (a habit you HAVE to change!!) to 8 (glorious-keep it up!).

• You started making new sounds and your favorites are “go”, “oh”, “da-dad”, “mom” and they are all pretty cute sung or girly screeched over and over again esp. when it sounds like you know what it means and are using it in context (for now).

• You experienced the ER for the first (and hopefully but not likely) last time ever and all is wellJ

• You are becoming quite the Mom/Dad combo. You have alternated who you looked like most and now it could go either way, which we all likeJ

•You finally don’t tip toe any more and are standing flat-footed. You can pull up onto anything or everything and get back down no sweat. You can stand and play for quite a bit and don’t get scared anymore like you used to when you first started. You have started to take a couple steps to either side or in between coffee table and couch but not sturdy enough to classify as cruising for your OT momJ but you are getting good... and are well on your way to disproving those folks who didn’t think you would walk by one—Dad and I are ok if you don’t, you are already into everything and pretty mischievous.

• You can move from sitting to crawling to kneeling to standing (with support) on your own- when you are standing and want to sit you will leave one hand on whatever you are holding onto and put the other on the ground to help ease you down- its fun to see the way you figure things out on your own and find your own way to do things.

• You were slow to laugh back in the day but recently we can get you laughing easy! Sometimes you laugh when we laugh and sometimes you get laughing pretty hard and we love it...Dad is especially good at getting you to be silly.

•You still LOVE your tub time and had your first bubble bath this month.

• You stick your tongue out a lot-you must like the way your teeth feel-but I think it’s the start to another classic Shaw concentration face. I cant wait to see what your’s looks like.

• You love the little shows/flashcards apps that I have on my iphone and can watch them OVER and OVER again. Which is great and convenient because I always have it but kinda annoying because you always want to hold it yourself but your little thumbs always manage to click the “x” to close it and you get bummed or you switch it French or Spanish somehow, which I guess is ok, you’ll just be bi/trilingual.

• You are becoming quite social and love being out and playing with friends. You like to hang with the older boys but cant quite keep up, especially at the park.

• I taught you the sign for "more" and then would clap when you did it which confused you and you clap for more and sign more for funsies. We’ll keep working on itJ

• You had your first hair cut cuz your top whispies were getting quite long and looked silly flowing in the wind while the rest of your head is nearly bald:) the cut looks quite handsome:)

• You LOVE LOVE LOVE reading books and will sit for 4-5 books at least most of the time turning each page on your own. Your very favorite books are the “How do Dinasaurs...” books and he can read them over and over again and you sit and turn through them on your own all the time when you are playing.

• You freaking LOVE to clap and I love it when you do, except for when it’s when you are wide awake at 3 am while I am sleepily trying to rock you back to sleep.

•You still nurse 1-2x/day. You eat oatmeal with blueberries in the am, PLUM and ELLAS pouches on the go (see future post-I love these things), yogurt, what we eat for meals and LOVE soup. Some other favorite snacks are graham crackers, goldfish, applesauce, dried apples/pears/strawberries, Gerber puffs, multigrain cheerios, etc. You love water and drink about 3 sippy cups a day at least-you don’t like juice which is good but weird. You sometimes boycott food altogether which is hard for mom because than she worries about what to feed you and when but I’m sure it’s just a phase because heaven knows dad and I LOVE us some foodJ

We love you so much Ben! You are getting so smart and so fun to interact and play with. We keep thinking that every new phase is our favorite but it turns out- you are our favorite!

(and i LOVE how you play and talk to Monkey face:) He is still your favorite buddy)