Ten Months Old!

Today The Bean is ten months old! 

-He's always been an active baby, but The Bean has been REALLY active this past month.  He crawls all over the place, he cruises from one piece of furniture to another (or one mother to another, as the case may be), and he's all about pushing his "lawnmower" around.  Even though we're in an apartment he has figured out how to climb stairs, although we need to stay close by.  And recently he has taken his hands off whatever he's holding onto and stayed upright for a couple of seconds, making us think that first steps will be coming in the next month or so.

-He's eating pretty much everything now.  His first breakfast is a piece of toast.  If he's up around the same time as me he'll also pretend to share my tea.  It's pretty cute.  His second breakfast before he has his morning nap is usually has yogurt and a fruit.  Veggies and a grain later.  And usually a meat and another veggie for dinner.  Sometimes he manages to squeeze in an extra meal.  And there are lots of snacks.  Organic corn puffs, dried cranberries, etc.  He's really taken to feeding himself finger foods.  His pincer grip is improving. 


-He's started taking a bottle!  He really started chomping on Jen when nursing, which lead us to making more of an effort with the bottle.  He usually has some breast milk after waking up from naps and water to sip on throughout the day.  Some days he drinks more than others.  Jen still nurses once overnight when he's usually too tired to bite. 

-He's getting very interactive.  Now he babbles away quite a bit of the time.  He especially likes to talk to the baby in the mirror (who we think he recognizes).  He says "Mum" and "Mama" and we think he knows that's us.  He sometimes copies sounds we make.  When we say "Yay!" he'll throw his hands up in the air.  Or sometimes, he'll throw his hands up and wait for us to say "Yay!" LOL.  We've been working on waving hello and goodbye and he seems to be sort of catching on.  I'm trying to teach him to clap, but that's still a work in progress. 

-He's gotten a lot clingier.  Sometimes we'll put him down and it's quite obvious he wants to be held.  He'll come over and tug on our pants and whine until we pick him up again.  Sometimes he cries.  Other times he's still content to be down and playing more independently, but there's definitely been a change.  He'll still go to other adults pretty willingly which makes us happy since we're starting to think about what we'll be doing for childcare come January. 

-He loves to be around other kids and babies.  Sometimes it's a bit hard though because he doesn't really get being gentle and will go over and grab or pull up on whoever is around.  Most kids and babies don't seem to thrilled with this.  Neither does the cat. 


-He loves the outdoors.  Jen's been taking him out for lots of walks and over to the park to go in the swings.  He loves crawling around on the grass and picking up all kinds of twigs and leaves.  He also still enjoys swimming and bath time.

We've been thinking a lot about how soon our baby will be one year old.  It's been so great that Jen has is able to spend this first year with him and we're sad that it will be coming to an end soon.  We're hoping that we'll be able to find somewhere that he will be well cared for.  He grows and changes so quickly and it will be hard not being around to see it all.