Theo turned ten months old Saturday. We took him camping on the beach to celebrate such a big milestone - double digits! He had a blast digging in the sand and trying to eat rocks. He also thought the scenery was pretty neat - worth kicking off a shoe for sure.
In other news, to celebrate on his own, Theo popped his first upper tooth through the gum. He has four on the bottom, and clearly felt the need to add to the set. He is putting all of his teeth to good use, since he eats almost everything now. We haven't tried nuts and he can't have honey until after a year of age, but he will eat almost everything else now. He still prefers his spoon-fed food to be fairly mushy, but finger foods come in all shapes, sizes, and consistencies. He will gobble as many goldfish as you can feed him currently, but I'm sure that will change. He also really enjoys eating whatever is on someone else's plate, although that's not always the best strategy as a lot of it gets dumped overboard. He sits down for meals four times a day, generally every 3 hours for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. He'll also freeload off anyone else eating at any time of the day, though. He still does not care for rice or rice products, or carrots. They make him vomit. He loves guacamole and yogurt and bananas and mangoes are still near the top of the list as well. Peas are fun to chase and eat, and macaroni and cheese and oatmeal are frequent meals as well. He nurses five to six times a day, which brings us to the sleeping portion of this update.
Theo is still sleeping nine to ten hours at a stretch at bedtime. He typically goes to sleep around 7:30 and wakes up about 7:00, with one nursing around 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. most nights. On a particularly plentiful eating day, however, he will sleep straight through that feeding until 6 or later. That's only happened a few times in the last ten days or so, but I imagine the trend will continue. He falls asleep either while nursing or directly after when taking a small (1 or 1.5 oz) bottle of breastmilk,but also can put himself to sleep if he doesn't pass out.
Theo has started walking around with only one hand for guidance. This leave his other hand open to get into things. In irregular surroundings (on slopes, on boats, etc.) he still prefers the two-hand method, but he's basically got his balance under control. He has taken a few independent steps going back and forth between me and the coffee table or bookshelf or me and Michal, but really he's putting one foot in front of the other and leaning in the direction he wants to go. He assumes we will catch him in theses case and so far he's been right. He will also take a few steps when he's holding onto a prized object of some sort, but he doesn't realize what he's doing. He's pulling himself up only on select items: people, the coffee table, the sofa in his room, and his bookshelf. He can get to his knees to pull things out of his toy bins no problem. His newest trick is to bend over while standing to pick something up. That way there's no need to sit down.
If he is sitting, he can scoot around without any issues. He travels far and wide to explore whatever captures his interest. He can do it outside or inside, over the hardwoods, tile, or rugs and carpet. It is definitely taking a toll on the seat of his pants, which are not quite up to the rigors of the butt scoot. He has scooted around so much that he has a sore spot on the outside of his right ankle from the constant rubbing. Band-aids are no match for the friction and socks generally mean he slips when he's standing or pulling up, which is more and more often these days.
His favorite toys are the plastic beads we bought on a whim at the store, probably because he's had teeth coming in more frequently. We bought two more of the exact same thing so we don't have to move them around as much (stroller, car, home, diaper bag, etc.). He also really loves his spatula, and still enjoys moving around the house and banging it on different things. He adores the dog's cage, particularly the water bowl inside. He likes to stick his hand in and splash around. He loves books, both pulling them off the shelf or out of the bin and flipping the pages. He also still loved both Rocket and Tetley. I would estimate that each of them lose at least one handful of hair a day, but neither one will move out of his reach, so they must not mind too much. Tetley's tags are particularly attractive, especially since he got a haircut recently.
And nothing tops a bath, particularly if there are ducks and a cup involved. He moves from one end of the tub and back over and over again scooting to his heart's content.
He hates getting into the stroller or car seat, or really anywhere he is constrained. But he recovers fairly quickly, and still loves to go out and about. He likes the fish at home or anywhere else he sees them, and knows to look for airplanes based on the noise they make. He's still terrified of sudden loud noises like the blender and vacuum but is becoming accustomed to them again. He enjoys live music shows quite a bit, and sits for longer at those than anything else.
He's outgrown most of his nine month clothes and is hitting the limit even in some twelve month stuff, particularly if it's footed (like pajamas). Luckily most of his stuff is short sleeved even during the not very warm summer we're experiencing, and it's much harder to outgrow those items. A few nine month onesies will still fit with only a little extra showing at the neck. We will have to upgrade his sleep sacks in the near future even though they are labeled 6 to 12 months. He's just too long. On the other hand, he is just now getting into his 6 to 12 month shoes (size 3 I think). Before they had a little too much room in the toe and tripped him up when walking. Now he can manage in most of them with only a little spare wiggle room at the end. And he can be rough on shoes, especially outdoors when he sometimes drags his feet on the pavement.
With the exception of the crib, where we have never once found him sitting up, much less standing, he spends very little time lying down, on either his back and definitely not his stomach. He also has begun to hate diaper changes again because they require laying down for several minutes at a time. He has too much to see and do to put up with that inaction. He can handle steps up to about half his height. We have no idea where or how he learned to go over obstacles, but he swings one foot up and out until he can get his foot down and plows right along.
In sign language, he waves hi and even sometimes bye, but both are infrequent. He doesn't sign for changing as often, but that's probably because he hates the changing process so much more now. He does sign all done at the end of a diaper change. He has recently picked up the sign for more, and uses it to get more, mostly more goldfish. He is a huge pointer, and will point at whatever he wants these days. And once he sees something, he will not forget about it. It's harder and harder to distract him from his goal.
Overall Theo continues to delight and amaze us and we're looking forward, as always, to the next developments.
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