Happy 10 Months Buddy!

We are so close to the 1 year mark! It makes me sad to think that my little baby is now much closer to being a boy and quickly distancing himself from being an infant.

Isaac, you're 10 months old!

This past month was honestly a rough month. The first half of the month was nothing but sickness and teething. Isaac had a stomach virus that overlapped with a cold and at the same time, cut TWO more teeth. It was brutal. Naps were non existent and tears of discomfort (for him) and frustration (for me) were frequent. I wondered for a while there if I'd abandon my idea of having a baby Mims #2! Ha!! I'm thankful to be on the other side now with a happy, well-rested baby.

Your tooth count now is 8. You're working on another tooth (looks like a canine), but aside from lots of drool and chewing, it doesn't seem to be bothering you yet. You've put those 8 teeth to good use in both inadvertently biting mama (yowch) and eating table foods (yay!). Nowadays, you're eating whatever we're eating and loving it. Despite not liking them at first, you love to chow down on a banana. I still stay away from foods that are tough to chew or brittle, but everything else is happily gobbled down. Trying to feed you and eat my own meal has become a little bit of a balancing act and I wish I could put food on your high chair tray, but you'll pick it up and throw it. The dog loves all these little snacks, but mama doesn't appreciate food throwing, so mostly we stick to eating from a fork or spoon. Hopefully the throwing is just a phase. Sticking with the mouth, you're becoming more chatty each day, sometimes just babbling, but I've also been able to make out a word or maybe even two. You're saying Mama and Dada TO us and ABOUT us these days, as if you have put together that I am Mama and Jordan is Dada. You also know what your yellow rubber duck is and can say "duck" and sometimes I think you say "dog" when you see Mauve. Truly, there's nothing more heartwarming than seeing you look up at me, smile, and call me Mama. Oh, I just love you to bits and pieces.

 While you might be ahead of your contemporaries in tooth count, you're not making much headway in the locomotion department. We've really seen a stubborn side come out of you this month while really working hard on crawling. You are just happy to roll around the room and still want no part of crawling. We've had more than a few meltdowns while trying to play on your tummy or help you up to all fours. I don't really know what your hold-up is, because you can both push your trunk up on your hands and push your bottom up onto your knees, but just refuse to do it all at the same time. To say that I'm stressed about your lack of crawling/walking/cruising/etc is definitely an understatement. I remind myself frequently that you'll eventually be moving, but hearing stories of babies several months younger than you who are already crawling or even walking is just disheartening.

We visited the pool this past month. Shame on me for living in a beach town with a pool down the street and not taking my baby swimming until he was 9.5 months old. I'd like to work more trips into our schedule in the near future, because you really seemed to enjoy floating around and splashing with the other kids. You've become so easy to take out, especially now that you're mostly eating table food. You love interacting with other people and can charm a restaurant with a shake of your head. I hope you are always this happy and laid-back.

You're still wearing size 3 diapers, but could probably move to a 4 and be just fine. We haven't seen the doctor this month, so I can only guess that you're about 23 pounds now. 12-18 month sizes are fitting you well, although I still squish you into smaller sizes every once in a while. You're nursing four times per day and eating three regular meals. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I think we'll try dropping a feeding and adding a snack in the next few weeks to get you a little more ready to wean at 12 months. We'll just have to see how that goes. You're still sleeping 7pm-7am and take 2 naps during the day, although your naps are always a battle and the second nap is always very short. I think maybe you're just not that into naps, but we'll give you the opportunity regardless.

My son, I love you so very, very much. You've brightened my life in ways I couldn't have dreamed. You test my patience and sometimes make me want to pull my hair out, but I could never ever never love you less... only more. Besides, as a friend told me, I think parenting is all about drawing me closer to Jesus and scraping away the ugly sinful bits. You make me want to be a great Mom.