this boy is 10 months old

so much has happened with this little man in the past month.  i thought that he went through an explosion in development last month, but this month has been so much more.  let's see, he finally starting crawling on all fours!  haha, i feel like he's about to walk soon and he just finally started crawling.  anyway, he learned to army crawl really well and is pretty fast but about 3 days ago he started crawling on all fours more to get around.  and he's really fast already.  he is a pro at pulling himself to standing and stands really well with support.  he is barely starting to cruise, where the baby walks along the side of a couch or coffee table while holding on for balance.  because he is so mobile he gets into everythingallthetime.  and my pillow barriers are no match for him.  he knows what they are protecting and he rips them down with no problems.  he remembers that behind the fluffy pillow is a super fun electrical outlet or lamp base or cord to chew on.  there is no fooling this guy anymore and so we have begun the child proofing of the house.  except there are some things we don't really know how to child proof.  so until then, i'm constantly chasing after him and trying to get him interested in something else.  sometimes it works.  he usually starts to clap after he gets into something.  so he claps really well now, points and waves, he gets a little shy and bashful when he sees people that he doesn't know that well or see very often.  unless we are in the grocery store, then he points and waves, smiles big and tries to get everyone's attention. oh, he started to "walk" with his little push walker thingy, he is pretty stiff legged and unsteady but he tries really hard and is pretty good for about 4 steps before he falls.  alright, here's the monthly run down:

-growth:  in 9-12 and 12 month clothes, still growing like crazy.  actually i think he's going through a growth spurt right now.  he has two teeth on the bottom center that look like they are almost in. 

-development:  crawling, standing with assistance, babbles a lot (he says mama but i'm not sure if it's discriminate or not), can follow some requests like if i ask him to give me the block, he is starting to imitate things we do, for example if i sneeze then he makes a noise right afterwards to copy me, it's pretty darn cute.
he just recently has started to climb up the stairs, too.  yikes! oh and he just figured out how to throw and thinks that it's the funniest thing ever. 

-modes of transportation: crawling on all fours, army crawling, rolling, just beginning to cruise

-sleep:   deep sigh.  this is such a struggle!  it's been probably a month or more now since i have started getting him to sleep in his crib at night and it's not going great.  i did the CIO method and for the first 2 weeks it was progressively getting better but then we started going backwards.  so then i decided to revise our plan so that i stay next to his crib until he falls asleep.  there is less crying, and it takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes for him to go to sleep still, so we just haven't broken that 10 minute mark yet.  but the worst is that he has been waking up earlier and earlier in the night and won't go back to sleep until i finally give up and bring him back to our bed.  so, for example, last night he fell asleep at 8:30pm and woke up at 10pm and screamed his face off.  we couldn't calm him down, even after nursing, rocking, crying.  and he wakes up many times a night crying and fussing and wanting to nurse.  so, it's been not good.  i keep reading about a (8, 9 or 10) month sleep regression, and i think that maybe that's what is going on.  or maybe a growth spurt, because he is also eating lots.  so anyway, i don't know.  but he still has been taking 2 naps per day pretty consistently.  yay!

-nourishment:  still nursing, eating solids.  he has been feeding himself more and eating more chunky foods like pieces of banana, toast, rice, pasta, small pieces of meat, crackers, stuff like that, and i will give him a bit of what we eat for dinner (he loved the enchiladas).  he still eats purees and he has to have his prunes every day to stay regular.  my doctor advised us to give him a healthy fat before dinner like peanut butter or avocado.  he loves pb but not avocado.  he likes yogurt, loooooooves rice and cheese.  he pretty much eats anything, even if he doesn't really like it.  but if he doesn't like it, he will complain about it.

this boy loves his rice

-personality:  very head strong, persistent, curious, intense, he has moments of sweetness where he will stop in the middle of playing and plant a big wet smooch on me.  he gets a little stranger anxiety until he warms up a bit, he really tries to figure out how things work and you can see on his face that he is processing information and trying to work it out.  he loves to play and lately has been more brave and confident about new skills that he picks up.  he is a smart little guy.  oh!  one really hilarious thing that he does; if there is an appliance on that makes a loud noise like the vacuum or hair dryer or blender, he tries to yell just as loudly while it's on.  i don't know why he does this but it cracks me up.

-likes: playing outside, feeding himself, mama, baba, exploring, dogs, reading books, clapping, waving at strangers, being able to move around, singing, baths, banging on stuff, his airplane mobile

eating beets for the first time

-dislikes: sleeping, being away from mama, avocado, being distracted from getting into stuff that he shouldn't be getting into, being told no, getting his diaper changed, being in the car, being restrained in any way, getting stuck (like under a chair)

-me: doing well in school.  am a little anxious about next year already, especially about finding childcare.  i am trying to be more patient with my little boo, and it's hard sometimes.  i started reading Bahai writings about motherhood again to put myself in a more spiritual space.  i think i will write more about this in another post, but it's been helping so far.  i feel like i have veered a little off track, getting distracted with the day to day.  i have been more focused on encouraging spirituality in my son lately and in order to be effective and sincere i need to be on my game spiritually.  so i'm working on that.  i love playing with z, especially when i see that he learns something new (today he learned how to put the block in the box and was able to do it on command when i asked him).  i can't wait to start doing some art projects with him and hopefully he will be able to help us with our home improvements soon...kidding.  kind of.  oh, and this is weird, but i have all this new hair growth at my hair line where my bangs are, and it looks ridiculous because it sticks up and out and won't stay down with the rest of my bangs.  i think it's new growth from after pregnancy.  anyway, i don't know if this has happened to other mamas, but it's weird.  and annoying.

so that's 10 months.  i can hardly believe he will be a year old in TWO MONTHS!  gaaaahhhhh!

giving kisses to his bear hank

here is a winner: