Myles Monthly: 10

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 20 months old! So I am focusing on getting caught up with monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date with current times. 

  May 15th- June 14th, 2013

Statistics

Born: 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches
Ten Months: No official stats this month, but I am guessing 20ish lbs and 30 inches

Just about the size of a mailbox :)

  Health

Good month in the health department again (normal, everyday life is crazy enough with a baby, so it is a huge relief when things are well in the health department for a whole month). He was standing and cruising like a pro by this point and was getting super close to walking. He was still super physically active and needing to be getting into everything around him. I could tell his face was beginning to change from baby to toddler, as he was starting to lose his chunkiness. All of his baby fat was melting away from his constant moving and shakin'. I swear he thought he was training for the decathlon in the Olympics or something, because he was just becoming so lean and strong. I totally did not see this transformation coming. I really thought he was going to stay in the upper percentiles for weight and height, but his body completely changed. He used to be in the 75-90% in both categories, but now he was hanging around 50% for weight and 75% for height. 

And as evidenced below, he was still chewing on everything! I remember thinking how I so looked forward to a time when he didn't have to put everything in his mouth. Since it had been going on for over 5 months already, it seemed to have become totally normal to me. It wasn't until I realized that, at some point, he would actually stop putting stuff in his mouth, that I longed for that time to come soon! I could tell it was tough work trying to pop them teefers out :) I think we were both ready for some more teeth (he was still only rocking his bottom middle two at this time).

Eating

Of course this little man was still all about breastfeeding. It was quite obvious that he had no intention to stop anytime soon. He was and still is a comfort nurser. When he is sick, sad, upset, tired, or any combination of those, he has to nurse. It was a good and bad thing; good because it was easy to calm him down whenever he did get upset over something (getting hurt, shots, tired, etc), but also bad because whenever he felt any of those ways (which for a 10 month old is 75% of the time), he had to nurse. He was nursing about every 2-3 hours. Before he was sleeping through the night, I was trying to feed him all the time during the day in case the reason he wasn't sleeping was because he wasn't eating enough during the day. But now that he was sleeping 8 hours straight at night, I wasn't so worried about feeding him so often during the day. 

As far as food goes, not much had changed. He was slowing starting to try more and more things, but still not eating any real meals. He loved refried beans and blueberries. He was still eating the puffs, rice rusks, and those Gerber cheeto looking things. I was trying not to pressure him too much and turn food into a bad experience for him. He was taking his time and I was fine with that.

Sleeping
Same as last month; which was finally a good thing! He was still sleeping 8 hours in one stretch at night, from about 10pm-6am. Then I would bring him in bed with me to nurse and sleep on-and-off until we woke up sometime between 8am-9am. 
He would typically take 2 naps a day: one mid-morning around 11am-12pm and one mid-afternoon around 2pm-3pm. He was still only going down for about 30 minutes, but it was better than nothing and a much needed break for me! 
Sometimes he still cried when I first put him down at night. After I nursed him, then laid him down, he would stand back up and cry. This really only happened maybe once a week or even less and within 3 minutes, he would lay back down and go to sleep. He rarely ever woke up in the middle of the night anymore either. Ever since he began sleeping 8 hours straight last month, he was pretty consistent with that schedule.
 I also stopped used the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit this month. At night, he would just sleep in a one-piece sleeper with nothing else in his crib. I still wasn't very comfortable with putting anything in the crib with him, so he didn't use a blanket yet. Since it had been warming up, I felt that he was fine as long as I made sure the temperature in the room was good.
 

Outings

• Myles went to his first circus this month. It was fun, but definitely didn't go very smoothly. At this age, Myles was too old to just sit there and be chill, but not old enough to understand what was going on and be entertained. So most of the time he spent squirming around, trying to get down and explore. Somehow we managed to stay the whole time (2+ hours), but we weren't really able to enjoy ourselves. The acts aren't anything like I remember when I was a kid and it definitely wasn't worth the outrageous price for tickets. I'm sure we will still go back at some point though because it's something I want him to experience, but I will wait until he is older.

•  Myles got his first taste of dirt this month! Grandma was planting her tomato seeds and Myles got to get in on some action. He loved exploring and learning about new things, so he was way into touching and figuring out the dirt! I think he probably even got a little taste!

•  Myles went to his first fair! It was a Memorial Day fair in our town called Young at Heart Festival. He loved it! The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still made the most of it. He tried corn on the cob for the first time and he couldn't get enough. I think he liked it so much because he could chew and gnaw on it as hard as he wanted. He also got his first pet fish. We didn't win it; a little boy gave it to us. He asked if Myles wanted it and I couldn't dare say no.

We mostly just walked around, letting Myles check everything out, but he did get to go on a couple of rides. The very first one being this potato sack slide (don't worry, he didn't go alone.. lol). By the look on his face, I think he was a little freaked out! 

• We started venturing out to eat a little more this month as well. We were able to keep him occupied better than before with toys, menus, and eating. He loved Mexican and refried beans! He would eat spoonfuls of it!

• Daddy went to California for two weeks this month in order to find us a place to live, so before he left, we spent as much time with him as possible. Mostly that consisted of going out to eat and walks outside. He started getting into the park a little more now too, since he could move around and get into stuff, like the slides and swings.

 

  Milestones

• First time going to the zoo: We took Myles to the Henry Villas Zoo in Madison, Wi. It is about 1 1/2 hours away from us, but is so worth it. It is a pretty decent zoo for being free and is in a beautiful area. The weather was perfect and Myles had a blast. Although I don't think he really understood the animal part, he was in pretty high spirits the whole time. I couldn't believe how well behaved he was in his stroller just chilling. 

We checked out all the main guys: tiger, lion, rhino, elephant, giraffe. He liked it, but like I said, I don't think he knew or understood the concept of what was going on there. He looked at them, but he didn't know it was an animal or something that was alive.

He really got into the aquarium though. He was super intrigued by the turtles and fish. I'm guessing he liked them better because he was able to get up close and 'touch' them. 

We took him by the petting zoo too, but didn't go inside. Those animals always seem to be super aggressive and I didn't feel like dealing with that. They are forever trying to attack you over some little food pebbles, and really it's kind of scary! Myles also got to ride on his first real carousal (he rode a tiny one at the fair, but I don't count that). We both had blue mouths from a popsicle we shared earlier. We, of course, picked the giraffe (mommy's favorite) and he seemed to like it well enough.

• First curls: This is just crazy looking at his hair from 10 months ago and how much it has grown! Those first little curls have turned into a whole head of ridiculously cute curls. It does get a little out of control at times, especially noted in these pictures. I have since cut it, but it is just too cute to tame. I just can't believe his hair looked like this not even a year ago; I am in total shock over here. I think I have gotten so used to the way it is now that I completely forgot it wasn't always like that!

• First guitar: Grandpa picked up a mini-sized guitar from a sale for his little music man. Myles thought it was pretty cool, but he wasn't allowed to play with it per Uncle Chris' rules! My brother is a music/instrument aficionado and is very protective of any instrument that comes into his house. So he is holding on to this guitar and protecting it until he deems Myles ready to take some lessons.. hopefully from him!

• Cruising: This boy was cruising like a maniac and getting so close to walking. I really wasn't encouraging him too much at first because I didn't think I was quite ready to have a walking baby just yet! It didn't seem real that it was happening already and he was close to being a toddler. I was excited but I had no idea what was to come of the new stage, so I just let him take his time. He loved pushing this bike around. He never wanted to get on and ride it, he would just push it around the whole front until he got stuck somewhere. He also tripped.. a lot.. :)

Likes

• He loved doing things that made him feel like he was a big boy! He always wanted to be in on the action of whatever someone was doing. As long as he could be a part of the adult things he was happy! 

• Water: he officially liked the bath again, still loved swimming lessons, and got a lot of fun time in his kiddie pool. I got to get in the water with him at his swim lessons finally (since Mark was gone) and I totally enjoyed it. It was a pretty fun sight watching me try to get myself and a baby cleaned and dressed after the lesson (epic disaster every time!), but it was totally worth it to be able to have that special time with him. He also loved playing around in his pool. Mostly he just liked to throw things out of the pool and then get out to throw everything back in, and then get back in the pool... and repeat! 

• Uncle Chris: I had to find a way to put this picture in this post! We were getting things ready to move to California with a huge garage sale to sell 75% of our belongings and my step-dad and brother came along to keep Myles company. My brother suggested that he take him for a walk and insisted he wear him the the baby carrier. It did quite fit him right, but it worked well enough for a 10 minute walk and Myles seemed to enjoy it :) I love my brother times a million for this! 'The Hangover' much!?! 

Dislikes

• Being away from me: sometimes he would be fine, but most of the time, he was not having it. I was pretty much never away from him, so when I had to leave, he would freak out. He really didn't even want other people to hold him. If I was around he would want me to be holding him. He did go with my parents fairly easily though (or at least he was the most comfortable with them). 
• Being told 'no': totally normal and typical, but he didn't like it if he couldn't get into something he wanted to check out. 
• Being confined: He didn't like being in anything that held him down, i.e. car seat, stroller, high chair. He would be okay for a certain amount of time (maybe 10-15 minutes), but when he wanted out, that was it. He would have a tantrum until someone got him out. 

Come back soon to check out my monthly favorites for months nine & ten!