Ten Months

Neil was ten months old yesterday!

No 10 month sticker because he kept taking it off and playing with it

Neil is definitely crawling around now. It's really cute when he crawls into my arms. He also sometimes takes steps but not when he realizes it. We have a little walking toy, and he was reaching for something on it and actually walked 5-6 steps behind it. They say that pulling up on furniture is right behind crawling but Neil isn't really doing that. He pulls up onto his knees but doesn't really go further most of the time, although every so often he does pull himself to a standing position. I still think this is just him feeling he doesn't need to stand but he could if he wanted. He seems to have really good balance now, and if I leave him he can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. With the crawling, though, as Dave says, he has a very wide turn radius and it's still easy to stop him by putting obstacles in his way. For example, my leg. He doesn't crawl over it and just grunts at what's on the other side.

This is about how long the sticker lasted on his onesie.

Neil really enjoys reading books with us, as well as music and singing. I think he's starting to kind of sing and although he babbles nonsense, sometimes it seems like he's talking but who knows what he's thinking or trying to say. Neil also likes to "dance" by bouncing up and down when we sing or put music on.

We finally have a tooth! It's one of his bottom ones and he's been more clingy and crying more in the middle of the night. He seems to like the teething rings we keep in the fridge now. I've heard of freezing them but wonder if that would be too cold for him. At Neil's 9 month appointment the doctor said he might get a bunch of teeth at once since he hadn't gotten any yet but so far I just see the one tooth. It's impossible to get a picture of it. When I feel it he either bites my finger or licks my finger.

Lately I've been calling Neil "zombie baby" because he opens his mouth wide and I don't even know how to say what he does. It isn't biting. But he comes at us, mouth open wide, and puts his mouth on us. Dave thinks he's trying to kiss us. He does it to both Dave and me and it makes me laugh.

We are starting to give Neil more of what we are eating. Just the other day I gave him some little pieces of lasagna. We also gave him some bits of our Thanksgiving dinner- mashed potatoes, turkey, sweet potato casserole... Neil seems to want solids more than milk at this point. He still drinks breast milk instead of formula and I'm still nursing. He prefers nursing to the bottle but I can already see that he's less interested. I think nursing is more about mommy and baby time than about the milk but I'm not completely sure about that. I'm also trying to teach Neil to kind of bite off pieces of food but he's not good at that yet. He tries to grab whatever it is and stuff the whole thing in his mouth. Right now I can hold a banana and tell him to take a bite and he's getting the hang of it. When we give him animal crackers he doesn't always jam the whole thing in his mouth right away. We can't get him to raise a cup like a sippy cup up all the way, but my friend Jessica helped me teach him how to use a straw. She saw how to do it on youtube and it was ingenious! Now he likes drinking from a straw but I don't want to give him too much liquid that's not milk right now. Plus he drinks a lot and then has a very very full diaper. We tend to give him water with dinner and I don't want a full diaper to wake him up in the middle of the night.

Nursing wise, at this point, I think I'm going to wait until after Christmas/New Year's to make a conscious effort to wean. At that point I'm going to cut out pumps at work (gradually to avoid nasty things like mastitis) but as long as Neil isn't biting I might let him lead as far as weaning on the times I actually nurse him in the evening, and the morning bottle/pump before I go to work. Although I would love to get rid of the morning pump- that would save me 15 minutes of getting ready time in the morning! (But I have to admit I will miss the cuddle/nurse time on the weekends.)

We got some blocks out and for some reason Neil always wants one in his mouth. Maybe this coincides with the first tooth but he crawls around with stuff in his mouth all the time. We're worried he's going to fall or something and choke. So we had to take the smaller sized blocks out and put them away for now. I'm a bit nervous about Christmas, with ornaments and especially the hooks to hang them on the tree. I haven't decided what decorations we will put up this year. Neil really likes the decorations though (I saw that at daycare) so we'll have to make sure we put something up.

I don't usually give updates on sleep but I probably should at this point. Neil still sleeps at night pretty well. He makes a lot of noise but we leave him in there (if it goes on for 10 minutes or more we'll go in but it doesn't usually seem to). He still plays in the middle of the night at various times. He's also used to me getting up in the morning before 5am so on the weekends I hear him and when I'm pumping he's usually moving around but ends up going back to sleep while I'm in the shower (and on his own on the weekends). Nap wise, he might be taking too many naps. The one consistent nap is from 12:30 until he wakes up (usually around 2 hours) at daycare and we follow that at home. I think he takes a morning nap at daycare that varies and they don't write it down most of the time. And most evenings lately he's been back to napping with me after nursing when I get home with him (around 5pm). He still goes to bed for the night between 7:30 and 8:00pm so I'm letting the third nap happen but wondering if it's bad that he's taking 3 naps a day. He also doesn't do it every day so... this is one area I'm kind of playing by ear and watching.

We actually took pictures two separate days. The ones in a short sleeved onesie were on his ten month day exactly but he was really cranky and not really smiling so we tried again the next day (long sleeved onesie).

I'm really happy we're into the holidays- we'll get some solid time off with Neil and I'm excited about that. It was/is about 4 days in a row with Neil for Thanksgiving and I think for Christmas/New Year's it's going to be over 10. 

Wordless Wednesday

The Boys Behind the Blog

I found this through another blog and wanted to poll Dave (my boy behind my blog) each month with questions. I'm a day late but here is my first month of participating:

1. Who is your favorite band/musician? 
Well... anyone who knows me (or my wife) should know this already. My favorite band is Rush!!! Not many people know how I became such a Rush fan, so I'll talk about when I first heard them. I was introduced to them during my sophomore year of high school. I was in the percussion section of the band and orchestra, and the orchestra went on a trip to Canada and NY state that year. I don't remember all the places we went to other than playing at a high school and a church somewhere in PA or NY, playing at Edinboro University, and going to Niagara Falls. During the road trip, I roomed with 3 of the drummers (there were 7 of us total) and all 3 of them were big Rush fans. I sat with them on the bus as well, and they let me listen to a few of their tapes on my walkman (yes, I'm dating myself haha!). I do remember the very first song I listened to: 2112. After the "sci-fi" style of the intro, the band comes in with heavy guitars and drums, and I was like "what is this?!?! This is fricken AWESOME!" I've never really heard anything like that before. The drumming was truly amazing! I didn't really have a favorite type of music prior to this. I mainly listened to pop top 40 stuff and wasn't really into anything heavy. Until I heard Rush and 2112. And I've been hooked every since. I do think that Jen gets sick of hearing about Rush all the time, so I try to to bore her too much (hopefully I didn't just bore all of yinz to death just now). lol!

2. What was your first CD/tape? 

My first audio tape of music that I remember getting was either Michael Jackson's Thriller or a greatest hits tape of the Monkees. I can't remember which one was first, though. (on a side note, my first Rush tape was A Show of Hands, a live album. I remember trying to pick out which Rush tape to buy and bought that one, since it listed a drum solo on it) The first cd's that I ever bought was Bryan Adams' Waking Up The Neighbors and Rush's Moving Pictures. I got those at the same time when my aunt bought me my first CD player (yes, really dating myself). And I'll date myself even further... my first record album that I remember getting was the single Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant. I loved that song, and had one of my sisters take me to NRM to get it.

3. Who was your first concert? 

My first concert was June 21, 1992. It was Rush during their Roll the Bones tour. It was also my first trip to Star Lake Amphitheater (now called Post Gazette Pavilion). I went with my buddy Larry, another avid Rush fan. That show was just amazing! I loved it! I've seen them every tour since. I had to go to Buffalo to see them last year, since I missed them here in Pittsburgh as we were vacationing in OBX for that.

4. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? 

Hmm... I guess my favorite food at Thanksgiving would have to be stuffing. I love stuffing. I could eat just that. I also love pumpkin pie. And we HAVE to have tomato juice at every Thanksgiving dinner. That's like a family tradition.

5. Finish the sentence: I am thankful for... 
What I'm thankful for. There's so much to be thankful for it's hard picking out just one. I'm thankful for being healthy, thankful for my family and friends. Thankful of the band Rush getting into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame (sorry, had to throw in one more Rush reference there.  haha) Thankful for my wife, Jen, and a healthy, very happy and playful son. He has been such a blessing on our lives. I guess I'm most thankful that we have such a great start to our own family. I love you two so much!  

If you would like to partipate, here's a link to the post explaining how it works.

They post the questions the 1st Thursday of the month and you have your guy answer them. Then post the questions and responses on your blog at 6am the 3rd Thursday of the month. Expect to see more of these on my blog! I really like this idea.

Nine months

Neil is now nine months old. I'm a little late writing and taking pictures (pictures are 1 day late) because I was out of town on a business trip the day that Neil turned nine months.

Neil is about to crawl. (As this posts a few days late he is crawling now.) We keep watching and thinking he's about to do it but he doesn't lunge forward. It's going to happen any day now. In the meantime he has figured out if he wants something how to get to it. It's a weird combination of rolling and I don't know what to call it. I think we might be able to claim he has crawled for the first time but he's still figuring it out. He took one or two "steps" towards me when I picked him up at daycare after my trip.

Neil is now clapping a lot and he definitely recognizes some songs we sing. I think part of the reason he likes to clap is the song "Bingo" which I've been singing to him for months. As soon as I start to sing, "There was a..." (There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name O) he gets excited and starts clapping. He hasn't gotten to the point that he claps in time (yeah I know, too young haha). But every verse he gets excited while I sing the beginning and then watches us clap. He claps randomly on his own as well while I'm singing.

I don't know what to call it but he also will make a noise and move his hand in front of his mouth to hear the fluctuation of the sound. Dave worked hard on that- at first it was just that Dave would put his finger up to Neil's mouth and when Neil finally got it, he will start just going ahhh and then Dave moves his finger up and down so the noise vibrates. I hope I'm explaining this well. Neil figured out he can do it himself with his hand. That is really cute.

We're trying to up the finger foods and Neil definitely likes to eat. I think that we're getting to the point maybe that he will up solids and possibly have less milk. I don't seem to be getting extra anymore so we are no longer building our freezer stash. And a couple of times I've had to dip into the freezer stash but not for a whole lot yet (1-2 ounces each time). We can't eat things anymore without Neil opening his mouth and acting like he wants what we're having.

We took Neil to his first hockey game this season and what a difference a few months makes. He actually watched the hockey game for parts of it, and his head was following the movement on the ice. He also likes to look at everyone around us and smile at them. The one bad thing is because he is much more aware and paying attention, he won't go to sleep. Last season I could put him in the ring sling and let him sleep at the game but now he refuses to even if he's tired. So I guess we will be limiting him to day games where it doesn't matter as much.

Neil really likes to stick out his tongue. He does it all the time.

Still no teeth! He did get fussy at daycare and they thought he was definitely getting teeth but none yet. I'm thankful when it comes to the nursing aspect for that though. ;)

We do think that Neil is saying mom. I was out of town for business and Dave said he definitely missed me. I asked how Dave knew and he said that Neil was making the "m" sound a whole lot.

We're still working on sign language. Neil doesn't seem to want to use it. I can also tell he's getting frustrated that we don't understand what he wants though so I'm hoping he'll catch on. He seems to throw his hands outstretched to the side when he wants something. That must be his universal attention getter sign.

Speaking of frustrated, I think we're starting with temper tantrums. If Neil gets really frustrated, he now throws his head back and cries. There isn't anything I can do, especially if I don't know what he wants. I'm not sure how to handle it. Sometimes I try to talk to him in what is hopefully a low, soothing voice. So far it doesn't seem to have an effect. I have tried holding/hugging him but since he's throwing himself back he's pushing away. I've kind of resorted to just setting him down to let him cry hoping that he will realize if he calms down we can work on what he needs. I'm kind of watching though to try to decide the best way to handle this.

I'm still struggling with work. It's in my nature to be a stay at home mom. I have always loved kids. If I could have been a teacher I probably would have gravitated towards that but I don't have a lot of patience and I'm terrible at explaining/teaching things so I knew that wasn't the right profession. I really miss Neil during the day and things like business travel are hard (not to mention having to pump in the bathroom at an airport. Talk about interesting there.) But I also know it's necessary and I'm still working on sucking it up. Some people say it feels like a break, I guess because you get the adult interaction. But when I was on maternity leave I did things like going to mom groups. I know being a stay at home mom is hard and I'm not knocking it. Even though I'm sure I would also miss the adult interaction, work doesn't feel like a break to me. It just adds onto the list of things I need to do and takes time away from being with Neil.

Exercise wise I am so happy with the Hershey Half Marathon relay. It made me feel like if I put my mind to it, I can run another half marathon and if I don't injure myself training (cough, by changing shoes and not ramping down, silly me and completely avoidable) I can run a half marathon I would be happy with. That's a goal of mine although it's not an immediate goal. For now I'm going to do what I can and sign up for smaller races 5K-10K range just to keep motivated with the ultimate goal of running a half again at some point.

Now that Neil is nine months, we're past the point of how long I was pregnant! I'm back in my old clothes for the most part. My body still does seem to be shaped a bit differently but my weight is down. I have a feeling I won't truly regulate until I'm done nursing but I'm so close. My weight this past month actually did drop below pre-pregnancy weight. I will probably stop putting updates on here about me and just keep it about Neil.