Ready for Halloween

This past week Zach turned 10 months old. I am still amazed everyday at how fast this kid is growing up. We are constantly getting comments from strangers everywhere we go on how cute of a baby he is and how he has such big beautiful eyes. We were shopping at Harmon's this past month and a lady in line behind us commented on his eyes and asked how old he was and if he was my first. I told her he was 9 months and he was my first and she responded, "They grow up fast. My son is a senior in college." Even though I don't have a senior in college yet, he is definitely growing up fast. David and I look at preemie outfits at the stores all the time and I can't remember him ever being that little. Even though he was so tiny and fragile, I half miss those days of holding him and reading in the NICU, and I especially miss his first couple weeks at home when we could just lie around on the couch watching TV and him sleeping in my arms.

We had a doctor's appointment this week to check Zach's head cirumference. After all the tests came back normal, they still wanted to continue to watch him closely and didn't want to wait 3 months for his 12 month appointment before they measured his head again. He's still in the 75th percentile so everything is looking good. We got his first flu shot dose and we'll follow up at his 1 year appointment. He weighed in at 17 lb 12 oz fully clothed, but we did have a set back this past month where he didn't want to eat for about 5 days straight. We think it may have been teething. We also had an appointment with the helmet doctor and they're still recommending he get a helmet. David doesn't want to do it, and I'm still on the fence. I may go in for the free consult and see how much it would cost us and that may be the deciding factor.

We are ready for Halloween. Halloween has never been a big exciting holiday for me, but I think it's going to appeal to me more now with a little one. Zach has a monkey costume that Grandma bought him, but I'm still considering making him Gene Simmons. His tongue is so long and out of control I think it would be a most appropriate costume for him. When we bought the costume I was signed up to work on Saturday night and so it didn't matter to me what costume we got him. Now that I'm transferring to labor and delivery and don't have to work that night, I've discovered all the incredibly cute (and incredibly expensive) costumes. I may change my mind between now and then.

What we love about Zach at 10 months old:

-Still spending a lot of time rolling around on the floor, but is getting so eager to crawl it amazes me to watch. He's learned how to creep backwards, but just can't figure out the foreward motion yet. He definitely has the motivation to get those toys just out of his reach but doesn't quite know how.



-Can just sit on the floor for hours rolling around and playing with his toys. Still loves to spend a lot of time in his exersaucer. Has learned that if he bangs on the toy with the animal noises enough times it will eventually play music. Finally figured out his jumper and could jump all day long and will dance to any music that's playing.

I went to get him after his nap and this is what I found.



-Loves any and all music. Can be mad at the world, but will quiet down to mom singing him any song she can think of, but especially Desperado.

-Starting to become more of a cuddler. I lost my cuddly baby once he became more independent, but he's on his way back!

-Talking like crazy. Will tell us stories for hours while playing with his toys on the floor. Still isn't babbling, but with how much this kid talks he doesn't need to. Saying all kinds of vowels and consonants and one of the sounds we hear the most is "yeah". Also loves to say "ga-ga", I guess mom's got him hooked on Lady Gaga already!

-Over the past week or two he has started to imitate the things we do more and more. He's making sounds trying to say what we say, is starting to figure out how to wave bye-bye, and if we bang on the floor or our legs he'll do the same thing. Will also imitate dancing.

-Is finally interested in solids. Is getting better at eating puffs and gerber cheetos without gagging and spitting up. He loves all of the fruits, but did not like peas at all. Hopefully we can get him to eat more and more solids. His dietician told us to plan on him being on formula until he's 18 to 24 months old and I'm not looking forward to buying formula that long, so I hope he starts deciding to eat and to eat a lot! Has his bottom two teeth and one top tooth and is starting to try to chew things, and loves to bite mom!

-Also figured out this month how to drink out of a sippy cup and will drink water all day long. Hopefully his labs this next month will show that he's more hydrated with the amount of water this kid will drink.

So thirsty...can't go to bed without it!!



10 month picture: We bought him this outfit a while ago, but he never got to wear it to a Bee's game. We only took him to one game this last summer, and he spit up all over it before we got out the door.





Race car jammies and bed head.



Such an adorable kid and he's such a joy to have around (except on his cranky days). Despite the frustrations of him being behind on his gross motor, it's a blessing because he'd be getting in a lot of trouble if he could walk or crawl. Besides when he's 2 years old, no one will even know the difference!